In 2006, Columbia Pictures Corporation released the movie, "The Pursuit of Happyness," which depicted a short span of Christopher Gardner's life as he struggled to make ends meet for his family, as well as himself.The film introduces Gardner (Will Smith), his wife, Linda (Thandie Newton), and young seven-year-old Christopher Jr. (Jaden Smith), living in a small apartment with very few possessions. Gardner was a salesman who sold portable bone density scanning units. He would go from medical offices to hospitals to try to convince the doctors of this terrific gadget he was trying to sell. Quickly, the audience can see that Linda and Gardner did not have the perfect marriage. They argued about money constantly and argued about who was going to take care of Chris Jr. when both of them had to work long hours into the night.
About 15 to 20 minutes into the movie, Linda leaves Chris and takes their son with her. Chris manages to find them and persuades Linda to let him take care of their son. Gardner takes Chris Jr. back to the small apartment the family had shared before Linda left, only to find out they were being evicted for not paying rent for several months. Gardner and his son started living in hotels until Gardner had completely emptied out his savings account.
One day, Gardner was walking in downtown and saw a man getting out of a red Ferrari. He asked the man what he does and he said that he was a stockbroker. That man ended up being Dean Witter, a prominent stock broker who earned $80,000 a month. From taking care of his son, to finding public places to sleep at night, Gardner decides to take on a unpaid training position at the firm after he was accepted into the program. With no income, Gardner struggles to feed his son and keep a roof over their heads.At the end of the movie, Gardner's struggle to pass the test gained him the only spot into the financial firm that Dean Witter was offering to all the trainees. A truly inspiring film for all as one of the last frame of the movie was Gardner, holding his son's hand, walking past a man in a business suit, depicting that Gardner's hard work was going to pay off as he is going to be the millionaire man in the suit one day.
That was Hollywood's depiction of the life of Christopher Gardner. In reality.... Gardner's wife's name wasn't Linda. It was said that Linda was actually a depiction of two women that Gardner had been with in the past: Sherry and Jackie. Sherry was the first wife of Gardner where shortly after the marriage, Gardner cheated on her with a neighbor down the street, Jackie. Gardner felt he was giving up his innate sexual ways when he married Sherry. He discovered that he could be intimate with Jackie, the way he liked it, so Gardner eventually left Sherry for Jackie because of the physical intimacy he and Jackie were having, but also because he found out that Jackie was pregnant with his son, Chris Jr. who was born in 1981.
Gardner did really sell portable bone density scanning units, however, that wasn't his primary source of income. Gardner was also a drug dealer who was a substance abuser himself. In fact, another reason why Gardner was able to fulfill his sexual fantasies with Jackie while he was married to Sherry was because he and Jackie would use cocaine almost everyday during their affair. During Gardner's marriage to Jackie, he was also arrested for domestic abuse. It was at the station when he found out he had an outstanding amount of $1,200 in parking tickets. The movie showed his arrest for only the parking tickets and failed to mention that he had often abused his wife at home.
Jackie did leave Gardner, just as Linda had left him in the movie. However, Gardner did not find her or his son after they left. He was evicted out of their small apartment and lived with a friend for a couple months. That was when he met Dean Witter, the man in the red Ferrari. However, it was in a parking lot of a hospital, not in the streets of downtown, in front of Witter's firm. Witter met with Gardner for lunch and spoke to Gardner about the possibilities of him becoming a stock broker. The movie showed Gardner sharing a cab ride with Witter, where Gardner was able to prove to Witter his mental abilities by solving a rubric's cube, which never happened.
Gardner did get accepted into Dean Witter's firm after getting pass the interview. The movie showed that Gardner was taking care of his son, which was untrue because Gardner did not know the whereabouts of Jackie and Chris Jr. for the first four months of his training. Eventually, Gardner did find Chris Jr., and it's unknown how or why Jackie gave Chris Jr. up to Gardner. It wasn't until Gardner found his son that they started sleeping in public places. Gardner never emptied out his savings account and was earning money by scamming hotels by telling front desk that their vending machines had taken his money. Gardner also found unexpected kindness from prostitutes as they would sometimes give Chris Jr. a twenty-dollar-bill.
Gardner eventually did pass the training course, as well as his test to become a stock broker. However, Dean Witter accepted almost all the trainees, who passed the test, into his firm. Christopher Gardner's life does go on after the movie. He became a successful stock broker, where he began his own firm with offices in New York, San Francisco and Chicago. He also went on to writing a book about his life and was featured in many magazine and news articles, as well as appear on many shows, such as the Oprah Winfrey Show. He's not only an example of a hardworking man to many, he's also one of the riches people in America.In the film, the man in the business suit, not only was what Will Smith's character wanted to be one day, that man was the real Chris Gardner, making a cameo appearance. His story has influenced many that it is possible to go from rags to riches. However, Hollywood's depiction was not the complete story, as there wasn't any major distortions. Regardless of Gardner's personal lifestyle, his story does inspire people that working hard pays off.
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