The cinematic art of overcoming obstacles to rise to fame and fortune

Rating: 8/10 (14 January 2007)

I liked this film and it was both an inspiration to overcome my own obstacles and to be frustrated and frightened by them.
I found an interesting similarity between this film and last years movie "Cinderella Man". Both films showed a man who had a great love for his offspring and an unrealized or overlooked talent (in one case boxing, in the other case math). And both main characters had a wife who did not share her husband's dream. In the case of Cinderella Man the wife wanted him to quit his dream and get a job at the docks, bust she stuck with him when he stuck to his dream. In the case of "The Pursuit of Happiness" the man's wife not only didn't share his dream but she eventually lost all faith and hope in him and left. But in both cases the role of the woman was as an obstacle or a force pushing in a direction away from a great man's goal.
I will site two other films with similar female roles: "Houdini" with Tony Curtis, and "Mountains of the Moon" about the life of the explorer Richard Burton. In both films the women stood in the way and failed to see the genius in their husband's calling.
So, my point is in the observation that the role of women in certain films is contrived to be an obstacle in way of a great man's purpose. And I believe that this is a concoction on the part of the movie makers to create drama at the expense of feminism. And, because I have a daughter I am sensitive to this false assumption. I want her to be great and I want her to support great people. But the media is so strong an influence and a role model in our lives that these powerfully negative views of women as shallow homebodies and vision less turncoats is terrible. In real life women see potential as well as men.
So, for men this film was inspiring. But for woman it was belittling.