The Pursuit of Happyness: See the Movie. Read the Book.

So often, when you see a movie, you hear people mumbling and grumbling on the way out that “the book was better”, griping that the movie didn’t stay true to the book.

Well, I saw The Pursuit of Happyness about three weeks ago. It was fabulous. Heart wrenching. Painful to watch. Inspiring. A movie I would highly recommend to anyone who reads this, if for no other reason, to remind us all that when things get tough — and I mean really tough — we have the strength within us to endure, to be resilient, to fight back, and to conquer the circumstances that make our lives a living hell.

Last night, I finished reading the book, The Pursuit of Happyness. It was fabulous. A must read for everyone who reads this blog. One of the more powerful books you’ll have the opportunity to read this year.

Fact of the matter is, however, the book is very different from the movie.

The movie starts when Chris Gardner is in his mid to late twenties, married, with child, and selling medical equipment.

The book starts with Chris Gardner as a small child, takes you all the way through his painful, brutal childhood. I thought I had problems having had a father who punished me by spanking me with a belt. He had a Sonny Liston lookalike stepfather who regularly beat the living shit out of him and threw him out of the house (not to mention beating his mother senseless and having her sent to prison on trumped up charges on more than one occasion).

The movie ends with Chris Gardner successfully completing his training at Dean Witter, leaving us to believe everything was rosy from then on out.

The book takes us all the way to the present day, but makes it clear that his problems were only beginning when he completed the training at Dean Witter.

The movie makes for a fascinating and thought provoking hour and a half glimpse at the adult life of Chris Gardner.

The book is 300 pages of penetrating insight into his psyche, his history and what drove him forward to be the success he is today.

One could criticize the movie by pointing out that there are elements therein that were nowhere to be found in the book. One could also say that it mangled the facts on more than one occasion in order to make the story flow better. All that is true.

But both the book and the movie tell the truth, even though the movie takes a brief stroll from the facts every so often.

But it’s not a big deal.

If you can forgive Hollywood that transgression, The Pursuit of Happyness is the kind of movie you can take your kids to just to give them a lesson on how difficult life can be. There aren’t too many movies like that anymore.

But savor the book for yourself, and make the differences between the two good dinnertime conversation where you can share interesting details about Gardner’s childhood and upbringing, as well as what made the difference for him to overcome obstacles that would cripple most of us for years, if not a lifetime.

In this era of the victim that we live in, it’s nice to see a book and a movie dedicated to a true hero.