How did I get that the real Chris Gardner was materialistic from seeing this film? I didn't. I actually read an interview he did and took a look at the website that demystifies movies that were based upon true stories (chasingthefrog). I just happened upon that website because I was looking up the real facts on American Gangster.
Now I'm not discounting the fact that this was a very good movie with a touching story of a guy down on his luck who finally accomplished his dream. But if you read about the true story, and then watch the movie, you don't even shed a single tear in all the tearjerker places. Why?
In real life, Chris was paid $1,000 per month during his internship at DW (which was a lot of money in 1980), but the movie portrays the truth to be that it is an unpaid job. So how was he irresponsible? The real Chris used drugs with Linda (Thandie Newton's character, Jackie in the book) = wasted money. And he was too stupid to stop illegally parking = wasted money. Jackie was his mistress (his wife is not mentioned in the film) and his son (and daughter who was also not in the film) were born from his affair with Jackie, and also unplanned = stupid to have two unplanned children when you have no money and use drugs.
How was he materialistic? The part in the movie where he sees the Ferrari and asks the guy what type of work he did in order to buy the car really happened in real life. He then, as in the movie, shapes his whole life around how to make the same type of money by doing the job the guy in the Ferrari did. I make good money in my profession, but I didn't get into it solely for the money, I did it because I got excellent grades in the same subject in high school and felt it was the most natural choice for me as I really enjoyed it. I obviously agree that salary should play a great part in your selection of a career, but to allow your son (in real life he was a 2 year old, not 5 as in the movie) to go from homeless shelter to homeless shelter and sleep in a subway bathroom just so you can get a really good paying job in SIX months is just not right (granted, he didn't have his son for the entire 6 months in real life). He could have lived within his means or gotten a steady paying job in retail, in sales, in anything, to save up, and then attend the DW internship the following year. And the movie made the internship appear to be more competitive, in real life, DW hired most of those who passed the exam and had decent sales, not just one person out of 20.
And his overnight stint in jail in real life was not for unpaid parking tickets (though he really had tons of unpaid tickets) he was picked up for hitting Jackie. Hollywood really blurred the truth on this one... Knowing all this before seeing the movie makes his struggles seem self inflicted, which they were. Sure everything worked out well and he became a millionaire, and then they made a movie about it and he made more millions. So he's doing really well, but I don't think he's someone anyone should look up to or strive to be like. hmmm.... I'll cheat on my wife, do cocaine with my girlfriend, get her knocked up twice, and raise my kid in a shelter while I take six months at an internship that pays me $1K to live on and yet that's not enough for me.
Really poor judgment and choices that ended up working out to his benefit. His pursuit of happiness was simply his pursuit of money so he could buy that Ferrari he saw, and yes, in real life he bought two
