It may have been released several weeks ago, but Hollywood’s still buzzing about the movie “The Pursuit of Happyness.” The film tells the real-life story of a homeless man (played by Will Smith) who worked his way to becoming a millionaire. At the rate my life speeds by I’ll never get a chance to see the movie in a theater (I’ll likely catch it on DVD), but the same is not true for dozens of infrequent moviegoers in Washington, D.C.
Recently, about 100 of D.C.’s homeless people were guests of the mayor’s office for a screening of “The Pursuit of Happyness.” City administrators told local reporters they hoped the audience would be “uplifted and gain hope from the film.” The crowd, mainly comprised of homeless adults and elderly people groaned at some of the familiar difficulties faced by Smith’s character, Chris Gardner, and clapped at his triumphs.
One member of the mayor’s office told reporters that when Gardner, who gets evicted along with his young son (played by Smith’s real-life son Jaden Christopher Syre Smith, is finally offered the stockbroker job he painfully strove for, the audience burst into applause and wiped away tears.
The free movie idea was the brainchild of a homeless advocate in the mayor’s office who convinced a local theater to donate the time and space for the city’s less fortunate to view the film.
“The part I liked the best is at the end when he achieved his goal,” Marvin Dodson, a 42-year-old father who has been homeless since June 2006 told reporters.
Dodson added that he is currently taking classes to get an associate’s degree in computer information systems.
Other homeless moviegoers said that while the film was inspirational, thinking that all the homeless people will go out and change their lives is “too much to expect from one event.”
D.C.’s mayor responded by saying that the idea “was not to instantly change the fortunes of the homeless guests, but to give them something most take people for granted – a chance to go to the movies, laugh and have a warm meal.”
The free movie idea was also implemented in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The mayor there invited 15 homeless guests to see the film at a local theater.
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