On the "The Pursuit of Happyness," slipping into other dimensions, etc.

    I went to see The Pursuit of Happyness the other day, in large part because it’s set in San Francisco and it features a fake BART station entrance that startled me badly one night a year or so ago.  (Over to the left is what the entrance to a real BART station looks like. BART is the Bay Area Rapid Transit system of trains linking SF to the rest of the cities in the Bay Area. MUNI is the San Francisco transit system comprised of trains and buses just in the city. You’ll need to know these boring little factoids for the purposes of our story.) This fake BART station seemed to sort of crop up out of nowhere at the edge of this large-ish rectangle of grass known as Duboce Park, which is also the name of a neighborhood roughly bounded by the Haight and the Castro. People play with their dogs there in the morning, and it used to be the best part of my morning commute—watching all manner of dogs out for their romp with their people as we rolled past in the train.

       Anyhow, there’s a MUNI train stop (just a sign and a bench) at Duboce Park and there has been for—oh, decades and decades as far as I know—but definitely no underground BART station. And yet one night as I was waiting for the train at the Duboce Park stop…. well, there it was: A BART sign and an entrance, looking quite convincing but surreal and a bit alarming because…how the hell did it get there?? A few other people were waiting for the train with me, and we all sort of circled this fake BART station warily, rather like cats do when you move their favorite chair two feet away from its usual place. No one actually sniffed it, but I’m pretty sure one guy wanted to.  There were about four steps leading down into it, and they were made of actual cement, which made it a BART station to nowhere, which was even creepier.

        At last, somehow, someone figured out that it was part of the Will Smith movie that had been filmed in the neighborhood recently. We greeted this information with tremendous relief. It meant there hadn’t really been a rip in the space/time continuum.

Anyway, there’s a quick little scene in the movie in which Will Smith’s character is running from a cab driver he’s been forced to stiff, and he barrels right past my friend’s apartment along Duboce Park and vanishes down the stairs into this fake BART Station, and then they cut instantly to the inside of a real BART station.  It was lots of fun to see this quick bit in the movie, and I admired the cleverness of filmmakers. They probably created our fake BART station in Duboce Park it because it provided a stretch of grass and a picturesque row of Victorians for long-legged Will Smith to race past.  Ah, Hollywood. None of the actual BART stations are situated in front of picturesque Victorian apartment buildings.

Something else a bit like this happened to me once before. If you’re a commuter and you take a train or bus to/from work, you know all about that “commuter fugue” state you enter into—you know, where you gaze slack-jawed out the window without really seeing anything because you’ve seen every bit of scenery thousands of times before? Well, one day when I lived in the Haight, I was taking the bus home from work and gazing out the window at the shops as we rolled down Haight Street, deep in a commuter fugue state…when very slowly but inexorably it dawned on me…all the storefronts were completely different. 

I sat bolt upright and stared, and all the little hairs rose on the back of my neck. It was outrageously disorienting. My mind flipped rapidly through a number of options. Was I on the right bus?? I craned my head at every block to look at the street signs; yep, they all said “Haight.”  Right street, right bus. But every business that I’d passed five days a week for years sported entirely different names and different signage. And I’m ashamed to admit that, in a wild few seconds of a desperate attempt at rationalization, I did consider that somehow I’d slipped into another dimension. I mean, I wasn’t in Narnia, or anything. Apparently I was still in San Francisco. But God only knew what year. And by the way, I didn’t like it—slipping into another dimension, that is. The sensation was a lot less fun than you might think.

A split second later my mind finally clicked into full rationality: “Oh! The Doors movie!!” And by that I mean the (mostly bad) movie with Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison—part of it was filmed on Haight Street, and for the filming, they’d temporarily changed all the storefronts to reflect what they were in 1967 or thereabouts. Boy, did I feel like a big dork. But a relieved dork.

So back to The Pursuit of Happyness: I really enjoyed the movie for quite a few reasons. For one thing, it’s the first time I’ve seen a movie that captures the San Francisco that I live in. I mean, there have been other San Francisco-set movies—The Maltese Falcon, Dark Passage, Mrs. Doubtfire, Bullitt, others I’m probably forgetting about—but this was the everyday San Francisco of buses and trains and offices and scrambling up and down hills to get to work and get home again, the San Francisco of neighborhoods and security gates and nutty people at the bus stop and parking tickets. Mundane and difficult and fabulous all at once. It also captured that dichotomy that is so completely San Francisco….for instance, you’ll be trudging along, absorbed in your cares, worrying about making your insane rent, dodging the traffic and nutty people, then happen to glance up, and see the bay and the Golden Gate Bridge and—well, your heart will stop. It’s seriously like… “Holy crap! I live in Oz!” It’s just that startlingly beautiful, from so many different angles. It’s a small and dense city made out of hills surrounded by bright blue water, and from up high it looks like one of those exquisite miniature villages you should tuck under the Christmas tree. But sometimes the beauty feels strangely elusive, almost like a mirage. Like there’s a disconnect between it and the sometimes very gritty difficulty of actually living here. And because the city is so small, comparatively, the most posh neighborhoods and the very roughest are sometimes separated by a mere few blocks, and are often on the same bus line.

        So you really can’t ask for a more metaphorically perfect backdrop for the story in The Pursuit of Happyness: in the story, Chris Gardner spends a lot of time trudging those steep hills, running for buses, riding trains, and the movie takes full advantage of these juxtapositions between beauty and grit to make its point. It’s a great story, sweet and inspiring and engrossing but not cloying—in fact, in some ways it’s terrifying. I watched most of the movie with a knot in my stomach. I haven’t been quite as poor as Chris Gardner, but I have been sleepless-at-night poor before, clammy-handed poor, and boy, you feel that edge-of-the-abyss panic with him as you watch.  Will Smith was wonderful in the role. I also really admire strong, imaginative, determined, resourceful people who don’t stop to bemoan their circumstances but just do what they need to do, often creating something amazing out of seemingly nothing. Of course, desperation is often the mother of invention, and often leaves little time for bemoaning, but still. LOL. We usually have choices about how to harness, if you will, desperation, should we find ourselves desperate. I’ve written characters a bit like this before—Lily Masters in To Love a Thief and Tom Shaughnessy in Ways to be Wicked, for instance—and likely will again.

     So it’s a great movie to see for dozens of reasons, and on dozens of levels. If you’re feeling at all sorry for yourself for whatever reason (and who doesn’t, on occasion??), it’s inspiring to watch Chris Gardner reinvent himself in the face of extraordinary challenges. It’s about the power of self-belief. It’s about attitude, too, I think, because at no point did Chris Gardner act as though he thought the world was against him, though it sure must have felt that way pretty frequently. It’s a remarkable demonstration of what grace under pressure really means. I’m also willing to bet there’s nothing Chris Gardner takes for granted anymore, and he now knows precisely what he’s made of—and those kinds of things are the gifts that only hard times can give us. I like to think that hard times polish our rough edges, the way a river eventually polishes smooth the stones it flows over, and the smoother we become the more easily the things life brings will flow over us. We can only hope, anyway. LOL.

      So have you ever seen a movie that particularly inspired you, or really stuck with you for any reason when it was over? For instance, I found Daniel Craig in that bathing suit in Casino Royale quite inspiring.  Hee! Seriously, though: It’s a Wonderful Life?  Seabiscuit? Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure?? Is there one you turn to when you want to laugh, or be moved, or just need a pick-me-up or attitude adjustment? See any good ones lately?

Comments

[Kathy K]

Oh Julie, I just laughed and laughed about your description of the group of transit patrons investigating the Duboce Park BART station...I could just see it all. ROFLOL...Love it!

As for movies, there a few movies that I've thought "I really, really like this one" but for the most part I find them mainly just entertainment. But one of the recent movies that I saw [on DVD] and was utterly charmed by was "Dear Frankie" (2004). It's from the UK ~ the characters are Scots [I *love* the accents] ~ and is about a young boy whose mother writes letters to him purporting to be from his father. Frankie has never met his father and believes that he is at sea; and when the opportunity arises for him to meet his dad, his mother hires a stranger to act the part.
I watched it with my very stoic I'm-not-crying-and-I-never-cry 21 year old daughter, and at times we were both using the kleenex quite freely. It's a wonderful, somewhat gritty film ~ like only the British can do ~ that I seriously want to find and own. Timeless!

Another recent watch was the 2005 release of Pride and Prejudice. I was prepared not to like it 'cause *everyone* knows that the A&E version is the best...but I did like it! It was still Jane Austen's marvelous tale, but not on the grand scale of the A&E release. Now I like them both...just differently.

Another movie that I found years and years ago is "One Magic Christmas" with Mary Steenburgen and Harry Dean Stanton. Full of magic and the spirit of the season, it's one of my all-time favourite Christmas movies.

And any James Bond movie is a must-see; always has been a favourite of mine...good-looking men, exciting adventures...works for me.

Kathy

[Lareign]

As far as inspiring movies go, I know every writer and wanna-be writer lists this, but I loved Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. It's so compelling and so wonderfully written and nearly perfect. As far as comfort movies, I'm a sucker for old Disney ones like Sleeping Beauty, and I recently bought The Little Mermaid on DVD. Haven't watched it yet, but I shall soon, I'm sure.

I like your theory about hard times. And the whole Chris Gardner thing sort of puts things in perspective. I really am doing all right, even if I'm a new college graduate without a full-time place to work (had an interview, complete with paid-for hotel room/dinner in November, I thought it went very well well, yet they never called me like they said they would with a decision or returned my calls. Today I see a thing on their paper's Web site announcing a new reporter with 20 years experience is coming on the staff, complete with a quote from the editor raving about him. Ouch). Anyway. I'm sending out lots of applications, and I suppose times like these do build character. And really, in the span of things, a few weeks like this is only a blip on my life. Nothing huge. I hope.

[Maureen]

I recently watched The Family Man with Nicolas Cage. It was the Friday after Thanksgiving and nothing was on so I put this movie on. It is like the opposite of It's a Wonderful Life, looking at the choices we make and what would happen if we made different choices.

[Julie Anne Long]

Yeah, it's funny, Kathy -- we're kind of used to a daily dose of weirdness in San Francisco, but something as profoundly unexpected as a whole *BART station* in the park really threw us. Or at least *some* of us. Anything that looks like it might disrupt or change our (already squirrelly) transit system is greeted with GREAT trepidation. LOL. And I've heard of Dear Frankie!! I just put it on my Netflix list. :) It sounds lovely. Sometimes I just want to become emotionally involved in a movie without having my emotions *assaulted,* if you will. With death, blood, gore, etc. And yeah, British films seem to be unafraid of realism -- they can often achieve it without rubbing your face in it. I'll have to check out the One Magic Christmas one, too. I like both Mary Steenburgen and Harry Dean Stanton. Someone once told me that I looked like Mary Steenburgen, which might be the most idiosyncratic comparison I've ever heard. LOL. I don't really see it, personally.

Ohhh, good choice, Lareign, re ESOTSM. LOL. That IS another form of inspiration -- fantastic, original storytelling in any medium can really inspire me. And I'm a sucker for Disney movies, too. I love the Jungle Book. LOL. I love all the songs. Sleeping Beauty is gorgeous. I once had the weirdest rental film festival at my house with a few friends -- we rented "Carnal Knowledge," because we'd never seen it, heard a lot about it and were pruriently curious, and Art Garfunkel was in it, which struck us all as funny -- and Disney's "Aladdin." Talk about a bizarre double-bill!! LOL.

And sorry you're disappointed about your job interview, though it sounded promising. This is how I look at it: if they're the kind of organization that didn't have the courtesy to return your calls, or even email you regarding their decision, then you probably don't want to work for them. That kind of...omission? ungraciousness? unprofessionalism?...always makes me a bit nervous about how they'll treat their staff. Try to stay open and excited -- you never know what life will bring your way. I remember being disappointed about not getting one job -- and boy, I really needed that job -- and about a week later, something much more fabulous came along. You can't always count on that sort of thing -- sometimes it's a slog -- but you'll get through it. :) I was talking to a friend the other night -- he'd recently been through a bit of an emotional catastrophe -- and to sort of help him out, I was recounting a hard time I'd been through, and it occurred to me as I was talking to him: Huh. The hard time had seemed interminable and uncomfortable at the time, but now it's over. THings are fine, even better than before. I learned a lot. I can scarcely remember how hard it felt. Funny how life works. :) Good luck, have fun, and keep me posted on your interviews!!

Maureen, I really like that concept in the Nicholas Cage movie -- walking someone through different choices. I'm a bit of a philosopher, and sometimes I think no matter what choices we make, we'll somehow end up at the right or same destination, the one meant for us. It's kind of like...looking at a map, and choosing from different routes. The experiences you gather and scenery you encounter along the way might vary—you might get a flat tire or eat bad diner food, LOL—but you'll still get there regardless.

I watched It's a Wonderful Life again this year, and it occurred to me that it's one of those movies that I'll probably experience differently at different phases of my life. This year I realized how truly well done a movie it is -- beautifully acted, filmed, constructed -- and I think I realized just how dark it is, too, in many ways. It's not entirely a tale of redemption, either, but it's a very human story. Loved it.

[Jennifer Y.]

Loved the story. They filmed parts of Sweet Home Alabama and Remember the Titans at my college...it is neat to watch them and say "I know where that is!" And a movie called Fled was filmed near me...I actually go to go and see it being filmed...saw Stephen Baldwin and Laurence Fishburne. Things like this don't happen in Georgia that often...at least not that I am aware of.

I recently saw and loved the film WE ARE MARSHALL...another film that was filmed around here...didn't get any glimpses of Matthew Fox or Matthew McConaughey though. This was a touching film that definitely made me shed a few tears.

[Julie Anne Long]

I know, Jennifer -- isn't it fun to see places you know so well up on the big screen?? I don't know what it is, but I really got a kick out of it. I was watching The Pursuit of Happyness and I kept going, "Check it out! He's on the 22 Fillmore!" (a bus). Or...when he gets into a cab with another guy and the guy tells the driver to take them to Noe Valley (which he actually pronounces correctly -- No-ee Valley), and they apparently do actually drive to Noe Valley (a nice neighborhood here in the city). It was very San Francisco-y, the whole movie -- made good use of everyday settings, and sort of treated the city the way people who live here treat it. Whereas...well, remember Party of Five?? It was supposedly set in San Francisco, but there were so many little ridiculous screwups. Neve Campbell's character pronounced Noe Street as "No Street" ("No" as in the opposite of "yes"). They once went to go hang out at the "Galleria." And...well, NO one really goes to hang out at the Galleria. LOL. It's a sort of mall in the middle of downtown, with a few card stores, a few restaurants and a few REALLY upscale stores (like Versace), but it's not a "hangout" by ANY means. Especially not for someone the age of that group on Party of Five. It gets most of its traffic from the lunchtime business crowd. We got a good laugh out of that one.

There were a few Hollywoody things in the POH -- he takes his kid to play down at the beach near the GG Bridge, so you get that great backdrop of the bridge, etc. Now, it's quite a lovely bridge, but that's a freaking cold beach. LOL. It's COLD here, in general. More likely he'd take his kid to the park for a fun day. And there was a rainstorm where like BUCKETS of water were falling sort of straight down, and...well, it just doesn't rain like that here. LOL.

The filming did drive quite a few people nuts, because parking here is so difficult anyway, and the film crews blocked off traffic and parking in certain neighborhoods (like the Duboce Park area) for days. Wish I could have seen more of the filming. :) Has Fled been released yet? The movie with Laurence Fishburne and Stephen Baldwin?

[Jennifer Y.]

FLED was released several years ago...I must say that it was not a very good movie...it was awful IMO. Stone Mountain Park, near my home, was where I saw the filming...my sister was working there at the time and called me and I came to watch. Stephen Baldwin made funny faces at me, but my camera was awful so my pics didn't turn out that great.

In Sweet Home Alabama, the Carmichael Plantation was actually Oak Hill, the home of my college's founder, Martha Berry. And in Remember the Titans, when they go to football camp, the stone buildings they stay in were my dorms.

The short-lived show Vanished was set in and around Atlanta and had many mistakes. They made up buildings, locales, etc. They made Stone Mountain sound like a mountain you hike up and that climbers would go to with cabins and everything. One of the characters was supposedly hidden in a cabin on the mountain that was accessed by a dirt road. In real life Stone Mountain is a giant mountain of solid granite that is in a private and gated park that you pay to get in to with different tourist attractions...no cabins or hidden roads that lead to it. The show was cancelled, but the remaining episodes were available online...I watched them just to see what other Georgia locales were mentioned or shown. I was quite surprised when Moultrie, GA was mentioned and played a big role...it is a little town in South Georgia where my dad's family is from. Not many people know it exists and of course it looks nothing like they portrayed it. It was funny to see Stone Mountain and Moultrie, two cities I am familiar with, play roles in a show.

If I had not lived in Stone Mountain or been to Moultrie I wouldn't have thought anything of it. I think that you only notice mistakes or big changes if you are familiar with a location...it is same with books.

[Diana]

Julie, I love that you write about San Francisco. :) That story about the fake BART station was funny. Even though I've lived here most of my life, I bet I wouldn't have known that was a fake BART station. I don't know all the neighborhoods in SF well and am pretty directionally-challenged. :P In your blog you mentioned the concept of a rip in the space/time continuum, and that reminded me of the movie Donnie Darko. You should check it out if you haven't already.

I'm interested in The Pursuit of Happyness because it takes place in SF. Also, I saw Chris Gardner on Oprah's show, and I found his story fascinating. He said that he has a room in his house that's just full of bags because to this day, he can't just throw away bags. He joked that now there are nicer bags in the room.

Hmm, an inspiring movie? I don't know if it's necessarily inspiring, but I love the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. The idea that a person can choose to erase someone from her/his memory and the repercussions that follow were fascinating to explore, and I thought Kate Winslet and Jim Carrey (in a non-goofy role) both did a great job. Have you ever seen this movie? If not, I totally recommend it.

In closing, I want to say that Daniel Craig is indeed inspiring. He's not classically- beautiful (but then again, how many people are?), but there is something definitely appealing about him as James Bond. I found the scene where he was nude particularly inspiring (despite what was being done to him). :P Casino Royale was my first James Bond movie, and I found it very entertaining.

[Diana]

Oh, I also want to add that I had a great view of the Golden Gate Bridge from the roof of the school where I used to work. The view of the bridge as I walked Webster Street never ceased to amaze me.

[Julie Anne Long]

It's a pity Fled sucked, Jennifer. LOL. And that's so funny about Vanished. I wonder why TV shows so often get it wrong when they're going for verisimilitude. They probably have tight schedules, and all, and maybe they don't have time to fact check (or check on pronunciations!) but it would almost be preferable if they called, say, Stone Mountain or Moultrie something else altogether -- made up new places. Or like the Galleria thing. I pretty much wouldn't have minded if they made up a whole new mall set in San Francisco -- they made up a whole new hospital in San Francisco on the short-lived Presidio Med, after all. LOL. Instead, having the characters hang out at the Galleria bit made it comical.

And oh, Diana, I have faith in you -- you would have figured out that it was a fake BART station. LOL. If only because you couldn't go any further than four steps into it. And I've heard that I should see Donnie Darko. Another one for the Netflix list. :) I'm soooo behind on movie-watching. You will love, and must see, The Pursuit of Happiness, if only just for all those little San Francisco-y things. (Sometimes seems like the Pyramid Building is in every shot). And Chris Gardner really is an amazing guy. He's in the movie. I won't tell you when or where, but it's a good moment. :)

And yeah, Eternal Sunshine was a brilliantly constructed movie -- it appeals to the storyteller in me, big time. It plays a bit with that idea I mentioned earlier...that there are a million paths to a predetermined destination, and we can scarcely avoid our destinations, no matter how we try. Now, I'm not quite sure I believe that *entirely*...but I'm intrigued by the idea. Perhaps it's just that we can't avoid very specific events or relationships in our lives, and other events are up for grabs. :) Like a main course with a choice of side dishes. :)

I have to say I feel vindicated about Daniel Craig. LOL. When he was announced as the new Bond some time ago, there were quite a few naysayers, but I loved the choice -- he looks his age, which I love; I love that he's blond; I love that his face looks rugged and lived-in. He's a very charismatic and unique, a more *human* and macho Bond. And he's a good actor. Opens up a world of Bond possibilities.

And you have to wonder if one could ever grow blase about that view of the bridge. :) Blue sky, orange bridge, blue water -- it's stunning. An art deco masterpiece. :)

[Lois]

You know, off hand, I can only think of one movie that I've seen based in SF -- Star Trek IV THe Voyage Home. Hmm. . . oh wait, maybe The Rock too. Yeah, they go to SF before heading on to Alcatraz. Ooh, I got two! :)

Hmm, inspiring movie. . . I think it's been a while, actually. Well, while I'm thinking of Sean Connery (from the Rock), there was Finding Forester. That was a great one. :)

Lois

[Julie Anne Long]

Lois, I started cracking up—the Star Trek movie was the first one my sister came up with, too! The Rock is a good one -- I totally forgot about that one. You know, what's weird about Alcatraz is that it's this beautiful island with one the most incredible views of the bay and surrounds -- and there's this *prison* on it. I actually didn't see Alcatraz until *years* after I moved here. LOL.

And thanks for mentioning Finding Forrester!! I never saw it, but I just googled it and found out it's Gus Van Sant (whom I generally really like), it has Sean Connery in it, and it's about writing -- heck, now I HAVE to see it. :)