The Pursuit of Happiness

A lot of the films about disaffected youth in America produced at the end of the 60s and the beginning of the 70s were very clichéd and cheaply made by people who really didn't know anything about the subject. They were often clumsily and quickly made to cash in on the period's 'youthquake'.

This is not entirely the case here, though it does have its clumsy clichéd moments. By and large, this film was sensitively executed, about a Columbia student, from an old and wealthy New York family, who accidentally knocks down and kills a woman with his car on a very rainy night and where the tragedy leads him.

Michael Sarrazin is good to look at, as his girlfriend played by Barbara Hershey and he turns in an honest and tender performance. The plot is quite thin but the sensitivity and reasonable depth of many of the various performances, notably by his gentle father (Arthur Hill) and bigoted grandmother (Ruth White), give it substance. It's definitely worth watching.

Uninvolved New York college student, estranged from his wealthy family and half-heartedly romancing his radical girlfriend, realizes just how empty and directionless his life has become after he accidentally strikes a jaywalker with his car and is sentenced to a year in jail for vehicular manslaughter. Intensely troubling material, based on the book by Thomas Rogers, given low-keyed, matter-of-fact treatment. Michael Sarrazin's dazed and confused young man doesn't mean to buck the system (i.e., the Establishment), necessarily--he refuses to play by the rules because, as he sees it, you have to lie to win. Not wanting to be dishonest to himself, he manages to get in much deeper trouble. Not a surefire crowd-pleaser (especially for this generation), the film is intelligent and smoothly handled, if unable to explore its themes adequately within this milieu. It doesn't want to be a cop-out and have the protagonist become "a better man" by being a model prisoner--and at the same time, it doesn't want to be explosive or dynamic and have the kid get away guilt-free. There's no happy ending (hence the irony of the title), but certainly the circumstances which arise here are thought-provoking. Sarrazin and young, lovely Barbara Hershey are very good; Arthur Hill also excellent as Sarrazin's surprisingly understanding father. The supporting cast is wonderfully filled with now-familiar faces: Sada Thompson, Ralph Waite, David Doyle, Robert Klein, William Devane, Rue McClanahan, Charles Durning. A forgotten picture worth-seeing...and worth discussing afterward. **1/2 from ****

This is an offbeat drama;Michael Sarazin is perfectly cast as the lunar poetic young man ,who seems overtaken by events ,as he was in his lifetime performance in "they shoot horses don't they?".Although he's poisoned with protection,we feel how irrational how misfit he is in the world he lives in:the first sequence of the toy boat (model) and the bluesy lazy song by Randy Newman (heard twice) which fits the movie like a glove is revealing as is the sequence we first meet a member of his family ,the straight auntie ,in the apartment which looks like a time capsule of the early seventies:a Mothers of Invention cover ,a Dylan poster...

Even after what he has done,the whole family sides with him (because their bourgeois honor is at stake),but the hero feels an invisible menace ,something in the air in the country he lives in ,something which remains very vague ;A recurrent feature in mulligan's work :something is threatening in the shadow ;see" the spiral road" "the stalking moon" "the other" and even "baby the rain must fall" ;it's certainly not a one -year sentence which scares him ,but perhaps a society he cannot be part of because he is not prepared to accept a compromise,to be the "spit picture of cousin Terrence".

This film should be dedicated to the memory of beloved film, stage and television actress, Ruth White. She did in 1969 and this was her final screen performance. She was only 55 years old at the time of her death. She is too young to play Grandmother Popper. White played older female roles in other works. Ruth White is great here as the prejudicial wealthy WASPy grandmother in New York City. Her grandson is played well by Michael Sarrazin who accidentally kills an elderly woman in a car accident. There are plenty of familiar faces like David Doyle; Robert Klein; a young Barbara Hershey; Arthur Hill; Rue McClanahan; Barnard Hughes; and Charles Durning. They filmed on location in New York City. The writing and acting are fine. For the most part, it isn't a bad film but it is no long forgotten.

This movie is fairly well made overall. It certainly gives a glimpse into the mindset of college aged students in a political and legal environment with all the predictable clashes. It also explains why letting people (who've retained the idealistic views of their childhood) become the political leaders of tomorrow will lead a nation to ruin. The lack of thoughtful consideration of the consequences of perilous and stupid actions is particularly disturbing in this film. No doubt the excitement of living a responsibility free life is an irresistible draw to many of the young and foolish who are nurtured by their predecessors in our educational system. All in all it's a frightening view of the reason great nations fall due to the well meaning ignorance of too many people. So sad to see when happiness is found simply by moving to the right.