I watched two movies that are set in San Francisco last weekend, Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” (1958) and the Will Smith production “Pursuit of Happyness” (2006) which is set in the 1980s. Both movies have stunning views of the city and especially of course of the famous Golden Gate Bridge.
I lived close to San Francisco for a year, so it was interesting for me to get an impression of the city in the 50s… I didn’t expect much of “Pursuit of Happyness” to be honest, but I actually thought the movie was ok. The story is roughly based on real events, the life of Chris Gardner, who manages to climb the social ladder against all odds, from struggling – at times homeless – salesman and single parent to self-made millionaire. While the movie had some beautiful shots of the city, it also shows one of San Francisco’s dark sides, its large homeless population. Admittedly, a lot has been done to get homeless people off the streets since the 80s, but even today every visitor to this renowned city will quickly notice that the problem is far from solved.
The movie is of course a typical rags to riches story, but surprisingly didn’t annoy me too much. That quickly changed when I watched some of the extra material on the DVD though. It features an interview with Will Smith, who completely fails to talk about the problems addressed in the movie (I am now inclined to think that that wasn’t the intention of the movie at all), but just goes on about the American Dream, how everyone can make it if they just believe in themselves etcetc. A key scene in the movie is when Smith’s character manages to solve a Rubik’s cube (did you know that a 3×3x3 cube can have 43,252,003,274,489,856,000different positions by the way?!) . This extraordinary skill is his ticket into the financial world and eventually gets him and his son out of poverty. Having never been able to solve a Rubik’s cube myself – and believe me, I’ve tried! – I just couldn’t help but think about what happens to people in his situation who don’t have such rare talents…
Anyway, San Francisco does make a brilliant movie setting and loads of films have been shot there. These are the ones I have watched so far… a rather strange selection: The Birds, Dirty Harry, Basic Instinct, Joy Luck Club, The Maltese Falcon, Mrs. Doubtfire, The Game, 40 Days and 40 Nights.
