The Pursuit of Happyness

The Pursuit of Happyness was about a struggling father Chris (played by Will Smith) trying to do the best that he could to raise his son without living in poverty for the rest of his life. Together they endured the trials of homelessness, a family breaking up and the failure of his old business launch. Chris however used his strengths to make sure that him and his son were not in that position forever. By using his great communication skills, his resilience and a lot of bravery he was able to conquer all and become very succesful. This was my favorite movie because I thought that it embodied a great message which to me was that its only through our struggles that we become truly victorious. I believe that I do have some of the strengths he portrayed such as bravery. We all face struggles that may seem impossible, but one way or another we all make it. Lets just all hope we were as lucky as Chris was.

Flight plan

This movie is about a family that was living in Berlin, the couple had a daughter. Kyle, the mother; David, the father and Julia, their daughter had a normal life; until something really bad happens. David dies, and Kyle and her daughter go back to New York with the coffin containing the body. Everything was going fine during the flight, until she wakes up and realizes that her little daughter was not sleeping on her seat. She stands up desperately and starts looking for her. She could not find her anywhere, then she tries asking people, even the crew members. After trying everything, she realizes her daughter is lost. She finds out that she imagines her daughter is alive, when they told her that she died with her husband, and she is just in pain. But, she does not quit and starts looking for her by herself. When nobody believed her, she did find her daughter, alive. Strengths: courage and perseverance. When everybody started to think she was crazy, she did not quit for that she believed to be truth, her daughter was alive. She had a lot of courage to do that by herself and with no help, or maybe anymore hope. Perseverance, because she continued to look for her ;when everything seemed to tell her she was wrong and /or crazy about it. I think that maybe courage is one of my strengths, but I do not think is one of my strongest strengths.

Hercules!!! :D

One of my favorite movies has always been the Disney classic Hercules :D. The plot follows a young boy Hercules who is actually the son of the Greek god Zeus but has been sent to Earth by Hades, the god of the Underworld so that Hades stood a chance in overtaking Mt. Olympus. Hercules gets to keep his god-like strength but is extremely awkward at the beginning of the movie and disliked by all the villagers for the simple fact that he does not fit in. Upon finding out that he is a descendant of the gods, Hercules is told by his father that he has to become a true hero to earn his return to Mount Olympus with the rest of the gods. Most of the movie follows Hercules through training and perfection of his physical strenghts but those things do not make him a true hero. What earns his return to Mt. Olympus is his love for a maiden named Meg and his willingness to sacrifice his own life to save her. The two strengths, love and selflessness, are very important personal qualities that anyone deserving of the title of a hero has. I must admit that selflessness is definately not one of my strengths. I have always had a "me first" attitude and have struggled with putting others first most of my life. Love, on the other hand, is definately one of my strengths. I love meeting new people and caring for them and would do anything for someone I care about. I think this is extremely important in forming and keeping relationships. Feeling loved also helps people get through tough times and stay positive in tough times.

Shooter

I'm not a huge movie watcher, but when I do see one, I think about it's meaning a lot. I have never thought about the strengths that the characters display. Usually I focus on the beauty of the film or the creativity of the story. So, one of my favorite movies is "Shooter". The main character is an ex-sniper of some sort of military and has retired himself to the mountains with his dog. (There has been times i've wanted that type of isolation). The government, FBI, or something of sort finds him and asks him to do a job. They believe that someone is planning to assisinate the president and they want David (the main character) to figure out how exactly the assasin is planning to do it. (David is capable of shooting a target from more than 2 miles away). Anyways, he goes to Washington D.C. decides how the assassin would do it and the day that the president speaks he gets framed for the assassination! Which I totally didn't see that coming. So he gets shot and runs from the police for most of the movie. Along the way he has a couple of helpers and the government becomes more evil. Eventually he gets caught, but is able to prove his innocence and tries to get even later. I've always admired this movie for its creativity and action, i'm able to be carried away with the story line.
David's strengths are no where near those that I believe I have. He has strong self regulation and bravery. I'm strong in the areas of religiousness/spritiuality and appreciation of beauty and excellence. The only things we have in common might be creativity? or perspective? I don't know.. but I have a feeling that I might envy his traits...

One of favorite movies is City of God. It is set the the slums of Rio de Janeiro and follows the life of two young boys who grow up in an extremely impoverished, tumultuous world. One, Lil Dice, becomes a violent gang leader and the other, Rocket, follows his dreams to become a professional photographer. After childhood, their lives intertwine frequently and they find themselves in dangerous situations numerous times. Both are strongly motivated by strengths that I share. First, humor and playfulness, they both joke constantly and work to create an enjoyable experience for themselves despite objectively bad conditions. It is Rocket's curiosity about the world that lead him to get a job in order to purchase a camera to start his photography career. He begins exploring his environment and is able to express his appreciation of beauty, focusing on a beautiful girl he grew up with as one of his favorite photographic subjects. He meets a newspaper reporter who likes his photos and guided by his love of learning pursues this career, rather than sit stagnantly in the slum. One of the reasons I enjoyed this movie so much is because of the commonalities I have with the two characters and the stark contrast between their life situations and mine, and what they managed to get out of life using their strengths. If you don't mind subtitles or speak Portuguese I definitely recommend this movie.

3 Idiots

2 friends Farhan and Raju set about on a journey due to a long forgotten bet and in quest for a lost buddy Rancho. As they make their way through the beautiful landscape of Shimla, another journey begins: their journey through the memory lane and the story of their friend Rancho , who touched and changed their lives. Set on an engineering college in Delhi, the protagonist Rancho is a free-spirited student who dishes out important life lessons to his engineering college roommates(Farhan and Raju), even as an oppressive campus director Viru S whose first lesson to students is 'compete or die' clashes with Rancho for candidly rejecting conventional wisdom. Rancho attends college purely to pursue knowledge and not percentage(grades).
In goofy hostel rooms we have the students — some intellectual ones whose fates are sealed and others, like Chatur, who know how to get good grades in the present education system. Rancho empowers Farhan to convince his family he wants to be a photographer not an engineer,and also nurses another friend back to health after a failed suicide attempt. But soon after teaching them these valuable lessons and touching their lives in some way or the other, Rancho vanishes during the graduation ceremony.

Ten years later Chatur finds out where Rancho is and in the persuit to settle scores with him, goes on a road trip along with Farhan and Raju. Chatur is also looking to seal a deal with a famous scientist and prospective business associate named Phunsukh Wangdu. Chatur sees Wangdu, who has hundreds of patents, as his ticket to further his social standing. When they come to Rancho's house they are shocked to know that their friend Rancho was a servant boy sent to study in place of a lazy wealthy guy. After being directed to where the fake-Rancho stays they arrive to see a group of enthusiastic children who are motivated by love of knowledge. When his friends ask what his real name is, he reveals that it is Phunsukh Wangdu and calls Chatur. Chatur is horrified to find out that the famous guy he is looking to seal a deal is infact Rancho.

It is one of my favorite movies because its one of the only movies which takes pointed jabs at the education system in India and raises questions about the relevance of learning by memorizing and repetition, the obsession with high grades.
I feel that the protagonist in the movie exhibits a lot of different strengths like courage,curiousity, creativity, originality and last but not the least Love of learning. I feel that the strength that I can relate with are courage and curiosity.

DONT PANIC

The movie that comes to mind to answer this question is The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. (The most recent one) The plot line could be summarized as ‘amazing’, but I’m guessing Disha is looking for more than that. There is a man, Arthur living his usual day to day. He goes to a costume party where he meets a girl who intrigues him. He also had the lucky chance of unknowingly being best friends with a man who is actually a Martian. This best friend happens to know the world is being destroyed to make room for an intergalactic highway (along with all the dolphins on earth who were greatly appreciative of all the fish we were giving them while we were mistaking their desperate attempts to warn us about the end of the world as mere entertainment). Arthur is fortunate enough to be saved by his best friend who has the ability to hitchhike throughout the galaxy. While hitchhiking they run into the same intriguing girl from the costume party. She was messing around in outer space because she ditched Arthur at the costume party for a narcissistic man who asked her if she would like to see his spaceship. This was after missed his chance by failing to share her excitement for adventure. My explanation does absolutely no justice for the movie (or the book).
Like most movies (and books) the characters have very distinct, almost single trait personalities. Each personality can be seen as a strength but at the same time left unbridled there are also weaknesses resulting from each. The girl from the costume party, Trillion is by far the curious one. The Martian best friend gives Arthur a little book, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. This friend shows wisdom by being a living example of how to live by the advice and direction Arthur is reading and experiencing for the first time. The book says DON’T PANIC on the back and throughout their intense journey the best friend does a great job maintaining his composure despite some of the crazy situations the group finds themselves in. The strength I feel I share with the movie isn’t in one of the characters though. It’s in an object. In the end there is a gun that when shot at another person allows you to genuinely experience their perspective. I think this is a strength of mine; being able to, at the very least, realize not to take other people personally because they have intensely different perspectives than me or anyone else.

Almost Famous

My favorite movie is Almost Famous. It is about a boy who is a senior in high school and has been sheltered his whole life. His sister goes off and becomes a flight attendant and leaves him her whole music collection, which his mother hasn’t seen. He pretty much falls in love with it and wants to become a writer so he kind of tells rolling stone that he is older than he is and gets a job to cover Stillwater a up a coming band. He leaves school and goes on tour with then he falls for a semi-groupie who teaches him many lessons but she is also with a member of the band. He has to go back to school and the band comes to where he lives and the he tells then that they got the cover of the rolling stone and the groupie Penny Lane over doses because Russell the band member wife decided to goes on tour with them and she asks Penny to leave. Penny gets saved and the high school boy who’s name is William and later makes up with the band whom he had been fighting with. I think that there are several different strengths in this movie some of them being capacity to love and be loved, leadership, curiosity, hope, and humor and playfulness to name a few. I think that all of these are my strengths to different extents.

The Power of One

I saw this movie many many years ago and it has stuck with me. It was about an English boy, PK, who is teased in school. The boy then loses his mother and was sent to Africa to live with his grandfather. It was then that he was faced with racism and Nazi mindset. During the years while growing up he befriends many people not just white people but also black. He is hated by the Nazi’s and was often picked on. He learned to box and defend himself in his teen years. He later meets a young lady that grew up in a boarding school and has a very narrow mind of the world due to a lack of exposure. Through his beliefs that everyone is equal he starts to share this with her and she wants to help. They start a school at night to help the Afrikaans read and write. While at this school one night the Nazi’s invade and everyone is forced to fight for their rights and each other. But even with all of the fighting and cruelty PK continues to feel as though if he doesn’t give up he can make a difference. I think that shows many strengths including, courage, persistence, open-mindedness, kindness and many more. After you watch this movie you feel as though you can take on the world! I feel that I identify with this movie so much because these are a lot of my strengths as well.

Beauty and the Beast

I know this movie may come off as a childish animated movie, but stick with me. This movie is set in a small town in France in the 1800s. The main character Belle is known in her town for her exquisite beauty, but also as weird because she likes to read and has no interest in the town hero, Gaston. Belle's father is an inventor and is also seen as odd. On his way to a convention Belle's father gets lost and ends up in the Beast's castle. The Beast once lived a luxurious and lavish life, but was shallow and rude. He had a spell cast on him to turn him into a beast and he has the chance-until he turns 21-to fall in love and receive it otherwise he will remain a hideous beast forever. The Beast locks up Belle's dad and when she comes looking for him she takes his spot and becomes the Beast's prisoner. At first the Beast is rude and impatient and Belle is upset. However, as time goes on Belle and the Beast fall in love. Belle shows great patience with the Beast as he is very temperamental. Belle also shows optimism, she made the best out of a terrible situation. Instead of pouting she tried to connect with the Beast and develop a friendship. Another strength Belle shows earlier in the movie is interest in the world. Belle is not content with just relying on her looks, she wants to attain as much knowledge as possible. The Beast develops his strength for appreciating beauty, he sees that there is more to life than money and materials. This realization eventually sets him free. The Beast also learns some sort of patience, that he cannot just order Belle around like a slave if he wants to connect with her. The Beast also shows loyalty and forgiveness after her allows Belle to leave and she does. He is extremely hurt by her decision, but still comes to her rescue. Both Belle and the Beast show the capacity to love and be loved. This may seem simple, but from the context of the movie neither character has really ever been in love, nor been interested in the concept. I think a strength not listed on the VIA, but is shown is a bravery to being different. Belle never let harsh words or societies expectations effect her, she was going to be who she wanted to be regardless. This really is my favorite movie because other than the beauty part I really see myself in Belle and have since I was young. The strengths I most share with Belle are patience and optimism. I also share the Beast's strengths of forgiveness and loyalty. Oh yeah they end up together, happy ending and all.

"Every man dies, not every man truely lives"

Although it would be impossible for me to narrow down my list of favorite movies to my "favorite", Mel Gibson's Braveheart would definitely have to be high on the list. I believe there are a lot of small themes and motifs that provide hope and inspiration to those who watch it.

Although it can be easily seen as a hyper-masculine, action, slash-n-bash movie, it contains much more than that. In the movie William Wallace leads a Scottish revolt against England, who have taken advantage and treated the Scottish unfairly in pretense of the events of the movie. Wallace rallies the Scottish together and stages a revolt against the English to obtain Scotland's independence and freedom.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLrrBs8JBQo

It is important to understand why Wallace takes such drastic action. His wife was murdered by English noblemen who ruled over his lands. He become proactive and took charge of the situation. Throughout the rest of the movie he works to inspire others and help them understand the importance of freedom, which is something that is easily taken for granted in the free world. Even after being betrayed, Wallace stays strong to his goal, and finds a new method of fighting the English (although, his method is a little unruly, as he kills all the people who betrayed him, as a strategy of eliminating English ties with Scotlands 'nobels'). By the end of the movie he sacrafices himself at the chance of peace, and through out execution stays true to his values.

Wallace displays strengths of perseverance, loyalty, leadership, and sacrifice throughout the movie, traits which most people can find very admirable. I really admire the strengths of leadership and perseverance because I think they can teach you a lot about life, and allow you to teach others a lot about life as well.

Favorite Movie

Okay I'm just assuming we can just put our new posts up now? My favorite movie was "Up!". In the intro to the movie you see a couple grow up together as kids, get married as young adults, and grow old together until the old lady, Ellie, dies. Since she always had a dream of living on Lost Falls, the old man decides to float their house there using balloons. What he doesn't realize is that Ellie had her dreams come true by getting married and getting to spend her time with him and she wasn't disappointed about the things she never got to do when she died. On the way to Lost Falls, the old man discovers he has a tag-along, Russell, because he was on the porch when the house took off. When they reach the jungle, they meet a dog, Dug, and a bird and adopt them as pets. The old man has to choose whether to live out Ellie's old dreams of living on Lost Falls or living out his own adventure when the bird gets captured and needs help. Sorry that was a really long summary. I love this movie because it's really funny and cute. The kid Russell shows persistence and optimism throughout the whole movie. The old man is very loyal, goal-oriented, and in the end is very loving. I wouldn't say any of these are my strongest suits except for loyalty.

Welcome Post

Hello,

Welcome to this space for positive psychology. We will be conducting experiments, thinking about our conclusions from those experiments and about our experiences and sharing them with the world.

Thank you for joining us for this journey.