The Pursuit of Happiness (1988 film)

The Pursuit Of Happiness is set in the port town of Fremantle, Western Australia

during the buildup to the 1988 America's Cup yacht race. During this time, there was public debate about nuclear warships visiting the port. It is a fiction film, but also contains documentary clips relating to real events, and refers to real international issues, including the threat of nuclear war. The film focuses on one family, with the marital relationship coming under pressure as the woman investigates local attitudes about the presence of the US ships.

• Laura Black
• Peter Hardy
• Anna Gare
• Jack Coleman

In the mid-1980s, US-born Australian cinematographer Martha Ansara was involved in the Australian anti-nuclear movement and wanted to make a film about Australia's relationship with the US.{{Cite web |title=People for Nuclear Disarmament (N.S.W.) - campaigns and projects, 1976-1991 |url=https://archival.sl.nsw.gov.au/Details/archive/110326767 |access-date=14 February 2025 |website= Old Catalogue: Manuscripts, oral history and pictures catalogue| publisher=State Library of New South Wales| quote=...including correspondence concerning H. V. H. Throssell VC Peace and Disarmament Memorial Trust, and correspondence with, and progress reports by, Martha Ansara (Jequerity Pty Ltd) }}

The Pursuit of Happiness was based on the book The pursuit of happiness : Australia, "the empire', ANZUS, nuclear disarmament and neutrality by Karen Throssell.{{Citation | title=The pursuit of happiness : Australia, "the empire', ANZUS, nuclear disarmament and neutrality / Karen Throssell | author1=Throssell, Karen | year=1988 | publisher=Hyland House | isbn=094706219X | language=English | url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn1621593 | access-date=15 February 2025 | via=National Library of Australia|format=catalogue entry}} The finance for the film was raised largely from private sources, including the proceeds of the sale of the Victoria Cross won at Gallipoli by Hugo Throssell and donated to the project by his son, diplomat and writer Ric Throssell, the father of Karen Throssell.{{cite web | last=Hobby | first=Nathan | title=Ric Prichard Throssell | website=Australian Dictionary of Biography | date=12 September 2023 | url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/throssell-ric-prichard-32379 | access-date=15 February 2025}}{{cite web | last=Welborn | first=Suzanne | title=Hugo Vivian Hope Throssell | website=Australian Dictionary of Biography | date=1990 | url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/throssell-hugo-vivian-hope-8806 | access-date=15 February 2025}}

Jeni Thornley, interviewing Ansara about the film in February 1988, described it as "about so much: motherhood, war, capitalism, change, values, how to live one's life, and it's also about women's economic independence from men. There you've got the metaphor of marriage, the US-Australia alliance..."{{cite interview| interviewer-first=Jeni |interviewer-last= Thornley| first= Martha| last= Ansara |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article213877881 |title=Jeni Thornley interviews Martha Ansara: The Price of Happinesss |newspaper=Filmnews |volume=18 |issue=1 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=1 February 1988 |accessdate=15 February 2025 |page=8 |via=National Library of Australia}}

The film was released in 1988.David Stratton, The Avocado Plantation: Boom and Bust in the Australian Film Industry, Pan MacMillan, 1990 p223Anna Grieve, "[https://issuu.com/libuow/docs/cinemapaper1988marno068|Question and Ansara]", Cinema Papers (68), March 1988, p.6-7

Ansara said in a 1998 interview about the film:{{cite web | title=Martha Ansara (Interview) | website=Home | date=7 November 1998 | url=https://misacor.org.au/item/15262-martha-ansara|via= Missionaries of the Sacred Heart | access-date=15 February 2025}}

It was a bit of a crude analysis, but it took so long to make (under the 10BA system) that by the time we finished the film - it was 1987 - for various reasons, the anti-nuclear movement was on the way out, so the film missed its time. And with films, timing is everything. If we had done it in a year, which we couldn't, it probably would have done very, very well. As it was, it did return 40 percent to the investors, but that was because it was very low-budget. The interesting thing about the film is that, if the audience was not very sophisticated, they liked it enormously. If they were sophisticated, they thought it was really daggy.

{{reflist}}

• {{IMDb title|0095931}}
• [http://www.ozmovies.com.au/movie/pursuit-of-happiness The Pursuit of Happiness] at Oz Movies

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Category:Australian drama films

Category:1988 films

Category:1980s English-language films

Category:1980s Australian films