Just published at MSN Movies (which reportedly recently passed Yahoo! as the highest-trafficked movie site on the web -- even more than IMDb!): my survey of ten movies about the tortures and triplicate-tribulations of having a job (or not), called "Wither While You Work," from "Modern Times" to "Time Out" to "The Office" (BBC). Please check it out and let me know what you think -- especially if you've ever been accused of suffering "a bad case of the Mondays." Here's the intro, to give you a taste:
"When I find myself in a position like this, I ask myself: 'What would General Motors do?' And then I do the opposite."-- Johnny Case (Cary Grant) in "Holiday" (1938)
On my right calf is a tattoo of a UPC code that expresses far more concisely and profoundly than language how I feel about doing a job just for the paycheck. It's the bar code from Nirvana's "Nevermind" album -- you know, the one with the naked baby boy swimming after the dollar bill on a fishhook. It's my little private joke -- and constant reminder -- about feelings of depersonalization I felt at old jobs. And if you've ever been employed at a place that made you feel like a shrink-wrapped product, or like you were just treading water until the next paycheck (and who hasn't?) ... well then, you know what it's like.
Movies and television usually deal with work in generic ways: The characters have jobs, and we sometimes even accompany them to work, but we rarely get a feeling for what it's like to actually do their jobs. That's why Kevin Smith's "Clerks" (and now its sequel, "Clerks II") connects with many people who have spent (or spend) so much time in tedious drudgery at low-level jobs where they are forced to interact with extremely unpleasant people -- either the unwashed public or nut-bag co-workers.
Sure, some movies deal with the high-level power games of the CEOs, but how many of us really know, or care, what it's like to be a CEO? On the other hand, nearly all of us know what it's like to work in a factory or a warehouse, to sit in front of a monitor in a cubicle at a suburban office park or to sit in conference rooms for unendurably pointless meetings...Continue reading here -- and, while you're at it, check out Kim Morgan's related piece about working girls (which is why I didn't include "His Girl Friday, "The Apartment" and a few others), called "Work It, Ladies."Any movie can find material for comedy or drama in the clash or crash of business titans. But the films that can capture the everyday trials, betrayals, temporary triumphs and perpetual humiliations of low or mid-level jobs without succumbing to soul-numbing tedium themselves — now, that is an achievement worthy of a copper-plated, adhesive-backed Employee of the Month plaque. We'll have a party with refreshments to congratulate the achievers and present the plaques Thursday, from 3 to 3:25 p.m., in Meeting Room C. Bring your own coffee cups.
One movie that you're missing is The Coen Brother's most underrated film, The Hudsucker Proxy. Just witness the board room, mail room, job hunt, and the devlopment of the ["You know... for kids!"] scenes for brilliant satire.
JE: It was on my short list, Mike -- but then I wound up doing "Brain Candy" (even more underrated) and it got bumped. Another terrific office satire, starting in the bowels of the mailroom and rising to the penthouse offices -- only to plunge back down again. (Come to think of it, "Hudsucker" might be good for an Opening Shots entry -- great use of miniatures that reminds me of the opening of two other wonderful movies, Lubitsch's masterpiece "Trouble in Paradise" and Rene Clair's "Le Million." I gotta work on that. BTW, I removed one reference from your comment in (probably vain) hopes that the ingenious "You know... for kids!" joke might remain unspoiled for those who haven't seen "Hudsucker" yet.
Jim,
Great article, esp. the inclusion of the criminally underrated "Brain Candy." You and I pursuing the same three goals.
My favorite work movie is the rather difficult-to-find "American Job" by Chris Smith (best known for "American Movie.") In the film, the protagonist (Randy Russell), a recent high school grad, simply goes from one minimum-wage job to another, and we mostly see his orientation sessions and first day on the job. Randy isn't an ambitious guy or a greedy one - all he wants is an easy job he can coast through without being bored out of his mind.
He doesn't find one.
Shot in pseudo-documentary style, this is as deadpan as anything Jarmusch ever dreamed of, and almost as funny. It's also a stone cold horror film of the highest caliber. Just to give you a taste, at one place, his "job" is simply to press a button on a machine every 45 seconds or so. And that's it. Not long enough to actually do anything with the 45 seconds of down time, but just long enough to be mind-numbingly dull(remember how long Godard's (almost) minute of silence felt in "Band of Outsiders"?)
Forget all those "office" movies - nothing is as scary as the world of minimum-wage work!
-Chris
JE: Thanks for that description, Chris. We decided to limit the list to fictional features -- no docs, or I might well have included "American Job" (if I'd been able to see it in time; I'm a big fan of "American Movie"), as well as stuff like "Harlan County, USA" and, of course. "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room." I gotta find "American Job" -- it's not on Netflix.
Jim,
Just a quick clarification: "American Job" is a fiction feature, it's just shot in a pseudo-verite style. Actually, some of the work scenes (as well as the muted performances) in Soderbergh's "Bubble"remind me very much of "American Job."
It's tough to find (I saw it on a bootleg DVD at Cinefile in L.A.) but it's worth seeking out!
-chris
JE: Thanks, Chris. I did not know that!
I also love the mind-numbingly boring office scenes in which John Landis depicts Ed Okin's day job at the start of INTO THE NIGHT. A very underrated little gem, if you ask me.
JE: Hi Peet -- I'm intrigued. I haven't seen that movie since it was released, and all I remember were all the director cameos. You've got me interested in seeing it again... I considered a number of movies that have really good office sequences (even if they're not really about work), from "Joe Vs. the Volcano" to "Fight Club."
I know it's not about an office, but for my money, one of the best movies about work is State and Main.
I think it captures the hierarchy of the work force as well as any office-oriented film. The way personal matters like pregnancy are swiftly dismissed for "not being on the call sheet" is a brilliantly biting example of the dehumanizing potential of work.
"What's a co-producer credit?"
"It's what they give you instead of a raise."
Your inclusion of "Time Out" and "Holiday" makes me wonder what a top-ten list of movies about unemployment might look like. I'd definitely include "The Full Monty", which is really not so much about the joy of stripping as the humiliation of being out of work, and maybe even "Falling Down", which is a flawed movie but has some brilliant moments. (What can I say, I'm fond of Not Economically Viable Man.)
The film about work that is closest to my heart is A Thousand Clowns. I saw it when I was ten or so, sometime around 1971, and it has affected my view of work ever since. You can argue plusses and minuses of these films all day, but I can't think of one that really comes out and says it as directly as 1K Clowns does in one or two pivotal scenes, though its main character is voluntarily out of work until the very end. You gotta own all your days, man.