Home Video Econ. 101
If you spent 24 hours in front of your TV set watching movies about business in the United States, you’d go away thinking that American businessmen and women were greedy, power-grabbing, manipulative people whose major goal was to accumulate profits and power and then to abuse that power by hurting everyone around them.
Depending on to whom you talk in the business world, these films are usually dead-accurate or another example of bias in the media. No matter. Many films about American business are just great fun to watch. They have good plots-fleshing out the morality of power plays is always fascinating to watch. They have great character- power-hungry executives, corporate raiders, Wall Street barons make for fascinating characters.
If you want a fast course in cinema business, rent the following movies for Home Video Economics 101:
“Wall Street” (1988, CBS/Fox tape and disc) captures the frenetic, no-holds-barred world of Big Business U.S.A. Few villains match Michael Douglas’ viciousness, a perfect moral match to the young, up-and-coming broker (Charlie Sheen) who idolizes Douglas before he sees the light. Director Oliver Stone offers a realistic look at Wall Street, circa Ivan Boesky.
“Rollover” (1981, Warner tape and disc) mixes murder with business, but it’s a fascinating look at the atmosphere of Wall Street. Director Alan J. Pakula paints a dynamic picture of the ins and outs of the New York financial world. The overworked plot, all about the possible collapse of the world economy, takes a back seat to the machinations of the banking world and corporate games. Jane Fonda as the wife of a chemicals tycoon and Kris Kristofferson as a corporate trouble-shooter act out ordinary roles against an extraordinary background. Watch the background, not the actors.
“The Fountainhead” (1949, Key tape) is Ayn Rand’s popular, preachy novel about power and morality. Gary Cooper is the no-compromising architect of principle and Raymond Massey is the publisher who goes after power without any regard to principle and is ultimately destroyed. It may not strike many as being realistic today, but as a morality play in which the characters symbolize ideas rather than people, it is an effective piece of propaganda.
“Network” (1976, MGM/UA tape and disc) shows the media business in all of its corrupt silliness. Its depiction of office politics is brutally honest, and corporate combat was never more realistic. Faye Dunaway as the ambitious executive sums up everything that is wrong with the American business ethic. More frightening is that everything that seemed ridiculously exaggerated 13 years ago, seems more than possible in light of the problems the three networks are having in the late 1980s.
“One, Two, Three” (1961), MGM/UA tape) offers the best portrayal of the groveling businessman ever put on film. James Cagney is a Coca-Cola executive in West Berlin who sums up the worst aspects of every business executive: he bullies those under him and he never questions or talks back to those above him. Director Billy Wilder keeps a rapid-fire pace, showing the ruthlessness of major corporations.
After wading through these films about business, it’s refreshing to go back to an old-fashioned class struggle in which too much power equals too much corruption. “It’s a Wonderful Life” (1946, Criterion special edition laser videodisc; Republic tape) isn’t thought of as a film about American business, but that is its heart and soul: James Stewart runs the savings and loan that is in business to help the community and its people. The arch enemy is Lionel Barrymore, a local banker who wants power at any price and will stoop to anything to defeat anyone who stands in his way. When good (Stewart and the people who live in the town) triumphs over evil (banker Barrymore), it gives us hope that money, always the root of all evil, won’t destroy decent people trying to do decent things. It may be the greatest American fantasy ever put on film.