Green and Screen

Notes on the best business themed movies that I have seen, based on observations and conversations with friends, family and colleagues.

10.  Wall Street

Gordon Gekko

The problems seem small compared to the financial shenanigans of today.  But a well made movie with sharply defined characters and of course 'Gordon Gekko.'  The director intended this to be a cautionary tale for youngsters. Instead, youngsters were enamored by Bud Fox and Gordon Gekko and flocked to Wall Street in droves.  Best line, "When a Man Stares Into the Abyss and sees nothing but darkness, this is the time that he finds his character. And it is his character, that keeps him from falling into the abyss."


9.  Barbarians at the Gate

More shenanigans from the 1980s.  This was the scandal that inspired the Wall Street movie mentioned above.  RJR Nabisco's LBO.  I remember being mesmerized by this book when I read it.  Played to perfection by James Garner as the clueless head of RJR Nabisco.










8.  Glengary Glen Ross

Always Be Closing!

If you ever wanted to break into a cold sweat thinking of being a sales person, this is a must watch movie.  'Coffee is for closers' is the immortal line in this movie.  The other line is, 'See this watch.  It is worth more than your car.'







7.  The Godfather

Elsewhere I have ranked it as the number#1 movie of all time.  That is in terms of drama, dialogue, morality play, immigration etc etc.  But it is also a great business themed movie as the Corleones try to build up an empire in the US through Gambling Casinos.  Who can forget, "Nothing Personal.  It's just business"









6.  Trading Places

Joy on the trading floor

Eddie Murphy goes bananas in this movie.  He is the street urchin who in a social experiment trades place with a WASP.  Street smarts allows him to thrive.










5.  Yes Boss and Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman

A sparkling pair

Both these are actually the same movie.  In both cases SRK and Juhi are the leads.  In both cases Aziz Mirza directs them.  In both cases a young innocent buck comes to Mumbai and learns the way of the world and becomes successful, and is faced with a choice of success over morals.  In both cases Jatin-Lalit scored wonderful music.  Both movies bear repeated watching.









4.  Room at the Top

This is a British Movie.  Laurence Harvey (the assassin in The Manchurian Candidate) plays a hard scrabble youngster, Joe Lampton who arrives into a British town and literally sleeps his way to the top of a prominent industrial family.  He is such a soul-less automaton by the end - as soul-less as Michael Corleone becomes, at end of Godfather II.









3.  Man in the gray flannel suit

Played by Gregory Peck - the young, talented executive.  Who is faced with choices such as Raju above and willing to climb the ladder like Joe above carries baggage as well.  He hits a fork in the road with enormous forces attracting him to both.  Not everyone of us will make the choice he does.  However, we might be faced with that choice.  I most recently met my high school friend for dinner north of San Diego - and we talk about this very same choice (and agreed to share notes on this very question 10 years later).







2.  Executive Suite

"Stay calm.  Lemme talk to the bosses"

This movie defines what passion for business really means with a great final speech by William Holden excerpted here (Treadway is the name of the Furniture Manufacturing company that is at the center of this story):

 

“We‘ll never again ask a man to do anything that will poison his pride in himself or his work! We’ll have a new line of low-priced furniture. A new and different line as different from anything we’re making today as the modern automobile is different from a covered wagon. That’s what you want, Walt, isn’t it? What you’ve always wanted—merchandise that will sell because it has beauty, function, and value, not because the buyers like your Scotch or think you’re a good egg. The kind of stuff that you’ll be able to feel in your guts, Jesse, when you know it’s coming off your production line. A product that you’ll be able to budget to a hundredth of a percent, Shaw, because it’ll be scientifically and efficiently designed, and something you’ll be proud to have your name on, Miss Tredway. We’re going to give the people something they need at a price they can afford to pay. And as fresh needs come up, we’ll satisfy them, too, with something new and even more exciting. When we achieve that, we’ll really start to grow. We’re not going to die! We’re going to live, and it’s going to take every bit of business judgment and creative energy in this company from the middle, to the factory, right to the very top of the tower. And we’re going to do it together. Every one of us.”

 

1.   Citizen Kane

A revered movie that ranks up with The Godfather as one of the most innovative movies of all time.  Unlike The Godfather, the business theme movie in this movie is as great as the overall movie itself.  A supreme illustration of what over the top success in business could do to one's personal life; and what it all adds up to.

'Best' Buds

It is now beyond cliche to meditate on the meaning of 'Rosebud' that Charles Foster Kane utters as his last words on his death bed.  But perhaps like even business titans, victorious generals and triumphant monarchs realize, and as the great Sankara has said, 'on the deathbed, the rules of grammar don't come to your rescue."