No. 45 - Office Space (1999)

 WORK SUCKS

Rated: R for language, crude humor

Director and Writer: Mike Judge

Starring: Ron Livingston, Jennifer Aniston, Stephen Root, Gary Cole, David Herman, Ajay Naidu, Diedrich Bader

Movie Introduction: System Programmer, Peter Gibbons (Livingston), hates his soul-sucking job at generic software company Initech. While undergoing hypnotherapy, the miserable Peter is somehow transformed, giving him a blissful, more relaxed outlook on life. The "new" Peter starts to date a waitress Joanna (Aniston) and develops a whole new attitude at work. This results in a job promotion from two consultants, "The Bobs", who have been brought in to downsize the company. When Peter learns that his best friends, Samir and Michael Bolton (No, not that one.), are about to be fired, a plan is hatched to extract revenge by pilfering money out of a company account.   

Defining Moment: Peter's revelation

Peter has been a good worker. He has a good job, and pretty girlfriend, a car. Life is good. Yet, he just feels like something is wrong. He's not happy, a sentiment shared by most of his co-workers. His uptight and demanding girlfriend suggests that he attend an occupational hypnotherapy session to find help. In their first group session, Dr. Swanson puts Peter under hypnosis, tells him that everything is going to be fine and that he simply needs to relax. However, just as Peter is to be awakened by a snap of a finger, Dr. Swanson has a massive heart attack and dies. Peter finally breaks the trance with a whole new attitude on everything in his life. (Watch the scene on YouTube.)  

Something subtle you might have missed:  a world in and of itself

As the use of technology grew in America, up sprang these new work centers - massive concrete buildings to house millions of cubicles. Every major city built these "business parks". Likewise millions of adjacent centers containing chain restaurants were created hosting the likes of T.G.I. Friday's, Chili's, Bennigans, Steak and Ale and Cheddar's. Companies filled these buildings with young college and tech school grads. These eager beavers worked long hours writing programs to process insurance claims, track inventory and cut checks. I worked in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex then, and that was "corporate culture ground zero". Yes, it sucked.

Memorable Quotes:

"Human beings were not meant to sit in little cubicles staring at computer screens all day, filling out useless forms and listening to eight different bosses drone on about mission statements!" - Peter Gibbons

"...I must have put a decimal in the wrong place... shit I always do that... miss some mundane detail." - Michael Bolton

"F**kin' A" - Lawrence... and Peter Gibbons

Dad's Review:

From July 21, 1985 to sometime in 2019 I went into an office. For a lot of it, I wore a full business suit - pants, jacket, polished wing-tips, button-down shirt, tie. I worked on big, complicated Health Care Systems, many of which are still running today. I was trained to code in ALC, COBOL and Cool-Gen. I ran tests. Analyzed reports. Made a decent living. Got steadily fatter every year at my sedimentary job. Don't get me wrong, I was glad to not be working outside, pushing tar on a rooftop or digging post holes. I counted myself as lucky.

But man...there was a lot of bullshit.

It was a constant barrage of Mission Statements, Corporate Goals and new "methodologies" - Living-Learning-Communities, Empowerment, LWS. Hold a stone heart and bear your soul. At first I played along, even taught training on "how to buy-in", and "be a great team player". Trying to climb the ladder. That's all part of being a cog in a big company.

Aside from all the corporate crap, I actually was lucky. We were provided with a training program that was the envy of the technology world. I also worked with great people, and I mean super-smart professionals. They were intelligent and always helped you. They became some of my best friends. I married one of them. That's right, I picked the best one, and I knew if she worked for my company, she was smart, tough, and well-paid. 

To escape work, we organized Happy Hours, a basketball league, a beach house at the Jersey Shore, raft trips down the Cheat River. We played as hard as we worked.  

Towards the end, though, I realized much of the corporate stuff was such a waste. It was to get us all to work really hard, so that millionaires got richer. We were unvalued. They laid us off, ended our pensions, cut our salaries, and out-sourced our jobs. I know, boo-hoo, at least I wasn't an underwater welder. 

This film PERFECTLY hits all the right satirical notes about cubicle life from the 1990's to COVID. Millions can relate to this story. Upon it's release, Office Space was a box office flop. It is not exactly an action flick. It's a slow burn of corporate-induced misery. Audiences were like, "What the heck... this is my daily life! Why is this funny?" It was only after its release on video in 2000, that it became such a hit. Apparently another year spent working on preventing the Y2K (Year 2000) disaster had an impact on tech folks.

Every worker bee in this film is unhappy. Maybe "to be a drone" is to be unhappy. Peter just wants to be lazy. Samir just wants his last name pronounced properly (Nagheenanajar). Joanna just doesn't want to be hassled. Michael just wants an alternate universe where the other Michael Bolton does not exist. Tom is just tired of living in fear of being fired. Milton just wants his red Swingline. Trust me, you work in this environment long enough, you will have similar experiences.

This vision of the office life is validation. This is director Mike Judge's critique of the way corporations have treated their workers for years. You see, the "corporation" only cares about its bottom line profits, and thus its wealthy shareholders.

The common workers, like most of us, just grease the wheels. 

This satirical masterpiece unites us!

But wait... this film is a comedy, right?

Well, let's put it this way, we know we had it good. But like anyone who works for "The Man", we also had to endure some challenges.  We were asked to do ridiculous things. We've had asinine and/or clueless bosses. We did On-Call rotations without "time and a half" for overtime. We've worked on death marches and given up holidays. We've killed ourselves for projects only to have them cancelled. It was tough. But we survived.

So, all we can do is look back and laugh at the absurdity of it all. We HAVE to laugh to stay sane.

It's time for the woke and ready youngsters to take over those old systems - and good luck to them!

I am just gonna sit back and smile when Peter cleans his bass in the office. When Samir wants to know more about conjugal visits. When Michael calls Mr. Bolton a "no-talent ass clown." When Joanna finally expresses herself. When Milton gets his stapler back.  We salute you! And in the end, when they finally win one, they win it for ALL OF US - the lowly, the down-trodden, the mistreated Cubicle Commandos of America!

Onto No. 46... TGIF P.M. Illuminations