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Edited on Sun Sep-25-11 07:36 AM by RBInMaine
Yes, movies are movies, but this one is VERY good. Rented it last night. It is about a big company in Boston slowly going belly-up in the recession and how they are laying off waves of employees while the CEO and most at the very top continue to be rich and they continue to build a new office building so the top dogs can have new offices. The things that struck me most were:
1) It shows rampant corporate greed and no loyalty to employees.
2) It shows how so many Americans, like the middle management guy played by Ben Affleck,have gotten SPOILED on needing six figures, expensive cars, big fancy houses, country clubs, etc. and then they stand there dumbfounded when they realize they might actually have to cut back. * I do need to say that. So many Americans in the 80's through the 2000's DID get SPOILED on the big houses, the fancy cars, etc. etc. etc. It is just ridiculous. It was great to see the character humbled down and had to actually go to work as a carpentry laborer with for his brother
in-law. (*** We have been struggling with the GREAT RECESSION, a near depression, and Americans today have no damn sense of what it means to have to contend with prolonged tough economic times. They want things to be fixed perfectly overnight. Too many have gotten SPOILED. They need to take some time and understand how we got here, how long it will take to fix, and what we have to do better going forward which will take TIME.)
3) The Kevin Costner character, the carpenter in-law, zings Ben Affleck and corporate America's misplaced values and points out how ridiculous it is that CEO's make hundreds of times more money than their lower level employees. Best line (paraphrased), "Are you telling me your CEO does seven-hundred times more work that his bottom rung employees on the front lines so should get paid seven-hundred times more money?"
4) It shows what has happened because we have exported MANUFACTURING. Our companies make "money," but they don't make anything tangible.
Yes, this is what happens when you stop actually creating. You lessen the actual value and meaning of work. So it was great in the end to see the dismissed workers get together to start a new manufacturing company.
This is a great film with good acting, a good script, and says so much about today's American economics and how we need to get the hell back to BASIC SANITY, ETHICS, FAIRNESS, and CREATIVITY again in our economic system and how we need to get our VALUES straightened out. Another best line from Affleck's "wife" in the movie: "You have ME. You have US." Americans need to STOP THE INSANITY of measuring worth in terms of big houses and country club memberships. It is about being happy with yourself, your family, and your friends. All the rest is just material you can never take with you in the end. Sure, we don't want to have to worry about money and want to make a decent salary, but the American dream is so much more than that. SEE THE MOVIE. It makes you think. Well done.
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