Business on the Big Screen

Maybe it is the economy, stupid, but it seems like there is renewed interest in depicting 'business' in the motion picture industry. Very seldom is business portrayed in a positive light, in whatever medium. Business is at the very epicenter of what we do and who we are. Many people make the mistake of judging people based on what they do rather than who they are. Face it, business and business careers are a fabric of the American psyche.

Up in the Air deserves all the accolades it is getting. George Clooney is cast as a corporate downsizer without a soul. He has no family, no home and no social life. His life is all about business. The scenes of him letting people go from their jobs are harrowing. You feel the emotions of rage, hate and resignation. Great casting, with real people who had been laid off helped lend these feelings. For them, it was all too real. Label it downsizing or rightsizing, it is still job loss.

The Company Men is getting serious buzz at Sundance. According to reviews, it is a socially harrowing drama of the business of corporate downsizing at GTX Corporation, a shipping conglomerate with tentacles in several industries. It stars veteran actors Tommie Lee Jones, Ben Affleck and Chris Cooper, one of today's finest character actors. They all attempt to survive after a round of devastating corporate downsizing. This is the story of those who are fired rather than those who are doing the firing as in Up in the Air. Think of The Company Men as a companion movie - one that pits survival against pride and starting anew in middle-age. The emotion is what is so riveting. It connects business on a very personal level. It portrays the shear bleakness of the current economic recession in which many find themselves, no matter what business they're in and at what level they work. No release date has yet been announced.

The carnage from Wall Street is a subject sure to garner the attention of Hollywood studios. Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps is set to debut in late April. Yes, everyone's favorite business villain, Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas), is back. This time the movie takes place 20 years after the original, revolving around the 2008 stock market crash. The Gekko character acts as more an anti-hero by attempting to warn Wall Street before its soon-to-be stock market crash. Having been sprung from jail, he finds his standing reduced from the lofty perches he once commanded. Is that enough of a spoiler?! Will he have a second life in business, one that features him as a protagonist rather than in the antagonist role, the one that Michael Douglas played so well in the 80's when greed was seen as good?

The economic and social debate of business is played out everyday on various media business channels in the electronic, digital and print worlds. It makes great business sense for the movie industry to probe the moral fabric of this great economic downturn. This recession has affected all of us in very different ways. These are stories that demand to be told and learned from. There are many lessons learned to be applied in the business world of the future. These are not happily-ever-after stories, much like the classic movie Glengarry Glen Ross that depicted the machinations behind the scenes at a real estate office. Anyone in business who has had to deliver sales numbers shudders with thoughts about Shelley Levine, played by the great Jack Lemmon, pleading, "I need the good leads, give me the Glengarry leads. They are the good leads." You feel for him in a very personal way, almost willing him to make the sale. It makes for the ultimate emotional connection, one that touches both the heart and the mind. Watch for business to be played out in various ways on the big screen in the coming months and years. The stories are hard and raw, but need to seen and contemplated.