January
2003
Trenton Library Movies: January
is back to business month
By
Dan Dodson
Finally
I get to review movies about an area I'm knowledgeable in. A fairy
tale, a love story and a tragic documentary are all set against
the backdrop of the business of making money. All three remind
us of the inalienable American right to make a buck, a right I
fear some Trentonians dismiss.
The
agenda includes: The Hudsucker Proxy on January 9, Other
People's Money on January 23 and Startup.Com on January
30. All dates are Thursdays with show times at 6:30 p.m. The library's
CEO invites your driver to park the limo in the library's secure
side parking lot.
Tim
Robbins is "Jack" to Paul Newman's "evil giant"
The
Hudsucker Proxy is a fairy tale told by two of the greatest
filmmakers of our time, brothers Joel and Ethan Coen. However,
the farm is replaced by 1950s New York City and the beanstalk
is played by an ominous skyscraper.
Norville
Barnes (Tim Robbins) walks in to The Hudsucker corporation at
the exact same moment CEO Hudsucker jumps to his death from the
boardroom window. Norville has big dreams but starts out in a
bureaucratic mess of a mailroom.
Hudsucker's
death leaves the number two man, Mussburger (Paul Newman), to
cook up a scheme to pull a fast one on the market. In the goofy
but good Norville, Mussburger finds a patsy to be the new CEO,
thereby driving down the company's share price so the board can
buy it cheap. Mayhem ensues including a hula hoop, a reporter
femme fatale (Jennifer Jason-Leigh), a flexible straw, a Frisbee
and a fairy godfather.
The
Coen brothers are masters of cinematic style; in this case they
borrowed from Terry Gilliam's Brazil. The style sets a
tone of power and grandeur that strikes a chord of absurdity.
As in the Coen's film, O Brother, Where Art Thou? which
is based on Homer's Odyssey, Hudsucker uses Jack and
the Beanstalk and Cinderella to tell its morality tale
of a little guy winning the day by sticking to his principles.
But
Hudsucker isn't just a business parody. It also apes the original
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town to such an extent that in the end
Norville gets to keep the big office and live the dream.
The
Hudsucker Proxy is a strange movie, but viewed in the context
of other Coen films like Fargo, Raising Arizona and Barton
Fink, it's not strange at all.
Wall
Street as a romantic comedy
The
tagline from Other People's Money reads, "Meet Larry
the Liquidator. Arrogant. Greedy. Self-centered. Ruthless. You
gotta love the guy." This post Wall Street film plays
out the corporate raider drama again, but adds a romantic twist
when Danny DeVito's character finds a heart and falls in love
with Kate Sullivan (Penelope Ann Miller).
The
takeover thing is the interesting part so here's how it works.
A company has two divisions. One of them makes money, one doesn't
but is sitting on some valuable land. A smart guy figures out
that if he buys the company and closes down the unprofitable part,
he can sell the remainder for a gain because its profits are higher
without the drag of the losing division. As a bonus he gets to
sell off the land.
That's
progress and I'm for it. Gregory Peck disagrees because he thinks
his little company is a family. He's stubborn so mom tells him
to ask their daughter to protect them from the evil raider. Grow
up! Greed is good!
Director
Norman Jewison and playwright Jerry Sterner were playing to the
masses when they created Danny DeVito's caricature of a Wall Street
tycoon. Corporate raiding was passé by 1991 when the movie
was made and Ivan Boesky and Michael Milken were in jail. So casting
the mercurially funny DeVito against the solemn Peck was a great
twist on the complicated story of a takeover battle.
It's
a comedy and doesn't set out be thoughtful. But for students of
business, Other People's Money raises important questions
about loyalty, business ethics and even corporate governance.
Success
and failure in the Internet age
There
is nothing better than a great documentary-unless it's a great
documentary about business! Startup.com tells the tragic
tale of the Internet boom and bust.
Two
high-school friends, Kaleil and Tom, start govWorks.com to help
local governments process paperwork, like parking tickets and
driver's license renewals. We get to see the friends build their
team, raise money and go through many of crises that almost all
startups experience. The documentary puts the company into the
context of an Internet boom that let a group of twentysomethings
rub elbows with Maynard Jackson, Bill Clinton and the venture
capitalists at Kleiner Perkins Caulfield.
The
concept wasn't wacky in 1999. I was working on a similar project
for a client in Hong Kong that went well. But also having been
in two startups, it was painful to watch the sure signs of self-destruction.
The Internet bust didn't necessarily kill govWorks.com; it imploded.
I am always amazed at how documentarians make films like this.
Directors Chris Hegedus and Jehane Noujaim were veterans of the
now famous War Room, so they had a reputation. How they
knew govWorks.com would be a story and how they convinced the
principles to ignore the camera are a mystery. However, they were
able to get enough footage to weave together a complete and compelling
story that budding Trenton entrepreneurs should not miss.
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Dan
Dodson is a management consultant and a Harvard Business School
grad. He reviews movies not having anything to do with business
at www.livingonthenet.com.
