Posted on 01/06/2024 12:42:43 PM PST by Twotone
In the commentary track he recorded for the 2007 DVD reissue of Executive Suite, director Oliver Stone tells us that there are so few movies about the world of business that he ended up going back to this 1954 Robert Wise picture when he was looking for inspiration for his 1987 film Wall Street.
Wise's film was a hit when it was released and netted four Oscar nominations, but it is as obscure now as when Stone studied it for his own picture. As crucial as finance and management are to the working of capitalism, the business picture remains a subgenre, with only a few films considered classics (Stone's picture, The Big Short, perhaps The Wolf of Wall Street and The Social Network, Citizen Kane at a stretch. But most movies about money are really about finance and the markets and not boardroom politics.)
Any list of business pictures you'll find online is full of documentaries, most of them taking a polemically dim view of American capitalism – Michael Moore films like Roger & Me, The Big One and Capitalism: A Love Story, alongside The Corporation, Inside Job and Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room. It would be safe to assume that the only people making movies about business are people who profess to hate it.
And if you believe Stone, the failure of American capitalism begins with the story told by Executive Suite. "It begins here," he says in his commentary. "This is the germ. The Fredric Marches of the world are winning."
March plays Loren Shaw, the bad guy in the film – a vice president and controller at Tredway Furniture, a major manufacturer based in Pennsylvania.
(Excerpt) Read more at steynonline.com ...
From the headline, I thought this was about the movie. “Office Space” one of my favorites, and I got excited. Oh well.
By the way, why did you post this article? (No comment from you about it.)
I wasn’t familiar with this movie, but thought others might find the commentary interesting.
Another interesting movie in the same vein - Patterns (aka Patterns of Power), 1956. Smaller cast, including Ed Begley, Van Heflin, Everett Sloane. As much emotional intensity, or perhaps more - as Executive Suite, but with fewer characters.
Amazing performance by Begley. Heflin and Sloane weren’t far behind.
My reaction as well. Such a great movie.
My reaction as well. Such a great movie.
Another one worth your time is Rod Serling's Patterns, with Van Heflin.
Don't forget your cover sheet!
I’ve always loved William Holden. Funny that I’ve never run across this movie before.
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