# Movies about working in an office
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-working-in-an-office/433455
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [January 14, 2008, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-working-in-an-office/433455 "2008-01-14T06:22:48Z")
**Posts on this page:** 15
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@DadWagonDriver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DadWagonDriver)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2008, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-working-in-an-office/433455/1 "2008-01-14T06:22:48Z")
Fellow Dopers, please help me with this little problem that I am facing. I teach at a charter high school, and I teach what is essentially business English. I also coach girls’ basketball, and am taking a few workshops to help out first-year teachers. In other words, I’m going to be out of the classroom a couple of days this quarter. The students at our school are particularly bad about doing work when they have a sub, so I try to keep it simple by showing a movie and having an assignment to go along with it. This is less headache for the sub (who is usually one of our night school teachers who comes in early to cover) and for me, since I don’t have to worry about repeating what was missed the day before. Our classes are 1:45 long, so I have adequate time to show a movie in there. This is where you come in.
I need a list of business related movies that are rated G-PG13. I’d love to show _Office Space_, but it is rated R, and therefore not acceptable. Same with _Glengarry Glen Ross_ and other similar movies.
Can you think of any movies that fit my criteria?
---
### Author:  [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2008, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-working-in-an-office/433455/2 "2008-01-14T06:42:10Z")
See if you can find [Clockwatchers](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0118866/). It’s about 3 temps and it will scare the bejezzus out of the students, lest they end up the same way. It’s rated PG-13, is funny, is written and directed by women (two sisters), it’s indie but not SO indie that anyone will be scared away, and it stars two women that most students might know: Lisa Kudrow and Toni Collette. It’s 96 minutes long.
Here’s a snippet of [Ebert’s full review](http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19980522/REVIEWS/805220302/1023):
> [@](#):
>
> ``Clockwatchers’’ is a wicked, subversive comedy about the hell on earth occupied by temporary office workers. Hired by the day, fired on whims, they’re victims of corporate apartheid: They have no rights or benefits and can’t even call their desks their own. They’re always looking at Polaroids of someone else’s family.
>
> This is a rare film about the way people actually live. It’s about the new world of security cameras, Muzak, cubicle life and hoarding office supplies. `Try not to make too many mistakes,'' a new temp worker is told. `These forms are expensive.‘’ When she botches some forms, she throws them out in the ladies’ room to hide her crime. The toilet, indeed, is the only sanctuary in a big office: the refuge, the retreat, the confessional. Only when your underwear is off can you find a space to call your own.
---
### Author:  [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2008, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-working-in-an-office/433455/3 "2008-01-14T06:56:55Z")
This may seem like a dopey suggestion, but the PG-rated [9 to 5](http://farm.imdb.com/title/tt0080319/) is a funny movie and is another horrors-of-the-office film. It’s one of those very minor classics that gets referenced a lot but that they’ll probably never see on their own. And hey, the girls will like the revenge angle and the boys will like staring at Dolly’s chest. Win-win.
I was going to suggest Working Girl, but it’s rated R. So is Wall Street and Boiler Room.
---
### Author:  [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2008, 8:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-working-in-an-office/433455/4 "2008-01-14T08:47:12Z")
I was going to suggest Billy Wilder’s **The Apartment** but (1) I believe it lasts more than 1:45 and (2) since it was made in 1960, it’s now pretty much a historical period piece of what the business office environment was like nearly 50 years ago (i.e., all white and nearly all male with casual sexism as thick as the cigarette smoke that pervades the working space).
I take it **Fight Club** and **Brazil** would also be out of the question. 😃
---
### Author:  [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2008, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-working-in-an-office/433455/5 "2008-01-14T08:52:33Z")
[QUOTE=wmulax93]
I need a list of business related movies that are rated G-PG13. I’d love to show _Office Space_, but it is rated R, and therefore not acceptable. Same with _Glengarry Glen Ross_ and other similar movies.
[/QUOTE]
You stupid fuckin’ cunt. You idiot. Yeah I’m talking to you, Williamson. You shithead.
That would go over well.
---
### Author:  [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2008, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-working-in-an-office/433455/6 "2008-01-14T09:15:04Z")
For a very dark view of office life, you could try [Brazil](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brazil_%28film%29). For something more objective, why not go back to 1949’s [The Fountainhead](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fountainhead_%28film%29)?
---
### Author:  [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2008, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-working-in-an-office/433455/7 "2008-01-14T12:45:48Z")
[QUOTE=Equipoise]
This may seem like a dopey suggestion, but the PG-rated [9 to 5](http://farm.imdb.com/title/tt0080319/) is a funny movie and is another horrors-of-the-office film. It’s one of those very minor classics that gets referenced a lot but that they’ll probably never see on their own. And hey, the girls will like the revenge angle and the boys will like staring at Dolly’s chest. Win-win.
I was going to suggest Working Girl, but it’s rated R. So is Wall Street and Boiler Room.
[/QUOTE]
I second _9 to 5_. It may also serve as a springboard to a discussion about sexual harassment in the workplace, something that should be addressed.
Robin
---
### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2008, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-working-in-an-office/433455/8 "2008-01-14T15:19:05Z")
Thirded for _9 to 5_. I still remember the revenge-fantasy scene where Jane Fonda is a big-game hunter and Dabney Coleman’s head pops up from behind the rows of desks like a frightened deer. Funny stuff.
Would _All the President’s Men_ fit your needs? The character spend a lot of time in the newsroom, writing, on the phone, and talking to the editors. A good, smart, true-life political thriller.
Could you get the parents to sign a waiver to show _Office Space_ or _Glengarry_? I’m sure the kids have seen more… impolite stuff.
---
### Author:  [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unauthorized_Cinnamon)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2008, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-working-in-an-office/433455/9 "2008-01-14T16:21:47Z")
You could also show a few episodes of _The Office_ - Brit or American version. The first American season in particular uses a standard workplace issue for the basis of each episode: downsizing, racial sensitivity, sexual harrassment, and so on.
\*Joe Versus the Volcano \*has a good bit with his workplace at the beginning, but it’s not what the bulk of the movie is about.
_The Devil Wears Prada_ raises some interesting questions about how much you have to sublimate your personality and whore yourself out to achieve what you want in your career.
---
### Author:  [@shamrock227](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shamrock227)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2008, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-working-in-an-office/433455/10 "2008-01-14T16:38:41Z")
How about _Desk Set_? It’s a Hepburn/Tracy comedy made in 1957 so you might think that’s too old fashioned. It’s about trying to bring automization into the office, so they might get some enjoyment from the “yes, there was a life before computers” aspect.
---
### Author:  [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2008, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-working-in-an-office/433455/11 "2008-01-14T16:55:40Z")
This’ll probably bore them to tears, but I really enjoyed William Holden’s [Executive Suite](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046963/). Pretty short (104 minutes) b&w film about the future of a company when its founder suddenly dies.
---
### Author:  [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2008, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-working-in-an-office/433455/12 "2008-01-14T16:59:51Z")
Well, The Hudsucker Proxy kind of fits the bill.
---
### Author:  [@DadWagonDriver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DadWagonDriver)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2008, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-working-in-an-office/433455/13 "2008-01-14T17:50:30Z")
[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir]
Could you get the parents to sign a waiver to show _Office Space_ or _Glengarry_? I’m sure the kids have seen more… impolite stuff.
[/QUOTE]
The problem is getting permission slips back. I teach in a very, very urban school with little parental involvement. If I don’t get a slip back, I have to have something else for that student to do.
---
### Author:  [@Pashnish\_Ewing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pashnish_Ewing)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2008, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-working-in-an-office/433455/14 "2008-01-14T19:55:02Z")
I was going to respond with **Clockwatchers** as well.
---
### Author:  [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2008, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-working-in-an-office/433455/15 "2008-01-14T19:56:08Z")
Just remember, _9 to 5_ has the marijuana scene.
Not sure that goes over well in today’s DARE and zero tolerance world that teachers have to live in.