What do you guys think? Things like
Office Space is a perfect representation of office life, etc etc
I think personally that Barney Miller is a perfect representation of police life.
What’s Up Doc? is a perfect representation of musicologists.
Hard Core Logo is a perfect representation of being a moderately successful bar band.
The Last Detail, a 1973 movie with Jack Nicholson, was a pretty accurate depiction of Navy life.
Sidney Kingsley’s 1949 play Detective Story did much the same thing, showing activity in a police station in all its banal, tragicomic glory. One episode of Barney Miller even has a Broadway producer calling the people there “you Detective Story rejects…”
Das Boot seems to me to be a fairly accurate representation of what it was like to serve on a German U Boat in WWII. Just an educated guess on my part though.
I’ll spoiler it a bit. It sucked donkey balls.
PS. Don’t watch this movie if you are depressed.
Birdman is an excellent representation of what it’s like to be in a live theater production (except, of course, for the fantasy stuff). Everything backstage is dusty and cluttered, actors are either wildly insecure or egocentric, stage managers are forever yelling FIVE MINUTES, etc.
The Competition is the only movie I’ve seen that accurately depicts the way classical musicians think and behave. Some plot details are unrealistic (like Amy Irving switching her competition piece from Mozart to Prokofiev at the last minute), but for the most part they got it right.
King of the Hill is a very apt depiction of life in Texas suburbia (allowing for some comedic exaggeration).