Sunday, January 11, 2015
Saturday, January 10, 2015
The Ten Greatest Business Movies
The Ten Greatest Business Movies
Compared to cop movies or love stories, movies about business are few and far between. Business settings may lack romance and car chases, but some of the best movies of all time have been about business. Here are the best of the best.
The best business movie of all time? Citizen Kane is the runaway choice for our panel of movie mavens. This selection is hardly shocking since many rank the 1941 film directed by Orson Welles as the greatest ever, period. New York Daily News critic Jack Mathews calls it “the definitive look at the megalomaniac-as-mogul.”
“I run a couple of newspapers. What do you do?” Kane asks an acquaintance. Otherwise, he is somewhat less modest. What is more surprising is that the Kane legacy never touched off a tradition of business-giant biopics, real or invented. Where are the movies about Henry Ford, Ray Kroc or even Walt Disney? (There has been a movie about Bill Gates Bill Gates and Steve Jobs Steve Jobs , but it was made for TV.)
Citizen Kane, in many ways, stands alone as a business movie by telling the story of an empire builder and the price he–and others–pay. Since then, every media mogul (or wannabe mogul) is inevitably compared to Charles Foster Kane. (See table below for more on individual films.)
The Godfather: Part II was our panel’s second choice, beating out the original Godfather, which ranks fourth. We were not quite sure that the Godfather movies should be considered business movies, since the business at issue is largely criminal, but our panel of producers, directors, critics, writers and professors assured us they are.
| Movie | Director | Cast Highlights |
| Citizen Kane (RKO Radio Pictures, 1941) | Orson Welles | Orson Welles directed and starred as Charles Foster Kane. Welles and Herman Mankiewicz wrote the script. Joseph Cotten played Jedediah Leland. |
| The Godfather: Part II (Paramount, 1974) | Francis Ford Coppola | Mario Puzo wrote the novel and wrote the screenplay with Coppola. Al Pacino as Michael Corleone, Robert De Niro as young Vito Corleone, Lee Strasberg as Hyman Roth, Michael Gazzo as Frankie Pentangeli. |
| It’s a Wonderful Life (RKO Radio Pictures, 1946) | Frank Capra | James Stewart as George Bailey, Donna Reed as Mary Hatch-Bailey, Lionel Barrymore as Mr. Potter; Henry Travers as Clarence. |
| The Godfather (Paramount, 1972) | Francis Ford Coppola | Marlon Brando as Vito Corleone, Al Pacino as his favored son Michael, James Caan as Sonny Corleone, Robert Duvall as Tom Hagen, John Cazale as Fredo Corleone, Diane Keaton as Kay Adams-Corleone. |
| Network (MGM-United Artists, 1976) | Sidney Lumet | Paddy Chayefsky wrote the script. Faye Dunaway as Diana Christensen, William Holden as Max Schumacher, Peter Finch as Howard Beale, Robert Duvall as Frank Hackett. |
| The Insider (Touchstone Pictures, 1999) | Michael Mann | Mann and Eric Roth wrote the script from a magazine story by Marie Brenner. Al Pacino as Lowell Bergman, Russell Crowe as Jeffrey Wigand, Christopher Plummer as Mike Wallace. |
| Glengarry Glen Ross (New Line Cinema, 1992) | James Foley | David Mamet wrote the script from his play. Jack Lemmon as Shelley Levene, Al Pacino as Richard “Ricky” Roma, Alan Arkin as George Aaronow, Alec Baldwin as Blake. |
| Wall Street (20th Century Fox, 1987) | Oliver Stone | Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko, Charlie Sheen as Bud Fox. |
| Tin Men (Touchstone Pictures, 1987) | Barry Levinson | Levinson wrote the script. Richard Dreyfuss as Bill “BB” Babowsky, Danny DeVito as Ernest Tilley, Barbara Hershey as Nora Tilley. |
| Modern Times (United Artists, 1936) | Charlie Chaplin | Charlie Chaplin wrote, directed, starred and composed the music. |
In The Godfather, ranked fourth on the list, Michael Corleone predicts that the Corleone family will be completely legitimate within five years. He tries, but in Godfather II his best efforts come to naught. “Godfather II is the ultimate family-business movie, far more sophisticated than Godfather I,” says veteran film critic Judith Crist. “These Corleones are less lovable. Michael is all hard-headed business, even proving that blood is less thick than water.”
It’s a Wonderful Life ranks third on the list and is the only movie with a cheerful view of business in which the good guys win. The movie “has prevented more white-collar crime and inspired more business losses than any American movie,” says Michael Lewis, author of Liar’s Poker and The New New Thing. Only Frank Capra could pull that off.
Network and The Insider rank fifth and sixth. Both involve the media business and the inevitable conflict between church (journalism) and state (ratings or corporate concerns). Ultimately, the journalists are the good guys. (We did not consider movies about show business for our list; we also excluded documentaries.)
In Glengarry Glen Ross (ranked seventh) and Tin Men (number nine), David Mamet and Barry Levinson, respectively, discovered drama in the desperation and chicanery of salesmen on commission. “Salesmen don’t actually talk like this. No one talks like Mamet characters in real life, ever,” says Forbes staff writer Peter Kafka, who covers Hollywood. “But anyone who’s sold something recognizes the characters anyway.”
Oliver Stone’s Wall Street (number eight) and Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times (number 10) complete the list. Both movies helped define their eras. Chaplin’s 1936 film captures our frantic effort to keep up with the assembly line–and to stay ahead of work in general. Stone’s 1987 release portrays Chaplin’s direct descendant, telling the story of Wall Street in the roaring 1980s and the efforts of one would-be titan’s efforts to keep up with the Joneses at a very high level.
Courtesy of Forbes.com >>> http://www.forbes.com/2002/12/16/cx_da_1216bizmovies.html
The "new" new thing is emotional intelligence
Recently, there have been many articles written about one of the "newest" new things in business - "emotional intelligence". The term is catchy, but emotional intelligence is really not new at all. Psychology Today says:
Emotional intelligence is the ability to identify and manage your own emotions and the emotions of others. It is generally said to include 3 skills:
1. Emotional awareness, including the ability to identify your own emotions and those of others;
2. The ability to harness emotions and apply them to tasks like thinking and problems solving;
3. The ability to manage emotions, including the ability to regulate your own emotions, and the ability to cheer up or calm down another person.
Google simplified the definition as the capacity to be aware of, control, and express one's emotions, and to handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically. i.e. "emotional intelligence is the key to both personal and professional success"
I've taken several EI or EQ tests. I rank above average but I'd like to raise my quotient still. Want to test your own emotional intelligence? Come back and let me the results after you take it here:
Emotional intelligence is the ability to identify and manage your own emotions and the emotions of others. It is generally said to include 3 skills:
1. Emotional awareness, including the ability to identify your own emotions and those of others;
2. The ability to harness emotions and apply them to tasks like thinking and problems solving;
3. The ability to manage emotions, including the ability to regulate your own emotions, and the ability to cheer up or calm down another person.
Google simplified the definition as the capacity to be aware of, control, and express one's emotions, and to handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically. i.e. "emotional intelligence is the key to both personal and professional success"
I've taken several EI or EQ tests. I rank above average but I'd like to raise my quotient still. Want to test your own emotional intelligence? Come back and let me the results after you take it here:
- http://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/emotional-intelligence, or
- Emotional Intelligence Quiz Results
Performing Under Pressure
Hendrie Weisnger and J.P. Pawliw-Fry
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