Office
Space used to just be a funny little Mike Judge movie, but as time passes it has
evolved in to something much more. It has become an Anthem - a cinematic version
of “Take This Job and Shove it.” Much like the brilliant and often misunderstood
Beavis and Butthead, Office Space is funny on a number of levels - the more times
you watch it the more of them you ascend. And even more fascinating is that the
whole thing originated from a cartoon character called Milton. I believe Milton
shorts played a few times on MTV and perhaps SNL.
In
Office Space Milton’s role is limited to a few choice segments, but he winds
up as the unwitting beneficiary of a computer caper that leaves him drinking fancy
drinks on a tropical paradise. Proving the point that if you give a nerdy guy
a million dollars he doesn’t become cool, he simply becomes a richer nerdy
guy. Milton is the employee that every large corporation has, that is picked on
by everybody, even by underlings. He gets no respect, because of very little job
security as a result of not really having a job. He has a desk to sit at, a cherished
red stapler and a pile of papers to shuffle around, but performs no actual function
for the company. Other than providing it with a person who can continually be
given a worse and worse office.
Milton
is portrayed brilliantly by (Talk Radio’s) Stephen Root. As I mentioned above,
Office Space has become such a cult classic that it’s turned out as many
catch-phrases as Swingers. “If you could just learn all of the catch-phrases
so you can participate in them at the office, that’d be greeeeaaaat. The
girls might be so impressed that they might want to see your O-face. Most of the
beloved characters from Office Space work at high tech data-tabulating firm that
is sectioned off into small, florescently lit, cubicles that offer no privacy
or noise protection of any kind. All of these people hate their jobs, but live
in mortal fear of being fired or even being late once a week. They all labor to
complete their weekly TPS reports and it is the earth-shaking news that there
has been a change in the cover sheet that is to accompany the TPS report that
is where we start our saga. There was a memo all about the new covers for the
TPS report!
Ron
Livingston (who also had a small role in Swingers) plays Peter who comes to work
one Monday morning only to be chastised by all eight of his bosses for neglecting
to put the new cover sheets on his TPS report. Each superior putting their own
grave spin on his major gaffe - and all asking “didn’t you get the memo?”
Actually he did get the memo, which he cheerfully reports to all of them, apologizes
for his negligence and assures them that in the future his TPS reports will be
properly covered. We even meet the boss of bosses on this first morning (the hilarious
Gary Cole) who is more non-chalant about the cover sheet, but gets it across that
“it would be greeeaaatt, if he could just go ahead and get the correct cover
sheet on his TPS reports from now on.”
Though,
Peter is the most vocal about his hatred for his job, he too fears losing it.
Yet he is a man who is fully aware that this job is slowly sucking away his soul
and it is his fondest dream to do nothing at all. This is his chief goal in life
is to work himself into a position where he has to do absolutely nothing, ever.
His only motivation for being productive at all is so that none of his eight bosses
will hassle him and he also suspects his girlfriend is cheating on him, and every
day of his life is getting progressively worse. His job stress reaches a point
that his girlfriend suggests he seek the help of an occupational hypnotherapist.
After alot of pussywhipping he goes along with it, hoping that the doctor can
brainwash him into believing that he is off fishing when he is at work, or something
along those lines. The doctor places him into a deep hypnotic state, where all
his work-related cares slip away. And just when he has reached that spot in his
brain that could give a rat’s ass about responsibility of any kind, the hypnotist
keels over from a hear-attack and dies.
The
beautiful part of this tragedy is that he never gets the chance to bring Peter
out of his happy trance and when Monday morning roles around and the alarm clock
sounds, Peter unplugs the obnoxious appliance and goes right back to sleep. Soon
his phone begins to ring with messages from work and as each one gets more and
more frantic and serious, (eventually Gary Cole himself leaves a message). Alas,
Ron really doesn’t have it in him to worry about it in the least. It’s
not like he’s planning on “quitting his job” - nay, he’s just
not going to go on in until the mood seems right. He's just going to show up whenever
he feels like it and do what he wants, until they finally get around to firing
him. No need to quit, that would require effort.
To
make matters all the more amusing, the company is in the midst of a downsizing
shake-up and has brought in a pair of efficiency experts to assess the duties
of each employee and determine which one’s are expendable. These two played
by the brilliant John C McGinley and Joe Bays are hysterical. When the time comes
for Peter’s evaluation he saunters on in, regards them casually, makes himself
a cup of coffee and settles into a seat and puts his feet up on the table. Hilariously
this has the two efficiency experts convinced that Peter is management material,
they couldn’t be more impressed with his indifference to pretty much everything
and his straight-forward candor about everything from a what a douche bag Cole
is to what a waste of time those stupid TPS reports are.
Things
couldn’t be going much better for Peter, his stock at work is going through
the roof (he’s even being considered to replace Cole) and he and his two
closest work-buddies (Ajay Naidur and David Herman, both of whom are relative
newcomers to movies and are both great) have devised a foolproof plan to bilk
the corporation out of thousands one decimal point at a time. And during it all
he’s even managed to attract a lovely new lady Friend in the person of Jennifer
Aniston. She too hates her job as a TGIF-type waitress and is a kindred soul to
Peter right down to her love for cheesy late-night kung-fu flicks.
In
the off chance that you’ve yet to see this movie I won’t spoil any more
of it for you. If you work in any sort of Office environment this film is required
viewing and for anyone who loves comedy from broad to high-brow this movie is
also a must. It’s one of those films that aren’t masterpieces, yet strike
such a familiar chord that they become beloved classics - (Caddyshack, Animal
House, Swingers). If you haven’t seen it for a while, it’s time you
brushed up on it. If nothing more than for the Michael Bolton thing. Because,
once you’ve seen Office Space you’ll cherish his entire catalogue.
