Office Space: From Cooler Talk to Cult Hit
Office Space: From Cooler Talk to Cult Hit
Office Space, an American comedy film that satirizes the working life of a number of fed up individuals who work for a large software company, flopped at the big screen. When it was first released back in 1999, critics were largely unimpressed. The New York Times wrote: “It has the loose-jointed feel of a bunch of sketches packed together into a narrative that doesn’t gather much momentum”; Entertainment Weekly deemed it “cramped and under-imagined.”
The story focused on Peter Gibbons, an employee of the software company Initech, who spends his working days adjusting banking software code to prepare for the Y2k disaster – which at the end of the 90s was a much talked about “threat”. Peter is bored, tired, fed up and hates his job and everything about the company he works for, especially his boss “Lumbergh” who frequently makes Peter come
to work on weekends.
Despite the slow start, Office Space became a massive cult movie, spawning a whole generation of office bound fans. It seemed to sum up the working lives of so many in the Western world; even those who had never worked in an office cubicle for a software firm could still relate to the maddening commute to work, the pointless office bureaucracy, the annoying co-workers, the printer that forever jammed and the boss who preferred to spend company time and money on his shirts and celebrating his birthday, rather than giving his staff a pay rise.
Such was the connection that Office Space made with those who watched it, that it spawned dozens of fan sites, most notable of which was the website B*llSh*tJob.com, which was not only an ode to the film, but a forum for those who had had enough of their own dead end jobs, and by
watching Office Space were motivated and inspired to quit and find better employment.
The cult following is also manifested in the availability of non-official merchandise related to various props in the film. For example, it’s possible to purchase Initech mugs and mouse mats, but perhaps the most unlikely item to receive a cult following came from the stationary world.
One of the central characters Milton, an overweight paper pusher who is constantly bullied by upper management who relocate his desk whenever they feel like it, has one love in his life: his Red Swingline Stapler – about which he is constantly mumbling.
Swingline are a real life stationary company who do manufacture staplers, but prior to the making of Office Space, they had not produced a red model in years (a member of the props team was instructed to
paint the stapler prop red to fit in with the script). Due to the demand generated by the film, Swingline began producing the red model again, which went on to become the best selling stapler of all time.
Perhaps the movie’s greatest achievement was striking a chord with so many workplaces around the world; from serviced offices in London to the desks of Detroit, Office Space is the voice of the jilted office generation.
Andrew Regan is an online, freelance author from Scotland. He is a keen rugby player and enjoys travelling.
Article from articlesbase.com
Find More Sell My Movie Script Articles
