Sixtyish Allery Parkes works in a plastics factory in a Rust Belt town (except for a few boarded houses, the place looks rather cheerful). Management decides to close factory and offers workers a miserable pittance and no pension. After a somewhat implausible.chain of events (no security guards?) Allery and Walter Brewer (a younger man) emerge as leaders, and the workers decide to occupy the factory and continue running it, helped by neighbors with food and bedding. So far, so good.
Management offers to talk with Allery in a diner (we are reminded this is an extraordinary concession). There, he is introduced to a woman that claims to be Walter's estranged wife and endows Walter with every possible failing; compulsive liar, irresponsible, violent, etc. It does not even remotely occur to Allery that the woman may be an impostor or, if real, may have been bribed. This infantile application of divide/and/conquer succeeds brilliantly, and workers' solidarity collapses. Generously, management raises the pittance. In the last scenes Allery is seen with a lunchbox which means either he found a new job instantly o he thinks he has one or, he is happily jobless. In celebration, he takes his wife out to dance.
This film doesn't miss a single objectionable message. Among them: 1. Management is omnipotent, trustworthy and benevolent. 2. Authorities are equally benevolent (police chief, escorting Allery home for trespassing, admonishes "Don't make me do this again" as if talking to a wayward son. 3. Trade unions or labor lawyers don't exist. 4. Labor leaders may be dangerous psychopaths. 5. Joblessness is no big deal, even if you are unemployable, have no pension, and are not old enough for Social Security. And so on. There are some values in this movie (fluid direction, good acting) but not enough to save it. It totally misses the anguish of being jobless.
Management offers to talk with Allery in a diner (we are reminded this is an extraordinary concession). There, he is introduced to a woman that claims to be Walter's estranged wife and endows Walter with every possible failing; compulsive liar, irresponsible, violent, etc. It does not even remotely occur to Allery that the woman may be an impostor or, if real, may have been bribed. This infantile application of divide/and/conquer succeeds brilliantly, and workers' solidarity collapses. Generously, management raises the pittance. In the last scenes Allery is seen with a lunchbox which means either he found a new job instantly o he thinks he has one or, he is happily jobless. In celebration, he takes his wife out to dance.
This film doesn't miss a single objectionable message. Among them: 1. Management is omnipotent, trustworthy and benevolent. 2. Authorities are equally benevolent (police chief, escorting Allery home for trespassing, admonishes "Don't make me do this again" as if talking to a wayward son. 3. Trade unions or labor lawyers don't exist. 4. Labor leaders may be dangerous psychopaths. 5. Joblessness is no big deal, even if you are unemployable, have no pension, and are not old enough for Social Security. And so on. There are some values in this movie (fluid direction, good acting) but not enough to save it. It totally misses the anguish of being jobless.