My View

Sun Herald

Sunday April 5, 1998

Roland Chai is a business analyst who works in the finance andtechnology industry.

THEY say that the world of nine-to-five is full of men who lead lives of quiet desperation. What colour can there be in an environment of photocopiers, office partitions and laptops? In The Company Of Men demonstrates that life at a high-pressure corporate level is about being a player and winning. As Chad proclaims with his mantra: "Never lose control - that is the total key to the universe."

Chad's key to climbing the greasy pole is to shaft anyone and everyone, including his mates (they are all your mates for the five seconds it takes you to reach out and stab them in the back). As Chad weaves his little web, ostensibly to abuse the despised opposite sex, his best friend Howard limply follows with all the persona of a stunned mullet and social ineptitude thrown in to the bargain (you know the kind: well-meaning, intelligent people who don't really have any idea how to survive in business).

Chad is a nasty piece of work, a shark who thrives in this cut-throat corporate world. Relationships are battles to be fought and won, women are victims to be conquered. In The Company Of Men pulls no punches, stripping away any rosy image of political correctness, fairness or equality of the sexes. There are no role models to be found for career guidance counsellors to advertise to eager-beaver teenagers. This world is not about a means to an end, or an end in itself, it's about who's got the biggest balls and who can get away with it for pure thrill factor.

While perhaps too over the top in its American gung-ho attitudes to reflect Australia's corporate world, this film does have enough ingredients to give a valuable lesson in what kind of rotten specimens one can encounter.

This is the kind of movie that makes chills run down your spine the next time you see your "best buddy" chat to your boss in his office with the blinds drawn shut.

© 1998 Sun Herald

Back to News Index | Back to Home