| Office Space | |
|---|---|
Theatrical poster |
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| Directed by | Mike Judge |
| Produced by | Daniel Rappaport Michael Rotenberg |
| Written by | Mike Judge |
| Starring | Ron Livingston Jennifer Aniston David Herman Ajay Naidu Diedrich Bader Gary Cole Stephen Root |
| Music by | John Frizzell |
| Cinematography | Tim Suhrstedt |
| Editing by | David Rennie |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
| Release date(s) | February 19, 1999 |
| Running time | 89 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $10,000,000 (estimated) |
| Gross revenue | $10,827,813 |
Office Space is an American comedy film, released in 1999, that was written and directed by Mike Judge. It satirizes work life in a typical software company during the 1990s, focusing on a handful of individuals who are fed up with their jobs. The film's sympathetic portrayal of ordinary IT workers garnered it a cult following among those in that profession, but also addresses themes familiar to office workers and employees in general. It was filmed in Dallas and Austin.
Office Space is based on the Milton series of cartoons created by Mike Judge. Office Space was Mike Judge's foray into live action film and his second full length motion picture release (the first being the animated Beavis and Butt-head Do America). The promotional campaign for Office Space often associated it with Beavis and Butt-head, ensuring that audiences would expect a brand of humor similar to that of the creator's previous animated efforts, rather than the relatively low-key ironic humor of the film.
While not a box office success, the film has become a cult classic; it has since sold very well on video and DVD, and some of the movie's dialogue has entered into the popular lexicon since its release.
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The film revolves around a group of employees at Initech, a typical faceless software company, which is plagued by excessive management and the everyday annoyance of office work in a cube farm setting. Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston) is a disgruntled programmer who spends his days "staring at (his) desk" instead of reprogramming bank software for the Y2K disaster. His co-workers include Samir Nagheenanajar (Ajay Naidu), whose last name cannot be pronounced correctly by anybody else; Michael Bolton (David Herman), who detests having the same name as a real-life singer whom he hates; and Milton Waddams (Stephen Root), a meek, fixated collator who constantly mumbles to himself. All four are repeatedly bullied by management, especially Initech's callous vice president, Bill Lumbergh (Gary Cole). The staff are agitated by the arrival of two consultants informally known as "The Bobs" (John C. McGinley and Paul Willson), who are brought in to help with cutting expenses, mainly through downsizing.
Peter is depressed, bored and pushed around at work. He attends an occupational hypnotherapy session urged upon him by his girlfriend Anne (Alexandra Wentworth). The obese occupational hypnotherapist, Dr. Swanson (Mike McShane), suddenly dies of a heart attack before he can snap Peter out of a state of complete relaxation. The newly relaxed and still half-hypnotized Peter wakes up the next morning and ignores continued calls from Anne (who leaves him) and Lumbergh (who was expecting Peter to work over the weekend). Peter announces that he will simply not go to work anymore, instead pursuing his lifelong dream of "doing nothing," and asks out Joanna (Jennifer Aniston), a waitress who shares Peter's loathing of idiotic management.
Despite Peter's poor attendance record and laziness at work, he is promoted by the Bobs while Michael and Samir are fired. To exact revenge on Initech, the three friends decide to infect the accounting system with a computer virus, designed to divert fractions of pennies into a bank account they control (see salami slicing). A misplaced decimal point causes the virus to steal over $300,000 in the first few days, a far more conspicuous loss to Initech. After a crisis of conscience, Peter writes a letter in which he takes all the blame for the crime, then slips an envelope containing the letter and the money in unsigned Traveler's checks under the door of Lumbergh's office when he is not there, expecting to be arrested soon afterward.
However, all of their problems are solved when Milton snaps after being increasingly ignored and marginalized throughout the film, and sets fire to the Initech office building. Peter finally finds a job that he likes, working in construction with his next-door neighbor Lawrence (Diedrich Bader) and hauling away rubble from the fire. Samir and Michael get jobs at Initrode, a rival company. While cleaning up the debris, Peter finds Milton's favorite red stapler and keeps it, saying that he knows someone who could use it (i.e. Milton).
The very last scene of the film shows that Milton has made his way to a resort in Mexico, living well off the checks he found in Lumbergh's office before setting the building on fire.
Artie Lange also auditioned for the role of Milton.[1] He describes his audition as being so bad it was "like a plumber who won a radio contest and got to try out for a movie".
Filmed primarily in Austin, Texas, the origins for Office Space lie in a series of four animated short films about an office drone named Milton that Mike Judge created, which first aired on Liquid Television and Night After Night with Allan Havey, and later aired on Saturday Night Live.[2] The inspiration came from a temp job he once had that involved alphabetizing purchase orders[3] and a job he had as an engineer for three months in the Bay Area during the 1980s, "just in the heart of Silicon Valley and in the middle of that overachiever yuppie thing, it was just awful".[4] The setting of the film reflected a prevailing trend that Judge observed in the United States. "It seems like every city now has these identical office parks with identical adjoining chain restaurants", he said in an interview.[2] He remembers, "There were a lot of people who wanted me to set this movie in Wall Street, or like the movie Brazil, but I wanted it very unglamorous, the kind of bleak work situation like I was in".[3]
Judge sold the film to 20th Century Fox based on his script and a cast that included Jennifer Aniston, Ron Livingston, and David Herman.[2] Originally, the studio wanted to make a movie out of the Milton character but Judge was not interested, opting instead to make more of an ensemble cast–based film.[4] The studio suggested he make a movie like Car Wash but "just set in an office".[4] Judge made the relatively painless transition from animation to live-action with the help of the film's director of photography who taught him about lenses and where to put the camera. Judge says, "I had a great crew, and it's good going into it not pretending you're an expert".[3] Studio executives were not happy with the footage Judge was getting. He remembers them telling him, "More energy! More energy! We gotta reshoot it! You're failing! You're failing!"[5] In addition, Fox did not like the gangsta rap music used in the film until a focus group approved of it. Judge hated the ending but did not know how to change it until after the last test screening when he had an epiphany of what it should be. He went on to completely rewrite the third act.[5]
Judge hated the poster that the studio created for Office Space. He said, "People were like, 'What is this? A big bird? A mummy? A beekeeper?' And the tagline 'Work Sucks'? It looked like an Office Depot ad. I just hated it. I hated the trailers, too and the TV ads especially".[5] Fox Filmed Entertainment chairman Tom Rothman conceded that the marketing campaign did not work and said, "Office Space isn't like American Pie. It doesn't have the kind of jokes you put in a 15-second television spot of somebody getting hit on the head with a frying pan. It's sly. And let me tell you, sly is hard to sell".[5]
Office Space was released on February 19, 1999 in 1,740 theatres, grossing USD $4.2 million on its opening weekend. It went on to make $10.8 million in North America, barely recouping its production costs.[6] On the Monday after the opening weekend, Judge received a phone call from Jim Carrey's agent. The comedian loved the film and wanted to meet him. Chris Rock called two weeks later.[5]
The film received mixed to positive reviews[5] with a 79% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and 68 metascore on Metacritic. In his review in the New York Times, Stephen Holden wrote, "It has the loose-jointed feel of a bunch of sketches packed together into a narrative that doesn't gather much momentum".[7] Roger Ebert gave the film three out of four stars and wrote that Judge, "treats his characters a little like cartoon creatures. That works. Nuances of behavior are not necessary, because in the cubicle world every personality trait is magnified, and the captives stagger forth like grotesques".[8] In his review for the San Francisco Chronicle, Mick LaSalle writes, "Livingston is nicely cast as Peter, a young guy whose imagination and capacity for happiness are the very things making him miserable".[9] In the USA Today, Susan Wloszczyna wrote, "If you've ever had a job, you'll be amused by this paean to peons".[10]
However, Owen Gleiberman in Entertainment Weekly gave the film a "C" rating and criticized it for feeling "cramped and underimagined".[11] In his review for the Globe and Mail, Rick Groen wrote, "Perhaps his TV background makes him unaccustomed to the demands of a feature-length script (the ending seems almost panicky in its abruptness); or maybe he just succumbs to the lure of the easy yuk . . . what began as discomfiting satire soon devolves into silly farce".[12]
Office Space has become a cult classic, selling very well on video and DVD,[13] As of 2003, it had sold 2.6 million copies on VHS and DVD.[14] In the same year, it was in the top 20 best-selling Fox DVDs along with There's Something About Mary.[15]
Comedy Central premiered Office Space on August 5, 2001 and 1.4 million viewers tuned in. By 2003, the channel had broadcast the film another 33 times.[15] These broadcasts helped develop the film's cult following and Ron Livingston remembers being approached by college students and office workers. He said, "I get a lot of people who say, 'I quit my job because of you.' That's kind of a heavy load to carry".[15] People approached Stephen Root asking him to sign their staplers. The Red Swingline stapler featured prominently in the film was not available until April 2002 when the company released it in response to repeated requests by fans of Office Space.[15]
Entertainment Weekly ranked it 5th on their Funniest Movies of the Past 25 Years list, despite giving the film a poor review.[16]
| Office Space: Motion Picture Soundtrack | ||
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| Soundtrack by various artists | ||
| Released | 1999 | |
| Genre | Hip hop, Rap | |
| Length | 44:35 | |
| Label | Interscope | |
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