Viking Night:
Office Space
By Bruce Hall
March 25, 2010
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Roughly half of the population would choose to do nothing, while the other half would find it difficult to schedule a trash pickup or hire a plumber. There are just some things almost nobody would be willing to do for a living if they didn't have to. In reality, few people enjoy the privilege of doing what they truly love for a living. But among the rest of us, even fewer are able to name what it is we'd love to be doing. So I've often wondered – if you don't like what you have but you don't know what you want are you really unhappy with your job, or are you just unhappy with your life? I for one, have always felt that unless you're in your life's calling, your job should be part of your life, but your life shouldn't be your job.
But the sad fact is that for many of us, our job is our life, and that's precisely what we find unfulfilling about it. We get up in the morning, we go to work, we toil all day at a job we don't necessarily like, and we come home, watch television, go to bed, and repeat the process the next day. We have the job so we can afford the house and the car, and we have the house so we have a place to sleep until it's time to go back to work, and the car is just to make sure we get there on time. In fact, I know more than a few people who bitterly resent paying $400 a month for their car simply because it exists only to take them someplace they hate every day. I'll admit this sounds exorbitantly bleak but if you don't enjoy what you do for a living, it doesn't take long for your life to take on an air of utter futility and even despair.
Of course we don't all feel this way but if you do you may find that you feel as though you aren't living, but merely existing. And this makes it hard to look forward to the next 20 years with anything approaching anticipation. The solution to this is pretty simple, but making it happen is rarely easy. And the same could be said for anyone wanting to make a film about it - if you'd like to document the process of freeing one's self from the shackles of corporate drudgery, your options are limited. You could choose to emulate a hyperbolic Michael Moore documentary, a Soviet era propaganda film, an explosively paranoid dystopian nightmare like The Island, or perhaps you'd try a lighthearted comedy.
Thankfully, Office Space is the latter.
If you've ever worked in an office, you'll probably recognize a little of yourself in Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston). A low level software analyst for a small computer company, Peter toils grimly through each day, his only reward the fact that it will eventually come to an end. It's easy to believe that at one time Peter was probably a devoted, capable employee but now, he works long hours in a thankless job with few rewards. Most of his coworkers seem equally dissatisfied with what they do, but they make a good show of pretending to enjoy it anyway. Most of them don't seem to like one another's company, but for the most part they are able to successfully simulate friendships long enough to make it through an eight hour work day. Peter's boss (Gary Cole, as the immortal Bill Lumbergh) doesn't understand what his employees do, so he makes up for it by micromanaging and harassing them on an hourly basis.
The office itself is a sea of drab, colorless cubicles bathed in insipid vitamin D depleting ultraviolet light and ventilated with stale, recirculated air. After years of working in this soul rotting, toxic environment Peter seems to be at the point where he's lost the ability to enjoy life. To make matters worse, he's experiencing a lull in his relationship with his shrill and manipulative girlfriend, depriving him even of that to look forward to at the end of the day. But coming to work isn't entirely without an upside.
Long suffering colleagues Samir (Ajay Naidu) and Michael (David Herman) are in the same predicament, and they spend their lunch breaks together at a kitschy restaurant next door. There, the three friends commiserate about the future while Peter obsesses over one of the waitresses (Jennifer Aniston). They fantasize about changing their lives, and exacting revenge against the company they work for – but none of them has the motivation to act on any of it. After all, change is hard, and upgrading one's life is a chaotic process. Even people who are unhappy with their lives learn to appreciate the predictability of their misery, and often decide to leave well enough alone.
But change has a way of forcing itself upon us, and so it is with Peter and his friends. A freak accident suddenly lets Peter feel free of his inhibitions toward his girlfriend and his job. He frees himself of his unpleasant life-partner and begins showing up for work whenever he feels like it. A sudden series of cutbacks at the office lead to Samir and Michael's jobs being in jeopardy, and an unexpected windfall for Peter. Suddenly the three friends are in a position where their oft discussed act of industrial espionage seems like it might be a good idea. The results of their actions lead to some of the funniest things you'll ever see – in a movie based on corporate bondage and post-collegiate disillusionment.
The most refreshing aspect of Office Space is the fact that while it deals with issues most of us cope with at one point or another, the film chooses to make light of it rather than preach about it. Peter and his friends are only slightly absurd caricatures of real people you see every day, and their problems are modest exaggerations of issues we all have. The lengths to which these characters extend themselves to give meaning to their lives are ridiculously comical, and the reason you'll laugh is because it is so familiar. The description I gave earlier is remarkably similar to every job I've ever had. And at my office I'm surrounded every day by people who hate what they do but are afraid to do anything about it because complaining about your life is easier than changing it.
To say that Office Space was unsuccessful at the box office would be an understatement of epic proportions. But it has made a place for itself among the most revered cult films of all time, and its cast members are likely to be principally remembered for these characters as long as they live. Ron Livingston's put-upon, deadpan portrayal of Peter Gibbons is worthy of comparison to some of Bill Murray's best work. David Herman, best known for his roles on Mad TV, creates quite possibly the most absurdly, angrily intense computer nerd ever put to screen. Gary Cole is likely to have "Lumbergh" on his tombstone and Jennifer Aniston, then at the height of her popularity on Friends, wasn't afraid to let her character play a sweet, dopey second fiddle to the rest of the ensemble. But none of it would have been possible without the demented vision of Mike Judge, who never imagined that his little known series of MTV shorts would one day be the basis of a film that would become more beloved than the rest of his body of work combined.
Best known as an animator and the mind (and most of the voices behind) Beavis and Butt-Head and King of the Hill, Judge's keen eye for observational humor has a universal quality to it but his delivery of is often surreptitiously cerebral, giving most of his humor a narrow appeal. It's just as well, because I tend to feel that widespread, mainstream success would ultimately dilute the quality of his material. Despite having been on the air for 12 years, King of the Hill came close to cancellation every year – which was one of the reasons it was such a consistently solid show!
You see? Suffering really is good for the soul! You don't have to have worked in an office to know what it feels like to feel disillusioned with your job or to be discontent with the direction of your life. It is something we've all been through and if you haven't yet, chances are someday you will. But life is a journey, and our experiences are meant to be a series of change – not eternal, static sameness. What most of us fail to realize is that when you reach the point where it seems that your life needs to change, this isn't something to fear, it's normal. Most of us already know what fulfills us and gives meaning to our lives and usually, it's something we have to actively pursue – it won't fall into our laps or be given to us by another person. Change and struggle are a normal part of growth, and if you find yourself becoming bored with your life, odds are it's because you've let yourself become a boring person. Finding happiness is a personal and unique experience for each of us - and to paraphrase the most unlikely sage in the Office Space universe: ‘Most people don't like their jobs; you just have to find what makes you happy in life.'
Truer words were never spoken – and if someone with only 15 pieces of flair can do it, something tells me we all can do it!