6 of the Greatest Movies With a Business Main Theme

by Kevin Faber

Nearly everyone enjoys watching movies to which they can relate in some way. Relatability looms large in screenwriters' minds as they develop and create scripts that directors will bring into sharp visual focus on the big screen. Consequently, because many film-goers find employment in business offices, writers sometimes choose to use the topic of business as the focus of their screenplays. Business relations, employment of workers at business firms and office politics can provide the discord that makes for exciting business film plots, although not always fun to experience in real life. Over the years, many movie theatre patrons can vicariously live through and enjoy watching six of the greatest movies about business as a central theme.

1. Catch Me if You Can

In this 2002 film, had the FBI agent Carl Hanratty, played by Tom Hanks, undergone complex negotiation training, he might have fared better in coming to terms with teenage super-criminal Frank William Abagnale, Jr., portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio. In this supercharged plot-driven tale directed by Stephen Speilberg, the character of Abagnale outsmarts the FBI. The FBI wishes to stop his behavior of posing as different business people and then swindling money out of various companies while staying on the run to elude capture.

2. Glengarry Glen Ross

Writer David Mamet, so well-known for his stage plays, comes up with an award-winning hit in this popular film from 1992. The plot focuses on four real estate agents who get the news that only the top two salesmen in the office will retain their jobs and receive the additional reward of other lucrative business leads. However, the rest will face firing within two weeks of being given this notice. The movie depicts the inter-office relations and the desperate measures this group of workers will take to stay employed.

3. 9 to 5

Female employees' rights to fair work practices provide the impetus for this film, which came to the big screen in 1980. This comic film features an all-star cast of Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton and Dabney Coleman. It shows the three female characters employed at the fictional business Consolidated Companies, getting revenge on their overbearing male boss, played by Coleman. He disrespects the women and attempts to blackmail them into keeping silent about his office corruption.

4. Erin Brockovich

The theme of shining the light of justice on business corruption has perhaps no better representation than exists in this 2000 Academy Award-winning movie. Based on an actual person and story, Brockovich, played by Julia Roberts, uncovers that a powerful utility company is poisoning water through toxic waste chemicals that the energy company giant releases into a California town's groundwater. Brockovich, uneducated in law, enlists help from a sympathetic lawyer, who assists in bringing her case to court.

5. The Devil Wears Prada

When people enjoy fashion, they might turn to this film to fulfill their curiosity about the experience of working in a top fashion magazine company and how bosses can intimidate employees. The fierce boss, Miranda Priestly, portrayed by Meryl Streep, makes employment unbearable for those around her. Nevertheless, her young assistant Andy Sachs, acted by Anne Hathaway, sticks by her unruly boss's side as drama and problems ensue in this entertaining business movie.

6. Norma Rae

Factory workers had to struggle for decades to receive fair labor conditions, and this movie depicts one story of how the workers ended up gaining better employment rights. Sally Field, who received an Academy Award for Best Actress for her work in this 1979 film, plays the true-life titular character, who, against great odds, organized a trade union at the factory where she worked.

After watching these movies, business workers and employers might experience gratitude that their real-life jobs do not take the kinds of turns played out in popular films about business. However, that kind of drama and tension make for exciting movie experiences for the audiences and will undoubtedly remain a popular topic for cinema in the future.