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by Thomas M. Sipos,
managing editor [November 18, 2018]
[HollywoodInvestigator.com]I first saw
American Job (1996) some 20 years ago on the Independent Film
Channel. It looked like a documentary. Yet ... I wasn't sure.
Research
revealed that the main character, Randy Russell, had actually worked
at the minimum wage jobs portrayed in the movie. Filmmaker Chris Smith
then asked Randy and his former employers to reenact scenes of Randy's
hiring, working, and eventual firing or quitting.
American Job is less documentary than an early example of Reality
TV. Except that it's not. The genius of
American Job is that, unlike today's Reality TV, this film doesn't
try to "spice up" reality with fake conflicts.
The scenes in
this film are mundane. Excruciatingly boring. Even so, I was
mesmerized. The film conveys some powerful social commentary -- but by
showing, not telling or preaching.
American Job peeks into the lives of minimum wage workers. Randy
works at a plastics factory, fast food restaurant, warehouse, cleaning
motel rooms, and telemarketing. It's a portrait of working class
Americans, portrayed not by actors, but by real working class
Americans on actual job sites. Despite being a series of reenactments,
American Job reeks of authenticity.
Indie films
claim to focus on marginalized groups. It's their raison d'etre. But many indie
films are not so much authentic as calculated, hitting all the right
PC buttons. Their marginalized groups are really celebrated
minorities. Whereas
American Job is the real deal, focusing on low wage, mostly white,
workers.
These are the
people who voted for Trump. Midwestern. White. Blue collar. The
Connor family come to life. And although
American Job was shot twenty years earlier, it captures the
cracking of their American dream. Forty years ago, these people had
good union jobs. By the 1990s, globalization -- that "sucking sound"
Ross Perot warned us about -- had exported the good blue collar jobs
and depressed wages for the jobs that stayed.
Never-Trump Republicans are rather cold-blooded about it. To
understand why the working class rejected establishment conservatives
in favor of Trump's populism, consider Bill Kristol's callous remarks:
The working class served as cannon fodder in
Kristol's Mideast wars, dying or coming home blinded or maimed,
and this is Kristol's gratitude.
Nor does Kristol only offend whites. Consider this black MAGA man:
Ayn Rand fans will dislike Randy's work ethic. He is no John Galt.
While this clip has been edited (making Randy's factory gig appear
briefer than in the film), there's no question that he messed up:
Yet the above clip highlights a real "Take
this job and shove it." moment. Let it sink in. It's open to
interpretation and debate. One IMDB critic wrote: "It isn't that
Randy has a bad work ethic. He just knows that this is not the way he
wants to live, and the only power he has is to leave a job (which is
very powerful actually -- have you ever walked out on a job?)."
It's easier to endure a crappy job if the pay is high. It's easier to
endure low pay if the job is fun, interesting, or meaningful. But this
is the reality for many Americans. Crappy jobs for low pay. The
promised American Dream nowhere in sight.
Randy later finds himself working as a telemarketer:
I sympathize with these people. Hell, I empathize. I worked as a
telemarketer in the 1980s. If you hate getting telemarketing calls,
trust me, it feels worse on the other end.
But one need not empathize to sympathize. The Left sympathizes with
foreign workers and immigrants because they are not Americans.
Establishment Republicans sympathize with foreign workers and
immigrants because they'll work for less. No wonder native born
American workers (who are being economically squeezed by labor
competition) are rejecting both in favor of Trump's populism and
nationalism.
American Job has no narration. No political discussions. Just a
raw profile of low wage workers in the American Midwest. Do you (like
Kristol) sneer at their plight? Or do you see a problem? If so, what's
the solution? The film lets you draw your own conclusions.
Upon its release in 1996,
American Job screened at New York's
Museum of Modern Art and Austin's
South by Southwest Film Festival. It was nominated for an
Independent Spirit Award in 1997. It aired on the Independent Film
Channel, and was released on VHS (but never on DVD). It's been hard to
find since then, apart from the above two YouTube clips. Used VHS
tapes occasionally turn up on Amazon and Ebay.
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