During our Monday Morning meetings, I often use sports metaphors like ‘playing extra holes’ to demonstrate a particular idea such as scope creep. When explaining our STUDIO Program, DFA uses the terms “a la carte” and “prix fixe,” two clear descriptors lifted straight from restaurant menus. Most often, I use movies – favorite blockbusters, usually – when calling upon cultural references to illustrate a theme. Below are some of my most frequently quoted movies.
It’s a Wonderful Life
I hadn’t heard of the Frank Capra classic It’s a Wonderful Life until my first year at the University of Virginia. One of the student organizations sponsored showings before Christmas, and it seemed as if the entire student population attended this annual rite. I joined the madding crowd, but with little expectation that the film would have a lifelong impact.
The film’s simple themes are as relevant today as when I first saw the movie, and as in 1946 when the film first aired.
- Slow and steady wins the race.
- We each affect the lives of many more people than we realize.
- Wealth should be measured not in dollars, but in the quality of friendships.
- A life of principle has more meaning than a life of materialism.
- A small-town life is as rewarding as big city glamour.
I am proud of how our office culture reflects these themes, and especially so of how we bring a small-town sensibility to our big city practice. George Bailey is a pretty fine role model.
The American President
I reference this Rob Reiner film very frequently, almost as often as I watch it when it comes on late at night.
The President is, of course, the ultimate CEO, and the humorous portrayal of the commander in chief’s difficulty fulfilling the simple task of buying flowers without assistance from his team echoes the process of delegating tasks in any venture– not to avoid the work, but to ensure the work gets done right.
Many of the political issues remain priorities today (gun control, global warming, character defamation), but the line I quote most frequently is Michael Douglas’ climax statement; “I was so busy doing my job, that I forgot to do my job.” What a lovely reminder to focus on the actual performance of one’s job rather than the applause and critiques proffered by others.
There is a second line I often quote: “Has he lied? Has Bob Rumford lied? Other than the fact that I went Stanford, not Harvard, has Bob Rumford lied?” We often feel ourselves unfairly put on the defensive, criticized over trivialities. I quote this line to remind us that, sometimes, the criticism may be factually accurate, even if not relevant to our performance or overall report card.
When Harry Met Sally
Another Rob Reiner Classic.
No last line of a movie better describes the enthusiasm of starting a project or a new venture, or the urgency and excitement that comes with all the beginning of a creative endeavor: “I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.” We feel this way every time we start a project.
Shawshank Redemption
The film’s climax is similar to When Harry Met Sally, as Red (Morgan Freeman) says on the bus to Mexico to meet Andy (Tim Robbins):
“I find I am so excited. I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it’s the excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain. I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope.” We start every project – at least I hope we do – with this sense of excitement and optimism.
A second favorite line is: “Geology is the study of pressure and time. That’s all it takes really, pressure and time. That, and a big goddamn poster.” In our case, patience, perseverance, hard work and whole lot of talent.
And finally: “Get busy living; or get busy dying.”
Working Girl
In collaboration with clients, engineers, consultants and builders, architects solve complex problems. Very often, the solutions are nuanced and complicated, and the elegant or straightforward solution is overlooked. Tess (Melanie Griffith), a secretary and the protagonist of Working Girl played by Melanie Griffith, provides an unexpectedly simple and elegant solution to a baffling problem – how to get a truck unstuck from under an underpass? “Let a little air of the tires.”
We rely on the concept of ‘letting a little air out of the tires’ when we feel the complexity of the answer to a problem is keeping us from a more straightforward and elegant resolution. K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple, Stupid).
Schindler’s List
This film is more serious and significant than the rest of this catalog of (mostly) romantic comedies, and the hubris of any comparison between the extraordinary accomplishments of Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) during the Holocaust and our efforts is self-evident. Notwithstanding, Oskar Schindler’s statements of accounting and self-assessment – that he could have done more – is a theme that underlies our culture. In our own way, we do make a difference in people’s lives, and our efforts to grow the business stem directly from our desire to share our efforts with more clients, to have more employees join the firm and enjoy our affirmative culture, and to share these opportunities with the talented contractors, tradesmen, and craftsmen who collaborate on our projects.
Every December, our firm joins one of our favorite contracting teams at their holiday party. The firm employs eighty-plus people, in addition to subcontractors, and the owners of the company invite these multitudes of employees, subcontractors, and their families – around 250 people. At some point late in the evening, the owner of the company (Gus) invariably puts his arm around my shoulder, and somewhat weepily insists I take in the standing room only crowd, and says, “if not for DFA, his employees’ jobs would be in question, and while they would probably find other jobs, they are far better-off because of the collaboration of our two firms.
It seems to me, given such positive reinforcement, that there is always a way to do a little more. We make a difference, how we can make even more of one?
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
I recently read a book titled Uneasy Street; the Anxieties of Affluence by Rachel Sherman. I’ve purchased countless copies for colleagues and it is part of the bibliography of these essays. The book chronicles affluent New York City residents who have undertaken home renovations – clients like those of our firm. The affluent owners Ms. Sherman interviewed all have different comfort levels with their wealth, and the book does a wonderful job of defining the nuances of the anxiety that comes with affluence.
For all of the academic insight and nuance Ms. Sherman brings to the subject, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory does perhaps an even better job portraying entitlement issues. Each of the families touring the Willy Wonka factory exhibits the tragic flaws of narcissism, greed, spoiled-ness and entitlement. Yet, when Mr. Wonka (Gene Wilder) says to Charlie at the end of the movie, “and, what happens to the boy who gets everything he ever wished for? …He lived happily ever after.” Well, I am that boy, and we strive to make all of our clients, staff, consultants, and contracting partners feel exactly the same.
The Internship
Although not yet considered a classic, I watched this again one day, and couldn’t stop thinking about it. In the film, a couple of guys my age (younger, actually) join Google as summer interns. They find they have leadership skills in spite of being out of touch with technology, the very foundation of Google. In addition to discovering ways they can contribute, they draw out the talents of a group of young people lacking in social skills and self-esteem. While I lack the acting ability and humor of Vince Vaughan and Owen Wilson – not to mention the quality writing and direction they enjoy, the story resonates with me. It’s all about “Googlieness.”
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Folks who hire architects to design their homes often have very nice cars. Could there be any better prototype for a gallery style garage than the glass house for cars in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off?
Pretty Woman
While Pretty Woman earns its place on this list for more reasons than the frequency with which it airs on cable, one scene perfectly speaks to the aspirational side of residential architecture. As directly quoted:
Vivian: Wow! Great view! I bet you can see all the way to the ocean from out here.
Edward: I’ll take your word for it. I don’t go out there.
Vivian: Why don’t you go out there?
Edward: I’m afraid of heights.
Vivian: You are? So how come you rented the penthouse?
Edward: It’s the best. I looked all around for penthouses on the first floor, but I can’t find one.
And, as a footnote, the film also features Jason Alexander in a supporting role, who famously played George Costanza on Seinfeld. George’s alias and alter ego was, of course, Art Vandelay, the most famous fictitious sit-com architect of all time.
Bull Durham
Embarrassingly, here’s one more rom-com sports movie. While I always enjoy a screening of the film, I was surprised I added it to my list. I did so for two scenes. The first is the scene where Crash (Kevin Costner) bets his teammates who are on an epic losing streak, that he can cause a rain-out for the next day’s game in spite of an otherwise hot and dry forecast. He does so by turning on the ballpark’s sprinkler system, bringing some much-needed levity to the slumping ball club. The stakes need not be so very high to assert leadership, and with good humor. When the going gets tough, let’s find a sprinkler valve and make it rain.
The second scene is set at the pitcher’s mound, where the players gather to address a multitude of personal issues seemingly unrelated to getting the next out. While both the solutions and issues are comedic, the scene is a (fun) reminder that we all have issues, both on the surface and below, and that we are all on the same team.
And a final quote. “I’m Crash Davis, your new catcher, and you just got lesson number one. Don’t think. It can only hurt the ball club. Now come inside and I’ll buy you a drink.”
The Replacements
I’m not sure this particular film would make the list, if not for one line. “Winners always want the ball when the game is on the line.” Shortened, of course, to “Winners want the ball.” “Winners want the ball” reminds us to be leaders, and in this movie as in life, it is especially true for underdogs.
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Whether the above films won Academy Awards or not, these movies (and many, many others) are fabulously quotable and useful to us. While we take what we do seriously, it’s very helpful to be able to quote a film when we wish to communicate an idea without sanctimony. These movies provide us a familiar (pop) cultural language with which to tell our story.
DF, 1-9-2017