Comments on: The Company Men

By: Anders Mikkelsen

Anders Mikkelsen — Mon, 23 May 2011 19:38:43 +0000

One of the things I found interesting about the movie was how the characters Bobby and Phil basically maxed out their spending. They didn’t have a cushion or savings and they just expected the company to keep them at a high salary regardless of outcome. (By contract Gene was genuinely rich.)

It was funny he thought One Communications had given him a job and then they hired someone else as it is a real company. The movie didn’t do well, but I’d still think One Communications wasn’t too happy.

In real life someone like Bobby will find another job, and if he’s a good salesman he’ll actually be quite well paid, probably better paid than the salary in the movie. (It seemed a bit unrealistic he could have ever afforded such a big expensive house on that salary, after taxes and the monthly payment there shouldn’t be much left over. But maybe this is just a realistic example of how out of wack things were.)

By: Clyde Adams III

Clyde Adams III — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 15:02:34 +0000

“Paul’s now just another old, out of shape, executive”

This is the only mention of Paul. Who is Paul? Is this a typo for Phil?

By: geoih

geoih — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 13:06:19 +0000

Why’d they put a woman on the advertisement and not even list her name? I guess they literally mean “company men”.

By: Douglas French

Douglas French — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 22:43:02 +0000

Bobby’s a good athlete. But again, he’s thrilled about the 86…normally he’s probably triple digits. From golf blogger.com

The National Golf Foundation breaks down scores this way:

Average score Percent of adult golfers
Under 80 5%
80-89 21%
90-99 29%
100-109 24%
110-119 10%
120+ 11%
Total 100%

By: J. Murray

J. Murray — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 21:26:22 +0000

Maybe, but I’ve been an avid golfer since I was 6, and to get to an 86, you have to practice a bit. 80s are the strange no-mans land where people who golf too much and don’t have a lot of natural talent land. I tend to hold down a high 70s score once a month, though that’s mostly a benefit of having spent a lot of time before college practicing. The earlier you learn something, the better you potentially get at it and the longer you retain your skills without regular practice. The guys I play with that are hard, dedicated workers usually score high 90s and low triple digits. And we play to drink a few beers and have a good time, not brag about the game at work Monday. The ones that talk about golf at the office are the layabouts, at least in my limited experience as someone not yet 30 could have.

That’s how I see his character from your description of the film (I haven’t seen it and probably won’t until it hits Netflix streaming), and I’m probably over analyzing it, as I tend to do.

By: Jordan Kleinsmith

Jordan Kleinsmith — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 20:28:27 +0000

@ bedwere: “44 on the front and 42 on the back” is a reference to golf. Holes 1-9 are commonly referred to as “The Front Nine” whereas holes 10-18 are referred to as “The Back Nine”. The character is proudly announcing his golf scores, which harks back to the old (albeit true to a certain degree) stereotype that company executives spend more time golfing than they do conducting actual business.

By: bedwere

bedwere — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 20:12:52 +0000

Sorry, English is my second language: what does it mean “he shot 44 on the front and 42 on the back”? I assume he’s not a mafia killer

By: Douglas French

Douglas French — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 19:53:30 +0000

The movie maker might have been using 86 cleverly (since Bobby get’s 86′d a moment later). It also implies that Bobby was hard-working, not spending too much time on his game.

By: J. Murray

J. Murray — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 19:22:54 +0000

Bobby was bragging about shooting an 86? I would have fired him, too. He clearly has bad judgement of what’s good and what isn’t.