"Working Girl": big hair and big ambitions

A lucky thirteen of us met on 26th August to discuss Working Girl (1988), directed by Mike Nichols, well known for The Graduate.

The discussion was led by Yvette, who told us that this film is one of the family favourites, and has been watched multiple times. It is a comedy romance that is witty, entertaining and enjoyable. Yvette was entranced and captivated by the opening shots, and from there the film just kept on delivering.

Working Girl was nominated for six Academy Awards, and although its only winner there was in the Best Original Song category, for “Let the River Run” by Carly Simon, it won four Golden Globes: Best Motion Picture, Best Actress (Melanie Griffiths), Best Supporting Actress (Sigourney Weaver) and Best Original Score (Carly Simon).

The script writer, Kevin Wade, was inspired by the sight of women walking to work in New York wearing trainers, and carrying their high heels. It is a deceptively clever script. The viewer is carried along by the plot which occasionally and seamlessly diverts into subplots—the surprise birthday party, the cheating boyfriend, and Cyn’s wedding - with comedy thrown in for good measure.

The characters are given some great lines to say.  For example, the banker Jack Trainer (Harrison Ford) says ‘You’re the first woman I’ve seen at one of these things that dresses like a woman, not like a woman thinks a man would choose if he was a woman.’ To which Tess replies uncertainly ‘Thank you. I guess.’  Later Tess says, ‘I have a head for business and a bod for sin’, a great line.  

Class and gender politics are the two main themes running through the script.  Yvette reckoned it was a stroke of genius to choose a woman who had made it in the male corporate world to be the villain, and Sigourney Weaver as Katherine Parker is superb.   The title ‘Working Girl’ is derogatory, given that Tess is thirty. It is how women are perceived not just by men in the workforce, but also in Tess’s living environment.   Her birthday presents from her boyfriend Mick (Alec Baldwin) are always sexy underwear, and this birthday is no different. Tess clearly isn’t happy about it and says so.   Undeterred or oblivious, he later gives, presumptuously on behalf of himself and Tess, sexy underwear to Cyn and her fiancé as an engagement present.   Tess’s women friends have low expectations for themselves. For example, when Mick is found in bed with Tess’s friend, they try to persuade her to give him another chance. 

Mike Nichols, the director, also directed The Graduate in 1967. Both films explore themes of ambition and personal growth, but do so in a different context. Dustin Hoffman’s character Ben in The Graduate, struggles against societal expectations to find his place in the world, whereas Tess McGill is ambitious. Her struggles are against the male-dominated, class-obsessed corporate world. Both have a climactic scene with an uninvited guest. In 1996 Nichols directed The Birdcage, another favourite of Yvette and family.  

Nichols was determined to have Melanie Griffiths, a relatively unknown actress, for the part of Tess McGill.  The studio finally agreed when Sigourney Weaver and Harrison Ford were cast in supporting roles.  Melanie struggled with alcohol and cocaine addiction during the filming, which often interfered with the shoot. One day she arrived so high on cocaine Nichols halted the shoot for 24 hours.  He did not report her to the studio, but instead sent her home after a severe dressing down and required her to pay $80,000 to cover the cost of the lost day. Nichols himself was also addicted to cocaine at that time, which could explain his leniency.  

Carly Simon wrote the wonderful anthem “Let the River Run” after she had read the script.  She captures the essence of the script and raises it up to another level.   The anthem is a rallying cry to dreamers and visionaries to wake up, run, take risks, to collectively build a brighter and better future. It is full of hope. As well as the Academy Award and Golden Globe, the song also won a Grammy, making Carly Simon the first artist to win this trio of awards for a song composed, written and performed entirely by the same artist. We hear strains of this anthem at significant points in the story. Carly Simon also made a music video, which she sings with enormous enthusiasm, and which has clips from Working Girlincluded in it.

The film is concisely made, with the plot efficiently revealed. Each shot gives a great deal of information, without overwhelming or confusing the viewer.  It begins with “Let the River Run” sung at first without words, the camera circling around the head of the Statue of Liberty, a symbol of hope.  It is a woman’s head, in contrast to the first Colossus, which was male. Inscribed inside the base are the words ‘Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free.’  

The camera tracks along the Hudson River until it alights on the Staten Island ferry carrying the workers (masses) from Brooklyn to Lower Manhattan.  Travelling to work are Tess McGill and her loyal kooky friend and workmate Cyn (Joan Cusack). It’s Tess’s thirtieth birthday, for which Cyn has a cupcake with 3 lighted candles. A passenger, chewing gum, peers around Cyn’s shoulder to watch them. We learn that Tess is ambitious, going to night school, and having voice training. Tess guesses there is to be a surprise birthday party and promises to quit night school early in order to be there.

Tess works in a chaotic, messy predominantly male stockbroker office, apparently a typical example of that time. Tess is hard working and well informed.  Her male boss and his side kick (both about the same age as Tess) shamelessly pick her brains without acknowledging it, and in a matter-of-fact manner let her know she wasn’t being considered for the Entry programme.  Her degree was obtained at night school, not Harvard like most of the men.

They then hook her up with a sleazy executive (Kevin Spacy) under the pretext of a job opportunity.  Tess has suspicions about his motives, and when they are confirmed, her creative use of the Video Display Terminal to insult her boss gets her a severe reprimand, and not for the first time. The understanding woman in Personnel (Olympia Dukakis) warns her that this will be the last time she will be able to help her, suggesting to Tess that perhaps she had brought this upon herself.  ‘You can’t call your boss a pimp’, to which Tess replies ‘Well he is’.  The message is loud and clear - if you want to keep your job, you must tolerate appalling behaviour from your male colleagues and superiors!!

Tess’s next boss is a woman.  Katherine Parker’s entrance is in stark contrast to Tess’s.  The office quietens; the workers return to their desks.  She exudes confidence and charm; a beautiful expensive coat drapes elegantly across her shoulders. Not a trainer in sight. She introduces herself to Tess and casually picks up Tess’s stuffed bunny in a seemingly friendly manner. Tess looks slightly uncomfortable.  Katherine says all the right things, while subtly suggesting she may not mean any of them.  She tells Tess they are a team, supporting each other, a two-way street. She invites Tess to share any ideas she might have, which Tess does- a proposal relating to a possible investment by a client (Trask & Co) in a radio station.  The future looks promising. Tess addresses her as Katherine. Katherine’s response is to invite Tess to call her Katherine.

When Katharine has a skiing accident, Tess is asked to undertake some personal tasks for her, requiring Tess to visit her flat.  We hear the refrain “Let the River Run” hummed as Tess ascends the stairs to Katherine’s flat for the first time. Humming gives the scene a quiet intimate feel.  This is a significant moment, indeed a turning point, as Tess sees on Katharine’s home computer that she has stolen Tess’s idea and is proposing it as her own, advising the client to contact her directly, ‘Don’t go through Tess’.  From here on, Tess takes control, acquiring Katharine’s voice and using her office, and retaking possession of her own idea. When she meets Jack Trainer (Harrison Ford) at a corporate event, the stage is set for Tess to fly, both at work and romantically.

At various points, Tess enlists her loyal friend Cyn to help her.  Yvette told us how much she loved Cyn’s character.  She has some great lines. On finding a dress with a price tag in Katharine’s closet ‘$6000! It’s not even leather’. She often steals the scene with her cocksure goofiness. When pretending to be Tess’s secretary, she offers a client ‘coffee, tea or me’.  She is down to earth about her own abilities and limitations.  ‘Sometimes I sing and dance around the house in my underwear. Doesn’t make me Madonna. Never will.’  Joan Cusack has great comic timing, meriting her nomination for best supporting actress.

There are so many great scenes in this film, and both Harrison Ford and Alex Baldwin are brilliant in their roles. The final shots are fantastic. The Anthem is sung. Cyn stands in an office full of cheering, delighted women with her arms raised aloft in triumph, having heard Tess’s news of a more senior job with Trask & Co.

The camera switches to Tess sitting in her own office, then tracks away until we see the whole office block and Tess is almost a speck.  She is just a tiny cog in a vast corporate wheel but it’s her very own cog. 

Some have called this a fairy tale, ‘The Cinderella of Wall Street’. Yvette disagreed with this idea.   Women in fairy tales disappear into the sunset towards everlasting bliss on the arm of their beloved. Our heroine steps out into an uncertain future, but one where she has as much control over her life as anybody else. She’s ‘coming to the edge, running on water’.

All this from women wearing trainers to work, amazing.

The group loved the 80s vibe in this film, from ‘big hair’ to shoulder pads, Filofaxes and belted raincoats. It was symbolic when Tess cut her hair to look more elegant. The sexism and predatory behaviour of 1980s New York corporate life was confirmed by members of the group, with the film perhaps paving the way for later iterations, such as Pretty Woman, 9 to 5, The Wolf of Wall Street and The Devil Wears Prada.  Thus, so many tropes in Working Girl seemed familiar from later uses. 

In this film, where so many of the men were villainous, Jack Trainer is presented as honourable, not taking advantage of Tess when she drinks herself into a stupor, and seems to really love her.  Similarly, Trask is decent, and believes Tess’s version of events over that of Katharine’s, to the point of giving her a job. But we feared for Tess’s future – although both Jack Trainer and Trask are good to her now, what would it take to have them turn on her, in a world where one bad deal gets you fired?

We also discussed the morality of Tess’s actions – imitating her boss, then lying about who she was, would surely have got her fired – but for the kindness of the lady in Personnel, she would have been out the door already. We thought that perhaps this ‘another chance’ scenario was unlikely at the time, since Personnel staff tended to be loyal to senior management, and less likely to give a digressing employee the benefit of the doubt.

Tess is kind to her friends and her new secretary, but is Tess going to turn into Katharine? And would she have felt that she didn’t really belong anywhere, like the hairdresser who gets an Open University degree in Educating Rita?

There was also discussion about the class prejudices in the film – a night school degree vs Ivy League, drinking coffee black vs with milk and sugar, ‘big hair’ vs an elegant coif, reading popular celebrity magazines vs the Wall Street Journal.  Members of the group could attest to the hierarchy at work at the time – the most junior members of the team working at open desks, then moving on up to a cubicle, to an office, to one with a window, to one with blinds, perhaps even at the right height.  There were separate catering facilities: a self-service canteen for workers, a café for middle management, and a restaurant with wine and silver service for senior management.  This discussion ended by reflecting on corporate culture and misdemeanours, as demonstrated by the Post Office and Harrods – what does it take for a company to ‘do the right thing’?

We agreed that Melanie Griffiths had performed well in the role of Tess, despite her personal issues. She had been put into the movies by her parents aged 14, so maybe a reaction to the stresses of the movie world was not surprising. Her voice had a touch of Marilyn Munro about it, and we agreed that perhaps her experiences allowed her to bring the right degree of vulnerability to the part. Sigourney Weaver, we agreed, was simply playing herself (ditto in Alien and Ghostbusters) and was apparently a bit of a badass on the set as well. 

The discussion ended where the story began – with an explanation that women wearing trainers to get to work had begun during a Transit strike, when there was no choice but to walk.  We agreed that this was a comedy with a clever script, and with some serious messages under the fun.  And maybe it contributed to some changes in the laws on equality in the workplace?

We will next meet on Wednesday 9th September, when Lorna will present Gregory’s Girl (1980), directed by Bill Forsyth.