A Great Year for Free Market Capitalism in Film

Five movies that captured the thrill and agony of markets, dynamism, risk, and competition.

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Ben Affleck in 'Air.' (Image via Amazon Studios)

One of the most common and annoying movie tropes is the portrayal of business as evil, boring, foolish, or sometimes all three. Good guy employees are forced or brainwashed into working at these hellholes, and their bosses are profit-obsessed idiots, scumbags, or even monsters hellbent—for some unknown reason—on destroying the planet (and, bizarrely, their customer base). 

Of course, real Business Bad Guys do exist, and not everyone loves his job. But few of us truly fit Hollywood’s standard corporate stereotype. Instead, the real world is full of stories about Good Guys winning at business, or of Bad Guys losing not because of some superhero or dogged government investigator but because of good ol’ free market competition. Yet these stories are rarely told—until, it seems, this past year.

Indeed, 2023 featured not one of these stories but five of them, collectively called “produpics” (because they’re about, you guessed it, famous products) but really about the many people, good and bad, behind the items at issue. And unlike most of the free-market fanfic that does get made (ahem), they actually turned out pretty great. 

OK, fine, not all of them are great, but several are, and the rest are both watchable and educational. And who can ask for anything more than that in a movie?

(Yes, I am a hit at parties. Why do you ask?)

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  1. Sharon

    Guys, have you seriously never heard of patent clauses? “we get a great look at the ugly side of communism and the Soviet state’s control of the Russian economy. Pajitnov, for example, has no ownership of or control over his own hobbyist creation” - but that would have been true here too. If you worked for a software company in the US in the 80’/90’s/00’s, you were probably also handed a form to sign at hiring giving your company the rights to EVERYTHING you might create or invent both on company time and on your own time!

    That was a huge factor in the free software (later Open Source) movement- because the guys writing code in their off hours knew they couldn’t sell it anyways. It was true both for private and gov’t jobs.

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  2. David Dunn

    I'm surprised Wonka didn't make the list! Regulatory capture and cartels using government power to squash upstart competition was a major theme of the film.

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    Dogberry

    Outstanding list, thanks. It's interesting that none of these were made as documentaries - or maybe there are docs on these topics as well

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    Ben Connelly

    Always good to see some pop culture that isn’t reflexively anti-business. I have to admit I’ve begun to think more harm has been done over the years by that trope than most people have reckoned with, and it reflects poorly on the many artists and poets who have embraced the hatred of business as a calling card. Can’t remember who said it, might have been Russ Roberts, but one reason Atlas Shrugged did so well was that there were thousands of American businessmen out there who felt vindicated by a book in which honest businessmen were portrayed as good guys - setting aside all the ideological content of the book. American business has done an immense amount of good in the world, and the people who fail to see that do so because they want to fail to see it - they want to hate business because they personally dislike commercial society.

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    Mister D

    I got married in late 2000 during the Recount Wars, so we were still newlyweds the summer of 2001, and still learning about each other. At the time, my wife was collecting feline Beanie Babies (how she got there is a whole other story for which I am partly responsible). There was this new thing called "eBay" taking the world by storm. I was in the bedroom watching a movie, my wife in her office bidding on a black cat BB. She comes into the bedroom to tell me that the bidding had hit $100 and she was probably out. With the auction ending soon, I coaxed her to go up a little bit - you never know when the other guy will bail. An hour later she comes in and tells me she won. "You got it for $120?" "No. Higher." "$150?" "Higher." "$200?" "Higher." Now I was concerned. Final price: $500. Now worth well under that. Thankfully she had the money to spend, and we don't mix monies after expenses are paid. I did learn something about my wife that day and that combining a competitive nature with a touch of OCD can spiral out of control pretty quick.

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    Anne W (Raw5254)

    I worked with a woman during that Beanie Baby craze, and she was constantly buying them. I even remember her talking about how the price was going up, and how certain ones were worth more. It didn’t seem like that good of bet to me, but I also don’t like collecting things.

    It would be interesting to know how much money she spent, and most likely, lost.

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  7. Russell Kirk

    Howdy, Scott:

    Seeking your permission to post an excerpt of this article on another website (with link to your article).

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    Kmregan7

    The only one I’ve seen (the hot Cheeto one is in the list!) is the Beanie Bubble and both my husband and I liked it…we are fans of Galifinikos (I know the spelling is wrong, I apologize). It was a good movie.

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    Amberjasonfam

    We watched Gran Tourismo this week. Its not a film about business per se, but portrays Nissan’s willingness to take a risk positively.

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  10. Mary Stine

    As a small business owner, I'm thrilled that Hollywood has finally delivered a more honest view of business owners. Not all of us are greed driven meanies, but that's the general perception. If I had a nickel for every client who felt I could "afford" to deliver the service they wanted gratis, I'd be rich. If the movies Mr. Lincicome has so aptly reviewed have done nothing else, they've shown the complexity, hard work and sacrifice required to bring any new product or service to market.

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      Ben Connelly

      “If I had a nickel for every client who felt I could "afford" to deliver the service they wanted gratis, I'd be rich.”

      Oh man, that’s so true! I’ve met folks who seem to have that impression about myself or my employer.

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