- Title: 9 to 5
- IMDb: link
Throwback Thursday takes us back to 1980 and a workplace comedy that would be a hit with both critics and audiences, create a hit number one single on the Billboard charts, and launch Dolly Parton into a new career as a movie star. The film would earn spots on three different AFI lists (including 100 Years…100 Laughs) and later inspire both a TV-series and a Broadway musical.
Based on an idea from co-star Jane Fonda, which was born out of experiences of women in the workplace, what was first conceived to be a drama was transformed into a comedy and Lily Tomlin was added to trio, along with Fonda and Parton, as three secretaries who (through some admittedly contrived circumstances) kidnap their sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot of a boss (Dabney Coleman in his smarmest role) in an attempt to cover up the fact that they almost accidentally murdered him.
More than 22 years after it’s release, 9 to 5 still entertains as the plot moves from the three women’s struggles to deal with their lecherous boss in their toxic work environment, to their fantasies of doing him in (versions of which all come to play out), to the circumstances that lead them to keep him hostage for weeks while transforming the dreary office setting into a worker-friendly environment decades ahead of its time. While you may come for the comedy, an unexpected bonus is seeing how effective the women are in the workplace when given the opportunities to enact change of corporate culture.
Although the ending of their boss being ultimately rewarded and punished for their actions feels a bit awkward in sidestepping the corner that screenwriter Colin Higgins had written our trio into, the film boasts some great comic moments throughout such as Coleman’s bondage rig which Fonda’s character struggles to explain to her ex-husband (Lawrence Pressman), Tomlin stealing the wrong body from the hospital, and the individual women’s fantasies of teaching their boss a lesson. Even if the end doesn’t make the most sense logically, it certainly pays off emotionally with our three leading ladies celebrating their victory and liberation. I’d wager the more time you’ve spent in an office environment, the more enjoyment you’ll get from 9 to 5.
Watch the trailer