"9 to 5" 1980

“9 to 5”

“You're a sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot.”

I remember going to this movie for my eleventh birthday. I got to bring a couple of friends and it was playing at the bargain theater. I don’t remember specifically choosing the movie, just that it was what was showing. This doesn’t happen to me very often. I remember wanting to see “Blue Lagoon”. I was obsessed with “Blue Lagoon” and even wrote a gushy fan letter to Christopher Atkins. I got back a postcard thanking me for my letter with a picture of him on the front. I remember begging my dentist’s receptionist to let me have their copy of People magazine with Brook Shields and Christopher Atkins on the cover instead of the usual pick from the prize chest.

I read that People magazine to tatters. The article gave clues of this awesome film’s plot and taught me new words. There was a blurb about the children “discovering” things like first periods and masturbation.

While I was quite the reader at the tender age of eleven I didn’t know what masturbation was . My sister, six years my senior, put it quite succinctly as “playing with yourself.” I was still confused, but knew from the way her face glowed like a stop light that it was something interesting and probably dirty.

Alas, my mother refused to let me see an R-rated movie, so I had to go to “9 to 5” instead,

I had no idea who the stars were except Dolly Parton. My dad was a big country fan. Dolly is Doralee, the hardworking down home girl who has been the victim of boss induced gossip. Lily Tomlin as Violet Newstead was acerbic and sarcastic. As I’ve watched this movie over the years, she is the one I relate to the most. Just a woman that has been working and raising a family while the college educated kids she trains leap past her on the corporate ladder. Jane Fonda is delightfully ditzy as the housewife forced into the working world when her husband leaves her.

But the person that pulls it all together and gives them a united cause is Dabney Coleman as Franklin Hart Jr. The original “sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot“. Even tied up in his bedroom he is like a malignant mole on the butt of humanity. His only concern is moving ahead and it doesn’t matter who he has to step on to get there. And if he has a chance to pinch the butts of a few of his “girls”, all the better. Dabney Coleman is slimy, sly and sensational. You never once feel bad for anything that Mr. Hart has to go through.

There are a lot of character actors in this movie, including one that shares my sister’s name. I remember thinking that was hilarious.

There is a lot in this movie I love. It reflects how the workplace has changed since the early eighties. But it has universal truths. Who hasn’t fantasized about creative revenge on their boss?

There is great dialogue, fun physical comedy and for an eighties comedy it has really good acting. Good movie and great movie.

Oh, and when I finally did get to see “Blue Lagoon”, I was very disappointed.