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December 1994, Week 1

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Subject:
From:
David Desser <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 6 Dec 1994 09:30:27 -0600
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> --Don Larsson wrote:
   One thing that always intrigued me about WORKING GIRL,
>but of which I have seen little discussion, is the ending of that film.
>She brushes off--with little or no concern--the tacky but vital and lively
>community of family and friends on Staten Island to happily (?) take up
>residence in an office that is one of scores in one of hundreds of
>similar office buildings in Manhattan.  I'
>ve never quite figured out if that last shot is supposed to be ironic.
 
     I don't believe the ending of WORKING GIRL is ironic.  What is to some
of us, relatively elite workers in the ivory tower, an anonymous, small
office like hundreds of others, a major accomplishment to a "working girl"
from not a tacky or vital community, but a stifling one that denies her a
chance to break out of her expected role of "little wife." (I don't think
Alec Baldwin's character could really be called simply "tacky but vital and
lively" but rather mean-spirited and deadly--though I know Don did not mean
Baldwin as the primary exemplar of the community.)  Of course, she not only
must fight the prejudices of her community in Staten Island, but also the
class-based prejudices exemplified by Sigourney Weaver's character.  I
think the film does a good job of highlighting class differences between
Melanie and Sigourney's characters in terms of different hair styles and
accents.  (I also wonder how much critical malignment of Melanie Griffith
is due to her accent--class bias in the critical and academic
establishment?  No way...)
    I would also say that WORKING GIRL has fallen into critical neglect
because it takes working class aspirations to achieve middle class status
seriously.
But that's another issue on which I won't get (re)started.
 
DD
 
 
 
_____________________________________
David Desser,UIUC Cinema Studies
2109 FLB/707 S. Mathews, Urbana, IL  61801
217/244-2705

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