The 21 Best Labor Day Movies of All Time

Don't go postal. Hit your favorite bar at Happy Hour and toast to Casual Fridays. And when you get home, make some popcorn and exorcise your demons vicariously through these working-class heroes who tell their respective bosses to take their jobs and shove 'em.

Scarface quits.

Jerry Maguire doesn't get fired without a fight.

Todd finds his job has been outsourced to India.

Bobby Pellitt wonders who should get fired.

21. 9 to 5

20. Tower Heist

19. Silkwood

18. Norma Rae

17. Elysium

Hopefully, Elysium is far off the mark. Otherwise, we can look forward to employers regarding on-the-job safety in the year 2154 with as much astounding nonchalance as they do now. In this case, unsafe working conditions lead to Max Da Costa's prognosis that the radiation poisoning he received at his factory job will kill him in five days. So after undergoing a dangerous experimental surgical procedure designed to enhance his physical abilities during the time that he has left, Max travels to the orbital paradise inhabited by 1%-ers like the CEO of the company that's literally worked him to death -- Armadyne Corp. -- in order to access the state-of-the-art medical facilities used by the Haves. The problem is, he and the rest of the Have-nots are kept away from the space station that houses these advanced "Med-Bays" with the threat of lethal force.









16. Working Girl

After getting fired by her third scumbag of a boss, Staten Island-bred Tess McGill lands a new secretarial position in Manhattan. Attributing many of the obstacles she encounters at work to male chauvinishm, Tess is relieved to learn that she'll now be reporting to Katharine Parker. Unfortunately, the new boss turns out to be a narcississtic she-wolf in sheep's clothing. In no time, she begins treating Tess like a serf. In a particularly despicable move, the imperious Katharine expects Tess to bathe and clothe her after she breaks her leg on a ski vacation. Katharine is so oblivious to other people's perspectives that she thinks the guy that she's been seeing is planning to propose when in reality he intends to break up with her at the dinner he's arranged for the two of them. 

When Tess learns that Katharine has passed the innovative business idea that she ran by her as her own, she gets revenge by using the bed-ridden (and out of the country) Katharine's contacts to structure and close the corporate merger she conceived on her own. When Katharine returns and discovers what her protege has been up to, she accuses Tess of being the idea-theif. But when Tess is able to explain the origins of the idea and Katharine can't, the former gets a new job as a junior executive and the latter gets shit-canned. Win-win.









15. Disclosure

14. Hidden Figures

After working in the segregated division of the Langley Research Center, mathematician Katherine Johnson gets bumped up to NASA's Space Task Group in 1961. But because no one thought to make accommodations for the group's first African-American woman, she has to walk a half-mile just to use the restroom. It makes you wonder what kind of hell any male African-American employees were subjected to.









13. The Insider

The Insider is based on real-life whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand's efforts to expose his employer, tobacco company Brown & Williamson, for their practice of enhancing the addictive properties of their cigarettes. It's also based on 60 Minutes producer Lowell Bergman's struggle to get his employer CBS to air the story.









12. Swimming with Sharks

Guy just graduated from film school and hot damn he actually gets a job in the movie business -- as an assistant to Hollywood player Buddy Ackerman. Buddy has so much pull in Tinseltown that all Guy he has to do is watch and learn and his career 'll be set. The problem is Buddy happens to be a world-class sphincter. He talks to his new protege like he's lower than movie theater seat-gum and humiliates him daily for his own amusement. After months of abuse, hostility and harassment, Buddy gives Guy his walking papers on a whim -- and Guy goes right over the edge and turns the tables on his former boss. He holds Buddy, bound and gagged, at gunpoint while subjecting him to amateur torture and telling him where he can stick his job. As a side note, Kevin Spacey is incredibly douche-y here, which happens to be appropriate for the role (not just in real life). 

11. The Apartment

Office worker Bud Baxter doesn't even have his own cubicle, so he lets various middle-managers at the company use his apartment as a place to bring side-chicks. He hopes they'll repay the favor with promotions. But he keeps sleeping in the hallway of his building and he keeps his exact same job -- naturally. The big boss is in the asshole hall of fame. Not only does he use his male subordinates, he hooks up with female underlings, despite being married, and even drives one to suicide.

The Apartment won five Oscars, including one for Best Picture. Give it a shot. You get to see the dad from My Three Sons being a jerky. Plus -- Who knew Shirley Maclaine used to look like this?









10. Office Space

After submitting to hypnotherapy, stressed-out programmer Peter Gibbons approaches his job the way he's always wanted to: he comes in late; leaves early; takes long lunches; violates the company dress code; parks in the boss' spot; and utterly ignores his supervisor.









9. The Bounty

If you can get past the sight of Mel Gibson's racist ass (not to mention Liam Neeson's), you're in for an insightful exploration of abuse of power and its potential consequences.

8. Mr. Mom

Detroit engineer Jack Butler is living the suburban dream until the recession hits and Ford decides to downsize. His boss and "friend" Jinx Latham, who carpools with him every day, waits until they get to the office to tell him that he's one of the people who's lost his job. When Jack becomes a house-husband while he searches for a new job, his wife Caroline resumes her advertising career after years away from the workforce and is reminded how crappy the rat race can be -- especially the sexual harrasment, the company outing that no one wants to attend and the petty gossipy back-stabbing co-workers. 









7. Chef

After realizing that his controlling boss is never gonna allow him the creative freedom that he craves, professional chef Carl Casper finally gets off his ass and out of his comfort zone and quits his job at a popular but stifling LA restaurant. Though it requires lots of hard work to establish his own business running a food truck, he finds that working for himself has helped him to achieve the American Dream -- getting paid to do what he loves.









6. Cesar Chavez

Arizona-born Cesar Chavez was a migrant worker before becoming a labor organizer and union leader who used non-violent protests to fight for farmworkers' rights and in 1962 co-founded the national Farm Workers Association. Chavez graced the cover of Time magazine in 1969. Surprisingly, this is the first movie about his life.









5. Overboard

What would you do if your boss talked down to you, refused to pay you and threw all of your tools -- and you -- into the ocean? Well, if you're Dean Proffitt, you'd exploit her sudden retrograde amnesia by convincing her that the two of you are married with children so you that can work the shit outta your new housewife.







4. Crimson Tide

Crimson Tide is all about clashes: blue-collar versus white-collar; young versus old; education versus experience; instinct versus logic; old school versus new school; and black versus white.

The simplest way to describe Crimson Tide is: Mutiny on the Bounty in a submarine. Captain Frank Ramsey is a nightmare of a boss: a bigoted dickhead who thinks he knows everything and has access to nuclear launch codes. Fortunately for the planet, his new executive officer isn't a kiss-ass but rather a smart guy who isn't afraid to challenge authority when he knows it's wrong -- and a threat to the fragile peace between two superpowers.

3. Alien

Plenty of companies knowingly place their employees in harm's way. Asbestos, mold, dangerous machinery -- they're all workers' comp bait. But the decision makers at the Weyland-Yutani Corporation expose their laborers to nearly-invincible, extra-terrestrial apex predators just to make an extra buck. No amount of hazard pay is worth having a creature with razor-sharp teeth eating its way outta your chest.









2. The Winter Soldier

First, Captain America finds out that his co-workers have been given secret mission objectives by the supervisor. When he confronts said supervisor (Colonel Nick Fury) he learns that not only is the company, a U.S. intelligence agency, involved in widespread surveillance of American citizens, it's poised to immediately kill anyone deemed a potential threat.

Although Fury's not entirely against the program, he's targeted for assassination after questioning upper-management about the project's details. And when the Captain refuses to divulge everything he and Fury discussed, upper-management orders an attempt on his life as well. How does he respond? Since this is Captain America we're talking about and not Edward Snowden, he reacts by leading an assault on company headquarters, completely destroying the surveillance apparatus and leaking all of the company's files to the internet. How's that for whistle-blowing?







1. The Bourne Supremacy

As a CIA assassin, Jason Bourne killed for his bosses. But when he decides to quit, instead of accepting it they try to have him terminated -- literally. If that weren't bad enough his old boss covers up his own embezzling by framing Bourne for the crime.  




Originally Posted 9/3/17