MovieChat Forums > Session 9 (2001) Discussion > How hard were these guys actually workin...

How hard were these guys actually working?


They establish that they are cramming a 2-3 week job into 1 week. So they should be busting their butts theoretically, yet they seem to punch out while it's still light out, always taking breaks, screwing around, etc. Silly if you ask me.

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Agreed. Never made sense and the whole dialogue about cramming the job in did not add much if anything to the story. Could have been dropped.

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For a three-week job to get done in a single week, these guys weren't really doing much at all. I've been on remodeling crews that worked until midnight if they were on a deadline. Everyone was really slacking off on this crew!

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We never really grow up, we only learn how to act in public.

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Agreed. This really gets on my nerves about this movie. Too much laziness being seen in characters that should be working their ass off according to the story line.

I gotta go feed that thing in Room 33.

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Yeah, I've had over 15 years in abatement / restoration / construction. If that entire building was in the scope of work, they would have had to triple the size of the crew and work in shifts, around the clock. The amount of breaks and the fact that they called it quits while there was still daylight....

But then again, it is just a movie.

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More people on the crew, less pay per person. If it had not been for Gordon's breakdown, he would have been on top of the other's asses way more than he was. He was in his own world, so the others were slacking off as a result.

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Like someone else said, it is a movie and therefore not thoroughly realistic. Someone else suggested the craming this into a week job part should have been dropped from the plot but they doesn't make sense. It added to the necessity of Gordon needing the job and therefore promising the city the moon. It also ads to the pressure he was under.

I'd also like to point out that much of their conversation happened during lunch breaks. Even more importantly part of character development was that each character was being caught up in their own obsession. Mike was fascinated by the tapes, Phil was caught up in using drugs and and hating Hank for taking his girl, Hank was focused on striking it rich to quit the job... Point is they probably would have worked a lot harder if they had actually been focused on the job. Danvers brought the darkness out of each of them and that's a big part of the plot.

And one last point, the budget for this movie was a million dollars. They didn't have the money to higher six other actors to make it realistic.

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Yeah, I always think the same thing. What gets me the most is when Mike says he needs to take a piss & Phil says "You've got 25 (minutes)!" That's AWFULLY long to take a squirt!?! With the deadline they're under, I'd expect him to say, "There's bushes over there, dude. Whip it out & let's get back to work!"

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Yeah I thought the same thing. I guess they didn't take the job as seriously as they could've.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4uPhpORKPA

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I agree and took issue with u is aspect of the characters.

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