Since we were kids, we knew the taxman was a bad guy. If we didn’t get the message from the lyrics of The Beatles, or the wolfish version of the Sheriff of Nottingham in Disney’s Robin Hood, then we learned through the very real anguish our parents suffered every year, mid-April. As we grew up, we likely heard comedians joke about the IRS, and every character but Jesus appeared to be unforgiving of any person who’d take a job in tax collection. Occasionally we’d see iconic IRS agents, such as the one Charles Lane plays in Capra’s film of You Can’t Take it With You, but even when memorable and enjoyable, they are still mostly identifiably villains. In Abbas Kiarostami’s first film, The Report (Gozaresh), the “hero” is a tax collector, yet he’s involved in corruption and beats his wife. Still hardly classifiable as a good guy, it would seem.
However, with all the movies made around the world in all the years of cinema’s existence, there had to be some films with likable taxmen, so we dug deep and desperately and just barely found ten such characters (admittedly, some are a stretch). While you struggle last minute with your 1040 today, you might not have much appreciation for a list of good guy taxmen, but we don’t care, because hopefully our celebration of these characters will keep us from getting audited anytime soon. Or, if we must get a visit from the IRS agent, we can hope we’re sent one like these men and woman:
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Gomorrah is brutal. That much goes without saying, given the genre. But unlike the more glamorous American gangster movies, which tend to elevate their anti-heroes to aspirational role models, Gomorrah turns that brutality against its subject — the widespread operations of Italy’s Camorrah clan. Like the bestselling exposé that inspired it, Gomorrah is more outraged than impressed by the corrupt world it reveals. To that end, director Matteo Garrone cast coarse, physically revolting adults and shot the film in an almost nauseating handheld style, fleshing out the authentic hell-on-earth locations with the sound of screams and harsh urban noise.
These are not characters or situations anyone would want to emulate, which was important to the director and his team. “Here in the south of Italy, we are living so close to this problem that we have to consider what kind of example a movie can have, especially on young people,” says Maurizio Braucci, who collaborated with Garrone, Roberto Saviano (author of the nonfiction bestseller on which Gomorrah is based) and three other writers. In his book, Saviano is openly critical of Hollywood’s impact on these criminals. He describes one boss who ordered a villa custom-built to the specifications of Tony Montana’s mansion in Scarface, then goes on to explain how The Godfather dictated their fashion sense (pinstriped suits and dark glasses) and Pulp Fiction made them sloppy (by holding their guns sideways, young killers sacrificed aim for style, making executions needlessly bloody and painful).
“I think the problem is that audiences are generally attracted by stories about the obscure part of life,” says Braucci (the English speaker of the bunch). “Gomorrah tries to give a different representation of this world, including such a terrible representation of the criminals – their bodies, the way they walk, the way they talk — that they seem almost like monsters.” Like Saviano (who had to go under police protection a couple weeks into the screenwriting process), Braucci hails from the Camorrah-controlled Naples area, bringing his own research and experience to the adaptation.
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Unemployment is about to get even worse now that Citigroup has announced it will cut 52,000 jobs early next year. And falsely reported news of a killing in Santa Clara, California (the shooter was fired, not laid off) only adds to the bleak atmosphere surrounding the already upsetting job market. But while desperate times may lead to desperate measures, it’s vital for us to remember what we learned from the films of the 1930s, when the Great Depression caused a nearly 25% rate of unemployment (we’re currently at 6.5%).
Hopeful stories of upward mobility and implausible solutions were popular at the time, though many of them had downsides or inspired the desire for unlikely prospects. Still, there was some guidance to be found buried within the fantasies of Hollywood, and SpoutBlog has compiled this handy list to help you make the right choices during your current or imminent joblessness.
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