I wanted to see the tv movie Martha, Inc.: The Story of Martha Stewart (2003) because, given the currency of the Martha Stewart trial, I was thinking about the effect of film in shaping public policy toward business.
But the film also provided some insight into how television films differ from theatrical releases in their view of business. My theory is that capitalists tend to be treated better in television films because tv filmmakers can’t make the people they sell ads to look too bad.
Indeed, this film is not really about the evils of business. In fact, it’s a rare film that actually takes a close look at the painstaking building of a business, and shows that this storyline can have dramatic potential.
Sure, it’s not a flattering portrait of Martha Stewart. But rather than indicting business, it criticizes Martha on the soap opera level – as a helpless prisoner of her obsessive need for perfection, who did it all to impress her cold, perfectionist father. She asks, “Why is being successful suddenly a bad thing. . .” Answer: she committed the television sin of a woman forsaking her husband and family.
Here it isn’t the capitalists who are evil. Rather, they are helpless at the onslaught of a relentless sole proprietor – the sort of independent business person that filmmakers usually love.
As for shaping public policy, if the Martha Stewart jurors saw this movie, I’m not sure whether they would conclude that Martha is the sort of driven person who would lie to save her business, or simply feel sorry for her.
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