Blog #3, The Apartment

When reading The Apartment one of the things that I noticed about it that I felt worked really well was the character relationships. The characters were all so well written, and the main three so well fleshed out, that their relationships with each other were very believable. Fran is the woman that is mysterious towards some of the other men, which naturally causes them to all develop somewhat of a crush on her, especially Bud since he has nobody that he is in a relationship with, and sees and talks to her daily. Bud's relationship with Sheldrake works well, because as  a power-striving man, Bud is going to do anything he can to impress those above him in the work force, and because Sheldrake knows he holds the power in the office, he is able to dangle that above Bud's head in order to get what he wants out of the deal. 

What I feel didn't work well was the introduction. When there is Bud's voice over, and he is explaining the amount of people living in the city, and the explanation of the office. I felt that this could have been better explained, and the fact that there are enough people in the city to stretch from Times Square to Pakistan was irrelevant to the rest of the story.

How do you think the movie would change if it were to be done in modern times?

I personally do not think much would be changed in the film if it were to be done in modern times. I knew that it was originally released in 1960, but other than the one line where Fran talks about the man who is imprisoned until 1965 it wasn't a very dated film. It could easily be adapted to modern times, with mainly subtle changes.

Discussion Questions:

1. When Bud tells Fran that she had him wrong, that he takes and that is how he is second in command, did you find this to be a believable statement or was he really 'took?'

2. If Bud did in fact 'take' in order to climb the achievement ladder to become second in command, why was he so quick to give up his job?

-Zachary Linville