The Internship is an appalling movie

The Internship is an appalling movie. It’s not just bad or not worthy. It’s evil. We must not dismiss is it as a “light”,breezy, summer flick. We have to face it for what it is — a harmful cultural artifact, which enforces some of our generation’s most toxic and dangerous ideas.

The first reason this movie is so problematic is its wide use of stereotypes as plot devices. The movie follows Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson in their quest to escape their mediocre lives as retail salesmen and score a job at Google — apparently the bestest company of all times. Problem is — both of them are 40-something half-wits, with no useful skills whatsoever. They manage to cheat their way into Google’s internship’s program, in which dozens of interns are pitted against each other in a battle of life and unemployment. The interns are divided into teams, who are faced with a series of challenges, mimicking some of Google’s available positions and duties. Since most of these challenges require technical skills and the cultural capital of today’s ever connected youngsters, our two geezers are left with one option — cheat and charm their way through these challenges, like the film implies they did countless times before.

Halfway through the movie,when you realize this isn’t the “Wedding Crushers” sequel after all, the amount of stereotypes portrayed on screen is already staggering. Just to point a few:

1. People over 30 are useless and pathetic.
2. Small business owners are greedy liars who will fire loyal employees without batting an eyelash.
3. Women don’t have a genuine interest in their job or profession and are just waiting for a man to rescue them from loneliness.
4. Asians are obviously good at math and computers.
5. And that’s because their mothers are cold heartless dictators.
6. Indians come from a poor background.
7. And whores. Women are also whores.

Although the movie does “break” some of these stereotypes by allowing their portraying characters to break through their glass ceilings, it does that with a “nice fairy-tail, huh?” wink. It doesn’t respect any of its under-privileged characters. It doesn’t make the viewer feel shame for their existing prejudice. On the contrary. The filmmakers mock them throughout the entire movie, making them jump through fire hoops, barely breaking from the shackles of society, just to win the race by the skin of their teeth on technicalities.

When a big-buck Hollywood movie does that, it’s as harmful as it gets. Not only does it not? challenge or help reduce the spread of these stereotypes, it introduces them to new audiences, replicating and strengthening them. At the end of the film, unaware viewers are released back to society with new evidence that all these prejudices are true.

But there’s another, more pressing reason why this movie is so harmful. It promotes the idea that a decent job nowadays is rightfully rare and should be regarded as a prize.

In the film, Google, being one of the most wanted workplaces in the world, allows itself to drag people from all over the country to a summer-long “internship” program. But this program is nothing but a modern day gladiator tournament, in which people have to fight each other just for a chance to get a… job. A job! Not stardom. Not millions of dollars. A job. A job that pays the bills. A job that you can lose at any given day. And for a job, (young) people should do whatever it takes to crush their opponents — their fellow college graduates. This includes all sorts of anti-social behavior, such as cheating, insulting and even terrorizing other interns. It’s a brutal competition, and it’s worth it!

When I got home, I quickly pulled my iPad and did a little research on Google’s involvement in the film. Turns out that Google didn’t sponsor the film or was very involved in its making. However, it also turns out that Google’s internship program is fundamentally similar to the one portrayed in the film. Yes, there are no “fight-to-the-death” contests between interns. Well… they do give actual jobs to only a handful of them, but it’s all in a good spirit. All the other losers will have a story to tell their grandchildren.

I went to see the movie with a few of my work colleagues. We work at one of Israel’s most prominent mobile app companies, right at the middle of the start-up scene, just a few hundred meters of Google’s Tel Aviv headquarters. Our company is a very good workplace indeed: many talented people, working on exciting projects and technologies, bringing our skills and expertise to the limit. We’re all well-fed, well-paid, and most of the time — well-rested. But all we had to do to get our job was to go through 2 or 3 interviews, and maybe a professional test. We didn’t have to jump through fire hoops just to get considered for employment. It was all pretty straight forward and reasonable. Employee retention in our company is very high, and from what I gather — satisfaction is high as well. So, I wonder what message is Google trying to convey to us — potential future candidates. Were we supposed to be impressed by Google’s recruitment methods? Am I supposed to want to work for Google after watching this film — or reading the interviews following it? Do they really think I’d want to go through their humiliating recruitment process just to get a (decent) job, which I can easily loose several months later? A JOB?!?

For one fleeting moment, the movie does manage to bring something authentic and moving to the table. Stuart, the cynical college graduate, who constantly snarks at Vaughn and Wilson for being out of their element, asks them: “Do you even know what it’s like to be 21 now?”. He admits to them that this generation has nothing guaranteed for them. Jobs are rare. Everyone is scared of being unemployed. Only the best of the best can get by.

But instead of joining their fellow students around the world in protesting and rebelling against these injustices, they surrender to the grinding machine and cooperate willingly. A job is a prize only a few are worthy of. What a sad, depressing conclusion.