You didn’t know it but bean counters really are exciting after all. Accountants have appeared in the movies at least 26 times since 1971, according to an AccountingWEB article published here.
My personal favourite is The Shawshank Redemption (1994) which starred Tim Robbins (playing Andy Dufrene) seeking revenge for being wrongly imprisoned for the murder he didn’t commit of his wife and her golf-club lover. In the film, the Warden used Andy to run his financial scam empire.
Here’s my list of movies featuring accountants:
Deception (2008): Timid accountant Jonathan McQuarry (Ewan McGregor) plays an auditor working out of New York.
Carnal Knowledge (1971): Jack Nicholson plays a deeply dysfunctional certified public accountant in this racy and frankly depressing movie, which bagged two Oscars.
The Untouchables (1987): This American crime drama is based on the book of the same name and stars Kevin Costner as government agent Eliot Ness and Charles Martin Smith as Oscar Wallace, a mean shotgun-wielding accountant.
The Producers: This 1968 American satirical dark comedy cult classic film written and directed by Mel Brooks. The film is set in the late 1960s and it tells the story of a theatrical producer and an accountant who want to produce a sure-fire Broadway flop. They take more money from investors than they can repay – a bit ‘Ponzi’ like,
Save the Tiger (1973): A man-in-crisis movie, similar to Network or Falling Down. Jack Lemmon played the 50-year-old central character, Harry Stoner, and won a Best Actor Oscar for it. Comedian Jack Gilford played Stoner’s accountant.
Same Time Next Year (1978): A romantic comedy about infidelity, starring Alan Alda (aka Hawkeye Pierce from M*A*S*H) as a neurotic and guilt-ridden accountant in the starring role.
Highpoint (1982): Christopher Plummer is a businessman who rips off both the mafia and the CIA and then frames unemployed accountant Louis Kinney (played by Richard Harris).
Hannah and her Sisters (1986): Woody Allen movie starring Michael Caine as an accountant, financial planner, and husband of starring lady Mia Farrow, who plays the Hannah of the title.
Moonstruck (1987): Cher as Loretta Castorini plays a cool and rational accountant from New York, but finds herself in a difficult situation when she falls for the brother of the man she agreed to marry (the best friend of her late husband who died seven years previously).
Midnight Run (1988): Nominated for two Golden Globes, this film sees Robert De Niro as a bounty hunter who has to bring in an accountant who embezzled $15 million from the mafia. Former talk show host Charles Grodin plays the accountant.
Lethal Weapon II (1989): Franchise duo Murtaugh (Danny Glover) and Riggs (Michael Gibson) are assigned to protect money laundering accountant Leo Getz, brought to life by the talkative Joe Pesci, who uses a high-pitched nasal whine throughout.
She-Devil (1989): Rosanne Barr plays a woman scorned when her accountant husband (Ed Begley Jr.) is seduced by a trash fiction author (Meryl Streep). Based on a novel by less trashy fiction author Fay Weldon, who had scripted a BBC version three years earlier.
‘The Crimson Permanent Insurance’, Monty Python’s Meaning of Life (1983): A bunch of elderly clerks and accountants turn their office block into a pirate ship and sail off to fight the Very Big Corporation of America’s skyscraper by firing filing cabinets at it.
Strike it Rich (1990): Comedy in which Robert Lindsay plays a stereotypically bland accountant who starts spending beyond his means after marrying the attractive Cary (Molly Ringwald)
Oscar (1991): Sylvester Stallone plays a gangster who wants to go straight. A young good-natured accountant wants to marry Stallone’s daughter, Stallone’s daughter.
Dave (1993): Kevin Kline plays Dave, a man who happens to look exactly like the U.S. President, and who is taken on by the White House to conceal the fact the real President has had a stroke. With the help of his old accountant friend (played by Charles Grodin) he rewrites the US national budget to help the homeless.
Nick of Time (1995): Johnny Depp jumped at the chance to play a widowed accountant who takes on two kidnappers in this experimental “real-time” movie. The film flopped.
The Accountant (2001): This comedy short by independent writer and director Ray Kinnon actually won an Oscar, as well as being voted top movie in three different film festivals. McKinnon also stars as the heavy-drinking, paranoid accountant who is summoned to a Georgia farm to keep the bailiffs away.
He has written over 700 business publications (see Glossaries at http://onesmartplace.com/resources/glossaries/) and is editor of Better Business Focus (see http://onesmartplace.com/resources/better-business-focus-magazine). His Blog, on a wide range of subjects can be found at: http://onesmartplace.com/blog/
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