Una favola alla Frank Capra ambientata negli anni '60, con Russell Crowe in un ruolo marginale 

la trama

In Australia, a Spotswood, il proprietario di una fabbrica di scarpe non piu' competitiva  chiama il consulente Errol Wallace per tentare di risollevare le sorti dell'azienda. Quando questo arriva nella fabbrica, trova gli operai molto piu' interessati a chiacchierare di futilita' che a produrre scarpe. Scopre che il proprietario della fabbrica, Mr. Ball, e' riuscito a mantenere a galla l'azienda vendendo progressivamente tutte le sue proprieta'. Wallace propone di razionalizzare la produzione introducendo delle innovazioni nel processo di produzione, ma si scontra con la resistenza degli operai. Quindi, come ultima risorsa, propone a Mr. Ball il licenziamento di una parte del personale. Ma piu' tempo trascorre a Spotswood, piu' l'efficientissimo Wallace diventa umano, e alla fine riesce a salvare la fabbrica dalla bancarotta senza dover licenziare nessuno degli operai.

[...] One of the people I got to know years ago, which was a great privilege, was Laurence Olivier. He seemed to be like a racing driver as an actor. He was like a laser – that was his power. And the only actor I’ve met since who had that same quality of laser-like determination is Russell Crowe.

The first day I started working with him, I thought, “That guys got it!” The best way to describe Russell is like a shark, he’s like a shark circling around. You could see it in the way he was figuring things out. Just before he became the big hit in LA Confidential, I was asked if I would do a film interview about him. They asked me about him, and I said, “Oh yeah, I could see it in him, he was different from the other guys.” He was argumentative. He argued with the director all the time. And I said to the director, “Listen to him, he’s got a point. He’s good – let him do it!”

Yeah, I did. There’s a photograph of me here from 1970 (pulls out photo). This young lady gave it to me and I looked at it and I thought, “I was a bad boy then.” I thought, “God, this is an unhappy camper, but… Boy! I’d take on anyone back then!”

I don’t know Russell that well, but I admire him and, you know, whatever he’s got to do really. I really like him, because he’s ballsy, he’s got guts; he’s macho and all the rest of it. He’s going through his bad boy period, but he’s basically a nice guy. [...]