Obstructive Bureaucrat: Difference between revisions

* [[Fun with Dick and Jane]]: Dick's un-employment money is ended by a low level bureaucrat who follows the letter of the law and personally dislikes Dick. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fun_with_Dick_and_Jane_(1977_film)\]

* The [[Tim Burton]] film ''[[Beetlejuice]]'', which explored the question: [[Celestial Bureaucracy|What if the afterlife were a bureaucracy]]?

* In ''[[Ghostbusters]]'', minor EPA official Walter Peck (played to perfection by William Atherton) had the unmitigated gall to arrest the Ghostbusters for causing an explosion that he himself was responsible for when he ordered, in front of multiple witnesses, that the ghost-containment grid be shut down, despite repeated warnings that would be disastrous.

** In a deleted scene, as Gozer the Gozerian was wreaking havoc, the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man was smashing up the city and the End Of The World was quite seriously nigh, Peck's response was to grab a fleeing police officer and order him to go up to arrest the Ghostbusters for "going too far". Said officer's response, not unreasonably, was "''You'' go and arrest them!"

* In ''[[The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou]]'', the Zissou expedition is forced by their creditors to take on a "bond company stooge", and Steve immediately assumes he's going to be an [[Obstructive Bureaucrat]]. It's subverted when he turns out to be an decent, inoffensive guy, and Steve ends up mounting a rescue when he gets kidnapped by [[Ruthless Modern Pirates]].

* In ''[[The Brother From Another Planet]]'', such a bureaucrat bothers the title fugitive alien, than later on has a heroic moment when she thwarts the two bounty hunters who are after him.

 

== Literature ==