{"id":24578,"date":"2026-09-22T12:13:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T16:13:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=24578"},"modified":"2026-09-22T12:13:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T16:13:17","slug":"9-to-5-1980","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=24578","title":{"rendered":"9 to 5-1980"},"content":{"rendered":"

9 to 5-1980<\/strong><\/p>\n

Director Colin Higgins<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starring Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton<\/strong><\/p>\n

Scott’s Review #1,552<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Reviewed September 22, 2026<\/p>\n

Grade: B<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pairing two Hollywood stars and one musical icon together to create a satirical, comedic, and feminist film in 1980 was someone’s brilliant idea.<\/p>\n

Together, Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and country music star Dolly Parton electrify the screen with hijinks and physical comedy that make 9 to 5 a delightful crowd-pleaser.<\/p>\n

Their chemistry is delicious and a highlight of the film.<\/p>\n

9 to 5 also had an infectiously hummable title pop song that was a number-one hit and earned a Grammy win and an Oscar nomination, increasing the movie’s audience reach.<\/p>\n

But while the trio is likable and the film entertaining, the plot is almost too preposterous and lighthearted to convey the feminist message successfully.<\/p>\n

Women being taken seriously in the workplace is an important aspect of the world we still live in. It was more so in 1980.<\/p>\n

Too often, the film leans toward humor instead of darker tones, which makes the overall content seem less serious than it should be.<\/p>\n

Three female secretaries (Fonda, Tomlin, Parton), one of whom has been passed over for promotion because she’s not a man, spend a night together having marijuana-induced fantasies of killing their chauvinist boss, Franklin M. Hart Jr. (nicknamed FHart), played by Dabney Coleman.<\/p>\n

A mishap the following day leads one of them to suspect she really has poisoned Hart, who is rushed to the hospital.<\/p>\n

The event sets off a series of silly misunderstandings at a hospital that cause the women to abduct their boss and run the business themselves until they can get evidence that he is defrauding the company.<\/p>\n

For a Generation X individual who, as a child, occasionally went into the office with his father around 1980, it was fun to see a corporate environment like that.<\/p>\n

The typewriters, orange\/yellow decor, grey\/tan elevators, and cigarette-smoke hue felt like a time capsule.<\/p>\n

The hustle and bustle of the workday, the corporate gossip, deals, and alliances also held appeal to what working in the corporate world was like back then.<\/p>\n

While Tomlin and Fonda certainly delight with good comic timing and excellent delivery, Dolly Parton proves a natural movie star in her first film role.<\/p>\n

Blonde and busty, Doralee (Parton) is first assumed to be sleeping with Hart, but we learn quickly that she is no floozy and has strong morals and feisty intelligence.<\/p>\n

Parton was barely on the cusp of transitioning from a country superstar to a capable actor.<\/p>\n

The rest of the cast share chemistry and seem to enjoy the preposterous gag comedy situations they play together.<\/p>\n

Coleman and Elizabeth Wilson, as the preachy administrative assistant, perform their parts effectively, though they can be over the top.<\/p>\n

Positively, 9 to 5 makes sharp points about gender roles in the workplace, which wasn’t common in film in 1980; 1988’s Working Girl also examined this.<\/p>\n

The film takes a forward-thinking, progressive stance.<\/p>\n

For example, Norma Rae (1979) starred Sally Field as a factory worker struggling to form a union. But that film was a heavy drama and not specific to women.<\/p>\n

And, 1976’s Network featured a domineering corporate woman, but that was a much darker film.<\/p>\n

I would have preferred 9 to 5 to be a bit darker, since the comedy heavily outweighs the drama and makes the gender message less powerful than it should be.<\/p>\n

By the film’s conclusion, it teeters way too much into screwball or slapstick fare for my tastes.<\/p>\n

Even when the women win in the end and revamp the workplace model, it still alludes to the unfairness of pay between men and women.<\/p>\n

A good point, but no mention of the Equal Pay Act of 1963, which supposedly helped abolish the wage gap between women and men.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, 9 to 5 (1980) is a good romp with at least an intended point. It just plays it way too safe.<\/p>\n

Oscar Nominations:\u00a0<\/strong>Best Original Song-“9 to 5”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

9 to 5-1980 Director Colin Higgins Starring Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton Scott’s Review #1,552 Reviewed September 22, 2026 Grade: B Pairing two Hollywood stars and one musical icon together to create a satirical, comedic, and feminist film in 1980 was someone’s brilliant idea. Together, Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and country music star Dolly … Continue reading 9 to 5-1980<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[106,49,207,11639],"tags":[12712,5897,12534,5475,10671,846,12714,1045,12715,4528],"class_list":["post-24578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1980-films","category-comedies","category-satires","category-screwball-comedy","tag-colin-higgins","tag-dabney-coleman","tag-dolly-parton","tag-elizabeth-wilson","tag-henry-jones","tag-jane-fonda","tag-lawrence-pressman","tag-lily-tomlin","tag-marian-mercer","tag-sterling-hayden"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24578"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24586,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24578\/revisions\/24586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}