Who knew that insurance was such a compelling movie topic? Just in time for the Oscars, the Insurance Information Institute, an industry lobbying group, has compiled a list of the best films ever made featuring insurance agents and claims adjusters as major characters, and it has some excellent movies on it, including Double Indemnity, Memento, and To Catch a Thief. Still, it’s a curious list, considering that almost all the movies on it portray the industry and its workers in an unflattering light. In these films, insurance folk tend to be killers, adulterers, or scam artists. They sleep with their policyholders (or, like Rene Russo, pictured, in The Thomas Crown Affair, with the targets of their investigations), plot to defraud their employers, or heartlessly deny benefits to desperate claimants. Kind of surprising that these movies would get the ringing endorsement of insurance lobbyists. Maybe insurance folk, like everyone else, long for the wish fulfillment of the cinema, where everyone’s lives seem a little bit more glamorous, dangerous, and exciting. If Hollywood filmmakers can do that for insurers, they can do it for anybody.
Feb 13
2008
08:12 PM ET
The best movies ever made about... insurance?
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They forgot about Fight Club..Wasn’t Edward Nortons character an insurance adjuster
Someone must have had nothing else to do today.
to GG – Not really…Edward Norton’s character worked for one of the major automobile manufacturers, investigating accidents and product malfunctions to determine whether a recall should be issued. Not insurance per se.
I’m hoping my husband will speak damage deductible and owners risk policy talk to me for Valentine’s Day.
How did they miss the only film named for the profession, Atom (The Sweet Hereafter) Egoyan’s “The Adjuster”? IMDB profile: “A reflection about what makes everyone’s life unique, through the story of Noah’s family. Noah (Elias Koteas) is an adjuster, having sex with his customers. His wife Hera watches pornographic movies for the Board of Censors.”
NICE
And don’t forget Mr. Incredible himself — his secret identity was as a very soft-hearted insurance claims adjuster in “The Incredibles.”
I work in insurance and it’s nowhere near as exciting as the movies portray. Actuaries are a pretty dull lot.
got that right . . .
The irony is that the insurance industry is light-years ahead of the movie industry when it comes to its ethical standards.
Of course nearly every non-criminal industry is ahead of the movie business when it comes to ethics except for the possible exception of the music industry.
Wasn’t Needlenose Ned in “Groundhog Day” an insurance salesman? And was it “Take the Money and Run” where Woody Allen’s character is in prison and, as punishment, has to spend time in “the box” with a life insurance salesman?
It’s been a while since I’ve seen it, but wasn’t there an insurance angle in “Body Heat”?
What about Polly or whatever that was – Ben Stiller’s caracter was a risk analyst/actuary. I work in insurance it’s really boring.
LOL, Oscars 2008 Spoof:
http://digitalfuntown.squarespace.com/dft-blog/2008/2/19/offbeat-oscars-mash-up.html
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Your blog is very informative. However, insurance movies is not that appealing in the mass public.
Thanks for the post… Best regards.
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