A Good Year
A Film by Ridley Scott
At the opening of the film, we are introduced to a young Max Skinner who spends his childhood
summer vacations at his Uncle Henry's estate, which includes a vineyard, in Provence in
southeastern France. Max’s uncle schools Max in all matter of things such as the importance of
good wine, fine cigars, fine women, a good tailor, and most importantly a leisure focused
lifestyle. Interlaced with Uncle Henry’s life tutelage the pair spend their days playing tennis and
cricket, swimming, and drinking wine on the veranda while playing chess when Uncle Henry is
not otherwise engaged entertaining his many lady-friends. During the flashback intro, we are
given a glimpse of the type of person Max will become in the future through young Max’s
tantrums when he does not beat his uncle during their games. The final scene of the introduction
features Max and Henry playing chess while Henry lectures Max on life. Henry has his back
turned to Max to pour a glass of wine, and when he turns back to the chessboard he realizes that
Max has moved one of his pieces on the board to cheat. Henry then tells Max that the reason he
loves good wine is its honesty, and that a good wine can never lie about the seasonal growing
conditions in which it was produced in an effort to get Max to admit what he had done. He then
asks Max if he has anything to add, and Max replies “yes uncle…check mate!”
The film now moves forward to the present day where we meet Max as an adult. Max has grown
up to become an unethical, aggressive, work centered, win at all costs investment trader at a firm
based in London. Max’s only friends are his equally unethical real estate broker friend Charlie
and his snarky and scheming personal assistant Gemma. 1) The first ethical dilemma of this
present day period of the film we will discuss is Max has an opportunity to make substantial
profit but he must violate an agreement with other trading firms for it to work. The scene begins
with Max entering the trading room at his firm and announcing to the associate traders that today
is “Greedy Bastard Day”. Max then leads the traders in a sell-off of bonds despite there being a
gentlemen’s agreement with the competing London brokerages to hold bonds. As the Bond price
falls, Max’s competitors chase the sell-off and dump their own bond holdings until Max abruptly
tells the associate traders to buy them all back now that the price has fallen off, netting an on
paper profit of 73 million dollars. Apparently the trust laws are different in Great Britain than
they are in the United States, as here a “gentlemen’s agreement” to hold bonds between firms
would be considered a violation of price fixing/anti-trust laws, and I would not have been in that
situation at an American firm in theory, but even if I was at a British firm I don’t believe I would
have made the gentlemen’s agreement in the first place. In any event Max then takes a victory
lap around the London club scene to rub his rival’s noses in it. The issue would later be resolved
by max being given an ultimatum by his boss to become a senior partner or leave the firm.
Upon Max’s return to the office the next day, he learns of his Uncle Henry’s death via a letter
from a French estate attorney, and that he is Henry’s sole living heir. He has inherited the estate
in Provence along with the chateau and vineyard. He then travels to Provence to meet with the
attorney and prepare the estate for sale. Upon his arrival at the estate Max finds that the chateau
and grounds have deteriorated considerably since he was a boy. He leaves the estate to meet the
attorney in Provence and during the drive in he takes his eyes off the road to dig for his
cellphone that has dropped on the floor and in the process he runs a local woman named Fanny
Chenal off the road on her bicycle, without noticing what he has done. Max arrives in the town
and meets with the attorney and informs her that he wants to sell the property as quickly as
possible. The attorney tells Max that it was his Uncle Henry’s wish that he keep the estate for
his own retreat, but Max tells her that he has no interest in property in France – his life is in
London.
After the meeting, Gemma calls to inform Max that his bond trading stunt has sparked an
investigation by the British government. Max is ordered to return to London to meet with the
firm’s senior partners. Before he can leave the estate for the airport, Max must hurriedly take
pictures of the estate for his friend Charlie the real estate broker to aid in the sale, and in the
process he accidently falls into the empty swimming pool. With no pool ladder, Max is unable
to escape the confines of the pool until Fanny shows up at the estate. While driving by the
estate, Fanny spots Max’s tiny rental car in the drive and pulls in to investigate. Upon
discovering Max in the pool, Fanny turns on the water lines that fill the pool and leaves. The
resulting delay of Max floating in the pool leads to him missing the flight back to London and
the mandatory meeting with the senior partners. The partners promptly suspend Max’s trading
privileges for one week. 2) This leads to the second highlighted business ethical dilemma as
Max must decide to follow his suspension or continue to secretly trade behind the senior
partner’s backs. Max makes his decision, and throughout his suspension Max continues to trade
threw a straw-man, Kenny, who is Max’s number two man at the firm. Max is never caught
doing this, but after it becomes clear to Max that Kenny is bucking to replace him, Max
intentionally feeds Kenny bad trades which cost the firm millions of dollars and leads to Kenny
being fired. I would have traded through my own personal accounts rather than the firm’s had I
been compelled as Max was to trade during this suspension. I would certainly not have fed
Kenny information that would have cost the firm that kind of loss.
Back on the estate, Max decides to stay the week and spruce up the place for the sale. He
quickly runs afoul of the estate’s sole winemaker, Francis Duflot, who fears that he will be
dispatched upon the sale of the vineyard, and separated from the vines that are his life’s work.
Duflot cunningly bribes the vineyard inspector Max has hired to assess the value of the soil, the
cellar yeast, and the vines for their wine quality to tell Max that all are worthless in an effort to
be rid of Max as quickly as possible. Meanwhile, Max and Duflot are surprised by the arrival of
Christie Roberts, a young girl from Napa Valley who is touring through Europe and claims to be
Henry's illegitimate daughter from a visit to California. Max was unaware of the possibility of
another heir and worries that Christie may make a claim on the estate, hampering the sale.
Upon subsequent trips into town Max runs into Fanny again and quickly falls for her. He pursues
her and eventually she falls in love with him. However, the next morning Fanny leaves Max as
she is convinced he will choose his life in London over her life in Provence. At the same time
Christie, upset by Max’s disregard for Henry’s love of the estate and his treatment of her decides
to leave for America without contesting Max’s claim, and the estate is promptly sold.
With the estate sold, Max abandons his pursuit of Fanny and returns to London where his boss,
Sir Nigel the CEO, meets with him and gives Max an ultimatum. He must either accept his
discharge settlement and a very large severance check, or accept an offer of a full senior
partnership in the firm. Max mulls over the decision, and he asks Sir Nigel about a painting by a
grand master he has on the wall in his office. Nigel tells him it is a copy, and the real painting is
in his vault where he never looks at it as he is far too busy with the operations of the firm. This
is the watershed moment in the film where Max decides that a casual life in Provence will make
him far happier than in the fast paced world of London business. As a result Max chooses to
take the severance money and return to Provence to pursue Fanny.
3) When he arrives back at the estate Max is faced with our third ethical business dilemma. He
must decide how to now stop the sale of the estate that he has already approved. Max hatches a
plot to invalidate the sale of the estate by forging a letter from Henry confirming that Christie is
in fact his daughter, and as such has a valid claim on the property. Christie returns to invalidate
the sale of the estate, and she along with Duflot now jointly run the vineyard. Meanwhile, Max
having successfully defrauded the buyers of the estate has taken up permanent residence at the
chateau and can now focus his attention on Fanny, and of course they all live happily ever after.
I would have approached the buyers honestly if I had a change of heart about the sale to see if
they were willing to void it, as defrauding them in the way Max did would not only be unethical
but would cost me my realtor license.
Portrayal of the Business World, and a List of the Ethical Issues:
Throughout the film the business world is portrayed as a cold unethical morass of backstabbing
cut-throat dealings with the participants only concerned about their own well-being at the
expense of others. Max is seen as a cheater in his childhood playing chess, and a cheater as an
adult with shady trading practices, unethical real estate dealings, violating his firm’s order to
suspend him from trading, and in getting Kenny fired. The other business people around Max
are portrayed in the same light. His rivals at the competing firms are depicted spitting venom at
Max and using copious amounts of aggressive profanity. Charlie is all too willing to hide the
true value of property in order to close a sale. Sir Nigel is willing to overlook any transgressions
that Max has made so long as Max becomes a partner and continues to make the firm money.
Kenny plots behind Max’s back to replace him, the vineyard inspector is willing to take bribes,
and even Gemma is willing to carry out Max’s bidding regardless of the consequences to others.
In contrast the inhabitants of the sleepy French hamlet of Provence (Fanny, Duflot, Henry, etc.)
are portrayed as happy and caring people, willing to give of themselves to others without the
promise of financial gain. Scott is clearly trying to give the impression that the business world
destroys the souls of men, while the laid-back care-free lifestyle of the French countryside is
where true happiness lies.
Summary:
Besides the obvious fact that most Hollywood Films tend to reflect the business world in an
unfavorable light, the primary thing I took away from this exercise is a heightened awareness of
how these dilemmas may ultimately affect one’s life. One core message of the film is that the
need to win at all costs regardless of how many ethical boundaries one needs to cross to get there
does not often lead to true happiness. The self-centered behavior will often lead to a lonely life
without any true friendship. The real happiness in life is derived from the relationships with
friends and loved ones, and while the film is only entertainment fiction, this statement can be
applied to real life. Winning in the business world is important, but it requires balance with
friends and family and the need to cheat to win is overvaluing the importance of winning, as our
friends at the prison can now attest to. Always value your relationships first.