Dating to 1973, this somewhat-painful-to-watch U.S. Army educational film “Games” delves into the problems of racism and prejudice, and depicts a better future where respect and equal opportunity prevail in the workplace. The film follows a White man as he debates the ideas of equal opportunity. While he believes he is upholding this ideal in the workplace, the film shows that he is both a sexist and a racist, and in fact is continuing to judge potential and current employees prejudicially. Throughout the film are intermittent dreamlike sequences of a group of people debating his actions and assessing his motivations. The official U.S. Army description of the film stated that “Exposes the ‘games people play’, intentionally or not, and put up obstacles to equal opportunity.”

The film opens with a montage of people blaming various races for incidents and using racial slurs (1:05). One man blames the Chinese laundry for a missing button on his shirt (1:01). The final woman says ‘racist’ (1:40). At (2:05) a cartoon shows a caveman inventing the wheel. A short time later, an African American man accuses a White committee of playing a “game”, and the audience walks out of the hearing. The main character, who we’ll call The Boss, is seen driving to a job interview (4:51) and along the way he flashes back to various instances in his career. A New York cab driver talks about race and the problems of inequality (5:45). The Boss remembers his boss giving him a hard time for only have a few minorities in his employment (6:43) as businesses were pushing to be more diverse. The Boss recalls an interview with an Hispanic man, played by actor Barry Williams — Greg from the Brady Bunch — which he arrived late to (8:22). During the interview, he rudely answers the phone once the interview has started (9:01). The interviewee wants the job because it is a good opportunity (9:42). While the man gets the job, he struggles (10:22). The Boss debates firing him (11:13). Here is the first interruption or “heaven sequence” with a group of African Americans in traditional dress, openly questioning whether or not the Boss’ motives are genuine (12:40). The next incidence involves the Boss interviewing an overqualified African American (14:59). The Boss attempts to deceive the interviewee and offer him a file clerk position. The Black man storms out of the office (15:22). The film turns to the group who discuss how the African American employee had to doubly prove himself (16:00) and how prejudice comes from our surrounding environment; that we are swayed by the opinions of our bosses, neighbors, etc. (16:37). Another incident plays out with two working men on the phone with one another — and one of the men’s faces is shown to be Caucasian, while only the feet of the other man are shown (17:25). The faceless man asks the other about a new secretary and he replies that the former would not be interested as she is Black (18:01). The man whose face was not previously shown, is now shown to be African American and he states they would get along just fine then (18:05). Workers are seen horsing around instead of working and one of the new hires is involved who happens to be African American. The boss, instead of reprimanding him as he would any other employee, lets it carry on (19:26). When another employee complains about the new hire, the boss says for him to accept that the new hire “is not white” (19:39) which, we are told in another “dream sequence” shows he is misinterpreting the meaning of equal opportunity (19:46). The boss also inhibits another Black employee, disallowing him to correct his own work, calling him “you people” and pretending to take pity on him (21:14). At 23:20 a weird beatnik / hippie comments on the idea of reparations. The final incident includes the sexist Boss interviewing for a woman for a job (25:20). The Boss accuses her of being unfit as it is a long-term position and she, being a female, is prone to getting pregnant (25:45). He then proceeds to use the myth that women are fragile and says she couldn’t handle the job as it included frequent travel trips with men who needed an authority figure to put them in their place (26:26). She throws a drink in his face and storms out (26:42). Equal opportunity means to treat all as individuals, to look at each human to determine what best job suits their skills and to refrain from unhealthy stereotypes and prejudices (28:29). The final scene includes the Boss arriving at a job interview with his potential new boss — a Mr. Goddard (29:10). Here the interviewer / boss Goddard turns out to be an African American who treats him in the same way he had treated the Hispanic in the beginning of the film (29:50). The End (31:26).

This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k.