TITLE: Monopoly
GENRE: Drama/Satire
SUBGENRE: Adaptation
FORMAT: 2 Hour Movie
BASIC PROMPT:
A loose adaptation of the Monopoly board game following the journey of one man who goes into real estate. The film would follow the course of his life until the late 1970's 1980's where the protagonist starts out as a wide-eyed and honest businessman until through years of greed and competition becomes a cutthroat tycoon who while obtaining a monopoly in the end, loses the love and support of those closest to him along with killing the character that he was in the beginning.
Plot
Morgan Pennysworth is an everyman American who served in World War II and after the war used the GI bill to gain a degree in economics. Right upon his graduation, his Rich Uncle (Who is modeled after the Monopoly Man) dies and Morgan being the only kin he had any positive relations with, inherits $15 million dollars. Using this money, Morgan decides to pursue real estate investment and development in the fictional city of Columbia, New Jersey. Columbia is a generic American city modeled after several major cities across the US (New York, Detroit, Chicago, LA, etc.) and is experiencing a major post-war economic boom with the development of suburbia and creation of many businesses and industries, making it a hot location for real estate.
From the start of the film, Morgan competes with three other rivals as real estate entreprenuers. Two are presented as friends and one acts as the overarching antagonist of the film, a greedy tycoon who represents the worst of American capitalism and who Morgan initially loathes and despises. At the start of the film, Morgan is a good and decent man who acts in a very similar manner to George Bailey from It's a Wonderful Life. While Morgan's career starts out similar to George, a family man and paragon of the community, over the course of the film, Morgan becomes warped into a very greedy and ambitious person who cares less for his tenents or giving the best service, but instead owning as much land in Columbia as possible, buying all the properties he can and taking insane risks and getting into trouble just so he can add more properties to his collection. Morgan's downfall is caused by his competition with the antagonist, whose ruthless tactics causes Morgan to nearly fail and be cornered out of the market, thus causing Morgan to retaliate and try to counter the antagonist at his game, but in the process loses himself and becomes obsessed with "Winning the game".
By the film's final act, Morgan stands victorious, having defeated all of his rivals one by one and achieving a monopoly over Columbia with his opponents driven to bankruptcy and thus Morgan in effect owning the city. However, victory is hollow as through his transformation into a ruthless tycoon, George has lost all of his values and morals from the start, he is the most despised man in the city for his appalling tactics, and he has driven away all of his family and friends, making him a miserable miser. In the film's final scene, Morgan passes of a heart attack and gives his money to the only relative who he was fond of, similar to how Morgan's uncle gave him his inheritance at the start of the film, only bigger. Thus, the cycle of American greed continues.
Throughout the film, references to Monopoly will be made through the properties bought and developed as well as examples of gentrification, random events which benefit or hurt the main characters such as going to jail for tax evasion or banking errors to act as a satire for how American real estate has become a tool for the rich and elite to gain more money and warning of the contemporary rise of gentrification and other abhorrent practices.
Main cast:
Morgan Pennysworth: The protagonist of the film. Morgan is initially a heroic everyman the audience is inclined to root for, being a good and fair businessman and having noble goals of achieving the American Dream, making a name for himself and leaving something good for his family. Over the course of the film, Morgan's values are warped into he becomes one of the Selfish Tycoons that he hates thanks to his addiction to "Playing the game" and focusing on beating his competition instead of running a good and honest business.
Dexter White: A dorky and educated man who graduated from the same class as Morgan, Dexter represents Monopoly players who are inept or have difficulty or bad luck with the game as Dexter in the first half of the film has continuous trouble successfully running into his properties and always has very poor chances which cause him to lose money, especially to the main antagonist Donald Potter. Around the midway point of the film, Dexter's starts to experience a rebound, but after Morgan realizes that doing so could threaten his growth and profits with a strong competitor, he joins Potter in aggressively forcing Dexter to the brink of bankruptcy and selling his properties, thus starting Morgan's downfall.
Lazlo Ricardo: A Cuban immigrant who came to America to achieve the dream and through luck, managed to win at the lottery and used his earnings to enter the real estate business, he entered into the field mainly to build good homes and neighborhoods to immigrants like himself so that they can build good lives and not be manipulated or be in danger of losing their homes. Lazlo at the start builds a strong friendship with Morgan and the two initially work as partners in development. While Morgan descents into cutthroat Capitalism, Lazlo stays true to his morals and character and does his best to provide quality housing and service, but keeping to his morals costs him the ability to be profitable. Lazlo is the second of the "Players" to be driven out of the game, being forced to sell his properties to Morgan who then treats his tenants far worse than Lazlo had been. At the end, while Lazlo is not nearly as rich or successful as Morgan, he is noted to be the true "Winner" by having a loving family, close friends, and being beloved by the city for his many charities. While Morgan got a Monopoly, Lazlo was the true winner.
Donald Potter: A slimy and dastardly businessman, Donald is the fourth Player of the game and is the film's main antagonist. Just as Morgan is an allusion to George Bailey, Donald is an allusion to Henry Potter of "It's a Wonderful Life", only caring for money and having little empathy or human decency, just seeing the world as customers and competition. Donald is an elitist and born from Old Money, seeing himself inherently better than the other three players because of his blood and upbringing, only slightly respecting Morgan because of his rich uncle. Donald spends most of the film catering to the upper middle class, rich and corporations, turning Columbia into a seedy city of rampant Capitalism and is shown to be racist through engaging in Redlining. Morgan hates Donald because of his practices, but it is these same practices and his inherent wealth that allow Donald to outbuy the others in properties and rapidly develop them. Through this feud, Morgan emulates Donald to become highly successful, and in the process becomes worse than Donald had been, and even though Morgan drove Donald out of business at the end, Donald won by essentially forcing Morgan to become like him.
