this be a complex film that explore the effect of fordist and taylorist mode of industrial capitalist production on human relation . there be constant reference to assembly line production and where worker be treat a cog in a machine and overseen by manager wield clipboard and control how much hair the worker leave expose and and fire worker ( stanley ) who meet all criterion ( a his supervisor say and be always on time and be hard worker and do good work ) but who may in some unspecified future make a mistake . this system destroy family stanley have to send his father to a nursing home ( where he quickly die ) after stanley lose his job . iris daughter be a single teen mother who drop out of high school to take a job in the plant . reference be make to the fact that now and with decline wage and both partner need to work and the implication be that there nobody leave at home to care for the kid . iris husband be dead from an illness and and with the multiple reference in the film about the cost of medical care and the viewer must wonder if he might have live with good and more costly care . iris brother in law get abusive after yet another unsuccessful day at the unemployment office when his wife yell at him for buy a beer with her saving instead of leave it for her face lift and or or teeth job ( even the work class with no stake in conventional bourgeois notion of perfection and beauty buy into them ) . the one reference to race in the film be through a black factory line worker whose husband be in jail ( presumably and he also black and and black men suffer disproportionally high incarceration rate ) . she remark that he and like her and be do time her family be compose of a prisoner and a wage slave . stanley and however and still believe in human relation and be therefore for most of the film outside of the system of fordist capitalism . he care for his father in spite of the fact that it be his father travel salesman job that result in his illiteracy he have not yet reduce human relation to a purely instrumental contract and a iris brother in law do ( suggest that he marry the wrong sister ) . he do not and a iris say and conform to the work eat sleep routine of everyone else while rather and he use technology and the technique of industrial production in an artisanal and creative way and in a sort of bauhaus ideal . this be the dream of early modernist and 1920 socialist ( such a the bauhaus ) to use technology to provide for all basic need and allow for more free time for creative human work and fuller human relation . he be also outside of traditional gender relation . he cook and he clean and he care for his family and and he know how to iron . iris and on the other hand and life in a traditionally male role she a factory worker and the main source of income for her ( extend ) family and and she bring stanley into the public realm and traditionally off limit to woman . by teach him to read and write and she give him access to the world of knowledge and also traditionally gendered male . literacy here be use a a metaphor for the ( traditionally masculine ) public realm and the system of circulation ( monetary and vehicular and cultural ) that enable participation in the public realm . without this access and stanley be feminize the job open to him be cook and cleaning . he be exclude from all regular circulation and unable to participate in the monetary ( can not open a bank account ) and in the vehicular ( can not get a driver license and can not ride the bus ) and and in the social ( he ask if he exist if he can not write his name ) . after learn to read and he grab book on auto repair and farming and and spirituality ( the bible ) . the word of god be therefore relativized and place on the same value plane a how to book . in fact and organize religion in general be only very occasionally present the bible also appear on a dresser a the camera pan to find stanley and iris have sex . it be and however and acknowledge a a moral force iris and clearly a character devote to live a good life and mention at the beginning of the film that her rosary be among the object lose in a purse snatching . once able to read and he enter the system and land a managerial position with a health care plan and a car and and a house and take his place at the head of the family and the breadwinner . presumably and he an industrial designer and dream up product that will require others endure the drudgery of the assembly line to produce . this end and probably the only bit of conventional hollywood in the film and be so incongruous with all that have come before that i at least wonder if it wasn not force in by some studio exec suddenly worry about the lack of a feel good end and it potential effect on the bottom line . now that and accord to the pundit and we have comfortably move on to post industrial capitalism and the film also have a slightly nostalgic feel and a though we need the historical distance to really analyze what happen during that period . nevertheless and it highly recommend at least if you want to exercise your brain . disregard the end and and it close to a perfect 10 .