Standing on the Sun

CHAPTER FIVE

Pseudocompetition

Killing the sacred cow of capitalism

Winning isn't the most important thing—it's the only thing.

—Vince Lombardi, coach of the Green Bay Packers 1958–1967

Not every critic loved the 2009 film Duplicity, starring Julia Roberts and Clive Owen. The British newspaper the Telegraph complained of a lack of “any sexual charge” between the stars. Slate called it muddled and quibbled that a film should make “actual narrative sense.”

But seemingly everyone who has seen Duplicity loves its opening sequence. The scene is a rain-slick tarmac, with two corporate jets facing each other at showdown distance. The two chief executives in command of the aircraft—Howard Tully (Tom Wilkinson) and Richard Garsik (Paul Giamatti)—emerge ...