I've read all the comments prior to posting this, so now what I am saying will sound a lot more different than everyone else. I think that In the Company of Men (ICM) is a great movie. Everyone gives their reasons, but I think people did not pinpoint it. I will try to do just so.<br /><br />First, it is a movie about men. Not that the movie would have been any different if the leads (Howard and Chad) were played by female. The point is that the movie would have been much more complex and probably too difficult to comprehend if not for flat females. Basically, there are only three females in the movie and even though Christine (deaf girl) occupies quite a lot of screen time, she is just a filler.<br /><br />Second, the movie is anti-political correctness in the most intelligent way. Nobody gets killed, there are no unnecessary profanities but it packs a punch to PC and to the whole Hollywood machine of producing happy movies. The movie says things that we all already know: Sometimes the worst people get everything. With the sense of escapism surrounding most American movies, this is a refreshing movie that actually plays by the rules of Hollywood. It makes people feel bad because they got used to feeling good. This duality of screen and real life became so much the part of our lives that we are shocked when we are shown the life as it is.<br /><br />Third, the camera work, editing, music, dialogue, etc. are not that great. You do not see great effects, there is no "edge" in editing, the movie has a sleazy-tv-soap-opera feel to it. Nothing more. And this is the whole point of the movie. The surrounding, the people, anonymous bars... we unconsciously associate with all that. There is nothing to prevent us from doing so. "Gummo", "Kids", "Tetsuo"... even "Blade", they are all non-PC, but their plots leave an element of escapism, the situation seem unreal or at least too far away to worry.<br /><br />But ICM scraps all the escapism in order for you, the viewer, to finally engage into the movie that actually makes you feel bad.<br /><br />This, I think is the greatest achievement of ICM.