MovieChat Forums > Billy Madison (1995) Discussion > Billy was the bad guy in this movie...

Billy was the bad guy in this movie...

posted 12 years ago by Canon_108
12 replies | jump to latest

If you think about it Eric really wasn't a bad guy before Billy made his little bet...he worked his way up to Vice president of a fortune 500 company and he was still fairly young. He obviously would've known how to legitimately run a company of that size as he would've done on an interim basis.

Billy technically was the bad guy in this...why would he deserve to be given a fortune 500 company after only getting his high school equivilent? Eric went through the same process as Billy, as well as taking business courses, and working his way to the top of the company. Billy gave nobody any reason to trust and have faith in him...how much money did he piss away on alcohol and skin mags. He never applied himself, he never went and got a job, his dad paid for his grades thinking that Billy would go to college and he never even did that. Billy was a scab on society who didn't deserve a mop job let alone the CEO of a fortune 500 company without actually doing anything.

Eric had every right to feel cheated, he was loyal, and to work as hard as he did only to have his diligence tossed aside for some little sh!t that went out of his way to embarrass himself in a drunken stupor in front of his father's associates...Billy was the villain in this film as he cheated a hard worker out of his job.

[–] Lost_Woods87 12 years ago

you may be right but they very subtly suggest Eric has selfish intentions for the company

[–] thee_eyez 12 years ago

Given that Eric ultimately ended up blackmailing the innocent principal, pulling a gun on an auditorium full of high school students, and putting his secretary in a coma, he wasn't too fit to run a company either. Obviously in the end, Billy made the right decision to give the company to Carl.

Besides, none of that is the point of the movie. The meat of it is Adam Sandler in elementary school. Upon multiple viewings, this is actually quite a sweet movie about a guy who learns to change and inspires several people along the way, and the comedy is professionally executed, despite its absurdity.

[–] Canon_108 12 years ago

They didn't even need an academic decathlon, as Eric said, they had a signed written deal...he should've went to court. I'd be pissed off too if I worked my way up the corporate ladder only to be pushed aside for some idiot with zero class, who is an alcoholic, who never completed public school on his own, didn't know the first thing about changing himself let alone running a company, and who said several times he never wanted the company anyway. It's like the live action version of the Frank Grimes story, lol. Eric had every right to be upset...

[–] jsn_hylnd 12 years ago

Oh yeah Eric would make a great chairman that's why he totally choked when asked to explain one of the most important topics that you need to know before running a company, "business ethics".

[–] Canon_108 12 years ago

http://ufreetv.com/amc.html

[–] cidandreevefangirl 10 years ago

To be fair, business ethics don't seem to be that important for Madison Hotels considering Billy's father was willing to *beep* all over the vice-president in order to give his lazy, uneducated, slacker of a son the company.

Even if he didn't want to give Eric the company, I'm sure that out of the 61,000 employees there were many maaaaany better options than Billy.

[–] jsn_hylnd 10 years ago

Wasn't it Billy that realized just that and gave the company to Carl? Eric would have been a horrible choice.

[–] actionmanrandell 10 years ago

he didn't give him the company he left him in charge while he goes to college

[–] jsn_hylnd 10 years ago

quote from Billy "I'm giving the company to Carl"

[–] bartallenii 10 years ago

I agree with the poster who said that Eric got his position by cheating his way up the ladder. For all we know, he used blackmail and bribes to get his position as VP, and probably would have ended up running the business into the ground just to line his own pockets.

While Billy would have been the last person I'd let run the company, I believe he's the hero of the movie, although he had to go through a lot of changes for it to happen.

"Without management, there is only chaos."
"Can we try the chaos thing?"

[–] actionmanrandell 10 years ago

Eric was an evil man. and likely got to his position by cheating

[–] jsn_hylnd 9 years ago

No HE IS A BAD BAD MAN!.