Born Rich (2003)

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Brilliant and touching

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

This was a very interesting movie that provided an accurate insight into the lives of wealthy teenagers who inherited their families money. Most of the kids were very open and willing to give their story and talk about what they do knowing they are rich however, some are skeptical and afraid to be open about talking about their family and money. Most people associate wealth with happiness. The more money you have the happier you are. This is not true because they talk about the fear of somebpdy using them just for their money and wealth. I admire the fact that Jamie Johnson wanted to get his dad to talk about money although he always avoided it. He wanted to prevent any problems that he may encounter when he is older. It is very eye opening the fact that these kids can go without having to work a single day in their entire lives. This movie either gave you a new perspective about wealthy kids or not but it was a very well produced movie.

I expected Born Rich to be a slice of high society life, hopefully giving me some (potentially valuable) insight into the mechanics of the world of the very rich. It's not quite that, but I still watched this documentary with interest. Born Rich is basically a short catalog of faces+personalities of rich heirs talking about how they feel about being born into wealth. Most of these guys and gals are charming, fairly smart, and come off as decent. A couple are irritatingly superficial, but not on a grotesque level. Realistically, - and the creator Jaime Johnson (of Johnson & Johnson) strongly implies this in the beginning, - these people have to be relatively open and sincere to agree to participate in this film in the first place. Some of them are probably combining those qualities with the pragmatism of getting some publicity for own ends, but I personally think that digging around in motivation in order to try and measure the degree of someone's "selfishness" or "shrewdness" is, in this case, somewhat pointless, so never mind that.Josiah Hornblower (a Vanderbilt heir) was the most fascinating person to watch, since he seemed to intensely ponder and struggle over the purpose of his own life, and life in general.After you watch this, you'll want to check out an article published at MailOnline in October 2013 that looks at the heroes of the film 10 years later. It gives you more perspective on these people.Director and writer Jaime Johnson says in that article: "I would have liked to have spent more time with each subject in the film, creating a more nuanced portrait of each of their lives." I agree with his assessment in that deeper and more complex portrayals of the film's stars would have improved it.Turns out Jaime Johnson also made the documentary "The One Percent", which might have more of the stuff that I was seeking from this one. Will watch it next. As for Born Rich - it's a solid 7/10, and an interesting gallery of characters.

This was a subject that sounded so intriguing at first, but would have been better had a 'professional' come in from the outside and filmed a documentary, not Jamie Johnson who made what looks like a first year film students piece of work. His voice is torture to listen to and of course being the maker he has to narrate it...There was no one I found interesting in the slightest bit here because it felt like the heirs were in control telling the story. Again, someone from the outside should have come in to really get a sense of what effects being born rich has on them. Waste of time, this documentary. A real piece of crap.

It is well-known that those with money do not ever speak of money--theirs or anyone else's. Jamie Johnson admirably shattered this longstanding taboo, despite pleas from his own father and lawyer not to make the film, and discovered the hard way what happens when the secrecy curtain is lifted from the uber-wealthy. "Born Rich" is ostensibly Johnson's way of finding normalcy, whatever that may mean to those born into wealth; unfortunately, he was ostracized from the Gen-X upper class for turning a mirror onto the real lives of his blue-blood friends.The most fascinating part of Born Rich isn't what is seen on camera, but what took place offscreen. Luke Weil sued Johnson to have his footage cut from the film, claiming that he--an Ivy-league-educated adult--was tricked into signing a release. Weil's lawsuit was thrown out, and it is now apparent to the world why he didn't want his footage seen. Among other gems, Weil tells the interviewer that any woman who wouldn't sign a pre-nup is "an ungrateful little bitch," brags of coasting through Brown University without attending class, and how he would taunt classmates with "I can buy your family." Sadly, Weil is not even the most odious of the film's assembled characters. That distinction belongs to Carlo von Zeitschel, a minor European royal who claims to be a descendant of Kaiser Wilhelm II (strangely, his name does not appear in the Kaiser's family tree). With his chain-smoking and foreign flippancy, he sneers "I have no intention of being loyal to any woman anytime soon, not that I probably ever will be... One day I'll fall in love and I'll get married, whatever. I'll probably get divorced a couple of years later." (In the DVD's deleted scenes, he dismisses his American peers as "so cheesy, they're like the f*cking Brady Bunch.") Weil's and von Zeitschel's contributions to the film are embarrassing to watch, and epitomize everything that is wrong with inherited wealth. The other heirs in the film do not fare much better: Stephanie Erklentz quit her job as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch so she could spend her days shopping and sipping Bellinis with her friends. Cody Franchetti is an Italian textile heir who works as a model because he doesn't want a "real job." Juliet Hartford fancies herself a starving artist (minus the starving part) who, when asked what she would do with a million dollars in cash, says "I'd give it to the homeless," then bursts out laughing and spurts, "Just kidding!" However, these vignettes also speak volumes about the sense of narcissistic confusion that stems from having enormous wealth handed down without integrity or values. The real problem with some of these kids is poor parenting, not excess. It is very clear that well-rounded, responsible adults come from proper mentoring, not undeserved wealth or social status.And despite soundbites like these, Johnson manages to make you feel sorry for his subjects; despite their grossly excessive lifestyles, their wealth is tremendously isolating. These children are locked in their own private world, surrounded only by others like them. They have been trained to never socialize or date outside the upper crust, and while most attended college, their trust funds give them no incentive to make a meaningful contribution to the working world, and no mentors to provide guidance. (When Johnson asks his emotionally-detached father for career advice, he is vaguely advised to become a collector of historical maps.) He goes to great lengths to show the perils of having too much money, using his grandfather's messy life as an example.The bright spot of "Born Rich" is Ivanka Trump, who is witty and articulate, and balks at the notion that the rich have no problems. She, along with S.I. Newhouse IV and Josiah Hornblower, appear to be the most well-adjusted of the bunch. They have contemplated the bizarreness of their lives, and seem to be aware of the trappings of decadence and materialism. (Newhouse chose to live in a shared college dorm instead of his father's plush Manhattan penthouse.) These three have no pretenses: they are just young adults with big bank accounts and huge legacies to fulfill.The film is very short - barely over an hour - and Johnson doesn't attempt to delve into the more meaty issues characterizing the class war. He simply turns the camera on his friends, and allows them to expose the classism on their own. Some seem refreshingly average, others troubled, others spoiled, arrogant and mean. But they are all human, and face the same struggle for self-identity as anyone else.This is why it is extremely important to remain thoughtful and open-minded while watching, and not to categorize all super-rich as "elitist snobs," or naysayers of the rich as "jealous." If you have such pre-formed opinions, you will find little here to change your mind or encourage you to think deeper. Still, every viewer will have a strong reaction to the film in some way, because inherited wealth is at odds with the capitalist principle of worth by way of achievement. That idea will undoubtedly rankle you, regardless of sympathies.It took enormous chutzpah for Johnson to make this film. Though it is unlikely to change high society's hush-hush attitudes about wealth, or the public's reaction to class clash, this film is a daring experiment and (hopefully) a promising start to a great film-making career.