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PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION TEACHING ROUNDTABLE
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Films that Provide Insights on the Study of Public Administration
A Bell for Adano (1945). Description Major Joppolo and his men are assigned to restore order to the war-torn Italian town of Adano. He has to manage getting supplies into town without interfering with troop movements, all the while dealing with colorful citizens of the town. One of his quests is to replace the bell which orders the town's life. http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0037534/plotsummary
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source: Mordecai Lee & Susan C. Paddock (2001). Strange But True Tales From Hollywood: The Bureaucrat As Movie Hero, Public Administration & Management, 6(4) US Army Major Joppolo (John Hodiak) is a civil government administration officer assigned to restore government in a small town in Italy at the end of World War II. He grows to understand that public administration is more than the delivery of services. It also, he discovers, is the fulfillment of the non-tangible needs of the citizenry as well. In this case, before the war the town had had a bell whose ringing provided the markers for the routines and cycles of daily life. Joppolo realizes the importance of reinstalling a bell as a symbol of the restoration of peacetime life in the town. He struggles, successfully, to locate and then obtain a bell from a US Navy ship. Thanks to him, the town is able to return to its antebellum state.
A Thousand Heroes (1992) Description The 1992 TV film A THOUSAND HEROES (which first aired as CRASH LANDING: THE RESCUE OF FLIGHT 232) recounts the events of July 19, 1989, when United Airlines Flight 232, enroute from Denver to Chicago, suffered a catastrophic engine explosion in mid-flight, which totally disabled its ability to stay airborne. Captain Al Haynes was forced to bring United 232 in for a very hard landing at Sioux City Airport in Iowa. The plane blew up and came apart on impact. But in one of the most miraculous outcomes ever, of the 289 passengers and crew onboard, more than 180 managed to survive the horrific ordeal. With the exceptions of some slight dramatizations, A THOUSAND HEROES remains true to the essence of the story. Both veteran director Lamont Johnson and screenwriter Harve Bennett (STAR TREK III) are aided by a solid enough cast. Charlton Heston is quite good as the heroic Al Haynes (even if his being cast here seems a bit predictable). James Coburn scores as the tough-as-nails Sioux City airport emergency official who manages to get his team on the tarmac in time; and Richard Thomas, though he doesn't completely escape his "John Boy" image from "The Waltons", also does good work as the green rookie of Coburn's team. A story as true as this with a miracle finish would seem tailor-made for the movies, and A THOUSAND HEROES works in that fashion. But we also see how Haynes and his crew managed to handle their in-flight emergency like the professionals they were, and how the Sioux City ground crew prepared for the kind of emergency that no airport, however big or small, would ever want to have on their hands. It is a movie well worth seeing for the cast and, most importantly, for this miraculous true story of survival. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/6303093493/002-5006391-1458402?v=glance
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source; Lyn Holley and Rebecca K. Lutte (1999), Public Administration at the Movies, Public Voice 4(2). Lessons in Aviation Safety from A Thousand Heroes The media and film industry often portray a bleak picture of our nation's airspace system. The result is a `sky is falling' image leaving the traveling public to wonder whether our aviation system is airworthy. Aviation crises on the big screen are not uncommon, particularly in the genre of action films. In many cases, a crisis occurs and the people charged with the responsibility of dealing with that crisis are depicted as illprepared and at a loss for how to manage the event. This theme is consistent in most movies depicting an airplane emergency such as Air Force One, Turbulence, Passenger 57, Die Hard II, and Airplane. After some searching, one movie was located which supports a `rival hypothesis;' our airspace system is not only safe, but crisis management teams exist that are very well prepared to deal with disaster. The film A Thousand Heroes is based on the actual events surrounding the crash of United Airlines Flight 232, the DC-10 that crashed in Sioux City, Iowa. The movie shows how a multi-organizational, multi jurisdictional disaster relief team can be created and can work effectively at times of turmoil. The United 232 disaster is an outstanding example of teamwork at all levels, from the flight crew and air traffic controllers to the hospitals, fire units, and air National Guard personnel. Most people recall the fiery image of a DC-10 spilling end over end down the runway and in the cornfields at Sioux City. United 232, with 296 persons on board, was en route from Denver to Chicago on July 19, 1989 when it encountered catastrophic engine failure of the number two engine. The explosion of the engine severed the hydraulic lines, leaving the crew members with almost no control of the aircraft. The crew managed to keep the crippled aircraft airborne for almost 40 minutes in what is now referred to as "an excellent example of effectively using all of your available resources"(Krause, 1995, p. 109). The world was exposed to the crash footage from this fateful day, but few were exposed to the outstanding performance of a well-managed disaster team that made the difference between life and death for many travelers that day. The movie, A Thousand Heroes, gives viewers a look not only at how the flight crew worked so well together, but also provides an inside view of how the crisis was managed by the Sioux City disaster relief team. The tasks for crisis managers are generally defined as four stages of crisis management: 1. Mitigation/Prevention: steps to prevent a crisis and plans to alleviate the impact of the event once it has occurred. 2. Preparedness: developing emergency plans, warning systems, emergency communications, and training. 3. Response: search and rescue operations, evacuations, and medical assistance 4. Recovery: activities to restore operations and return life to normal. (Clary, 1985, p.20; McLoughlin, 1985, p. 166). Examples of the four stages of crisis management can be seen in the film and are summarized below: 1. Mitigation/Prevention: To alleviate the impact of a disaster, Gray Brown, head of disaster relief for Sioux City, invited those with key roles to participate on a disaster relief team. The purpose was to coordinate rescue efforts with emphasis on rescue and treatment of victims and prevention of further loss of life or property. 2. Preparedness: A mock disaster drill was conducted (approximately a year prior to the crash). The drill, a simulated airplane crash complete with victims and an unexpected explosion, provided a training opportunity for the team. A communications network was established so that information could be funneled through a central location and distributed as necessary. 3. Response: The movie tracks in great detail the response of the Sioux City team to the crash of Flight 232. The coordinated, well managed efforts of many organizations from a three state area resulted in the rescue and evacuation of all critically injured passengers in less than one hour. 4. Recovery: In an effort to restore operations, the team secured the crash site until the investigation unit took over. Counselors were also brought in to work with those involved in the 232 disaster. The Sioux City disaster provides public managers, particularly in the transportation field, with an excellent example of crisis management in action. The movie tracks the development of the disaster relief team, problems encountered such as turf wars and power plays which become obvious during a mock disaster drill, and lessons learned from training. The training drill and subsequent debriefing provided the team the opportunity to discuss problems encountered and make improvements to emergency plans. Two significant lessons were learned during training. First, a key person, the fire chief, sent a clear message that he did not agree with Gary Brown's approach to crisis management. He suspected Brown was out to make a name for himself and was politically motivated. Through further communications between Brown and the fire chief, the two found some common ground and were able to work together. The second important lesson was that key groups who could contribute to the team had not been included. As a result of these two lessons, improvements were made to the team and emergency plans prior to the crash of Flight 232. When United 232 crashed at Sioux City Airport, a team that was well-organized prepared and had an effective communication network was waiting for them. The response recovery, depicted in detail in the movie, proved that a multi-organizational team could be created and managed in order to effectively respond to a disaster. The Sioux City disaster relief team was recognized for their outstanding performance following the 232 crash and became a model for airport crisis management programs around the world. The film presents their story of effective disaster response, which resulted in 185 lives saved (Krause, 1996, p. 347). Despite a well known cast of stars, including Charlton Heston, the film did not achieve popular success. Positive images of government seem harder to sell and positive portrayals of aviation safety in the movies are, unfortunately, uncommon.
Abraham Lincoln (1930), Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1934), Young Mr. Lincoln (1939) Description Director D. W. Griffith's first sound film written by poet Stephen Vincent Benet portrays the Lincoln legend from the log cabin to his assassination. A boy is born in a log cabin and is named Abraham. Tall Abraham Lincoln (Walter Huston) works in a store and wrestles Jack Armstrong. Lincoln splits rails and reads law with Ann Rutledge (Una Merkel), saying she taught him how to love. His debts delay their marriage. When Ann dies of disease, Lincoln becomes morose. Mary Todd (Kay Hammond) is courted by Stephen A. Douglas (E. Allyn Warren) and dances with Lincoln. On their wedding day Lincoln tells Billy Herndon (Jason Robards Sr.) that Mary scares him, and he backs out; but two years later they are married. In the senate race Douglas and Lincoln debate. Lincoln says he opposes the extension of slavery and secession. Lincoln loses the election and considers himself a failure. Lincoln tells Republicans the union must be preserved, and he is elected president as their candidate. His cabinet intends to control his inexperience, but Lincoln orders Fort Sumter defended. When Confederate guns fire on it, the war begins. Lincoln calls for 75,000 volunteers. General Scott and Lincoln get bad news of Bull Run, and Washington is in danger. Mary doesn't want to move, and Lincoln stays. He pardons a soldier who threw his rifle away. With casualties mounting, his advisors want him to let the southern states go. Instead Lincoln emancipates the slaves in the rebellious states. The secret service reports there are 600,000 Copperheads in the north. Lincoln can't sleep. He sends for General Grant (Fred Warren) and puts him in command, while Mary complains of his cigar smoke. War secretary Stanton (Oscar Apfel) tells Lincoln it depends on General Sheridan (Frank Campeau), who hears cannons and attacks with cavalry. Stanton and Lincoln learn that Sheridan captured many prisoners. Confederate General Lee (Hobart Bosworth) refuses to execute a spy, because he knows his army is nearly finished. Lincoln tells Grant to let the rebels keep their horses for planting and let Confederate President Davis escape "unbeknownst to yourselves." John Wilkes Booth (Ian Keith) complains that Lincoln suppressed jury trials and free expression. Lincoln is re-elected. At Ford's Theater Lincoln repeats the best lines of his second inaugural and Gettysburg address. During the play he is shot by Booth, who shouts "Sic semper tyrannis." The final scene shifts from the log cabin to the Lincoln Memorial. Despite poor sound quality this generally accurate biography captures Lincoln's humor, psychological complexity, and dedication to the political union of the United States. http://www.san.beck.org/MM/1930/AbrahamLincoln.html
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source: Charles T. Goodsell & Nancy Murray. (1995). Public administration illuminated and inspired by the art. Historical figures are frequently idealized, if not idolized, from D. W Griffith's biography Abraham Lincoln (1930) to the more sophisticated film Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1934), and then on to Young Mr. Lincoln (1939). Lincoln, in all of these films, is imbued with the attributes of an American folk hero: tough, diligent, intelligent, one who leads by example and humility.
Absence of Malice (1981). Description Paul Newman plays the son of a long dead Mafia boss who is a simple liquor warehouse owner. Frustrated in his attempt to solve a murder of a union head, a prosecutor leaks a false story that Newman is a target of the investigation, hoping that he will tell them something for protection. As his live begins to unravel, others are hurt by the story. Sally Field, the reporter, is in the clear under the Absence of Malice rule in slander and libel cases. Knowing nothing to trade to the prosecutors, Newman must regain control of his life on different ground. http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0081974/plotsummary
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source: Mordecai Lee & Susan C. Paddock (2001). Strange But True Tales From Hollywood: The Bureaucrat As Movie Hero, Public Administration & Management, 6(4) In Miami, out-of-control federal prosecutors and law enforcement officials have been trying to build a case against a suspected crime boss. Acting illegally, they wiretapped an innocent citizen who they thought might be helpful in their investigation. In an effort to compel him to cooperate, they also leaked incriminating and false information to an eager, willing and gullible reporter. James J. Wells (Wilford Brimley), Assistant Attorney General for the Organized Crime Division of the US Department of Justice, descends on Miami to clean up the legal and public relations mess they have created. He brings the key players together to get to the bottom of the imbroglio. After hearing their rationalizations, Wells criticizes their conduct and “delivers an unforgettable lecture to overreaching government employees” (Ortega-Liston, 2000, p. 7). He condemns the head of the organized crime strike force, telling him, “we can’t have people go around leaking stuff for their own reasons. It ain’t legal. And worse than that, it ain’t right.” He publicly censures the local US Attorney, saying, “he’s a nice guy. He just forgot about the rules.” Regarding the wiretaps that the FBI had installed without court authorization, Wells chastises the strike force prosecutor, telling him that the FBI agent “don’t get paid to act on your instructions. He gets paid to abide by and to enforce the law.” Wells wraps up his inquiry by firing the federal strike force prosecutor. He wants to do the same to the US Attorney. However, because the US Attorney is a federal office holder who has been nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate, Wells cannot fire him. Instead, he tells him as forcefully as possible that he should resign immediately. Wells also knows that he is accountable to the public-at-large for what has happened. Since government managers have violated the public trust, Wells knows he must report to the citizenry about the matter. He prepares a detailed public statement. He is not reluctant to describe this entire incident fully and honestly, even though it will greatly embarrass the Department. Rather, he is so committed to the values of legality and professionalism that he proceeds unhesitatingly, regardless of the consequences. In this final compelling scene, Wells “emerges as a highly ethical public administrator” (Ortega-Liston, 2000, p. 7). Movie Analysis in Newspaper Source; The New York Times, November 19, 1981, By JANET MASLINSydney Pollack's recent movies have had a lot in common. In The Way We Were, in Three Days of the Condor, in The Electric Horseman, and now in Absence of Malice, Mr. Pollack has presented his own contemplative brand of lonely love story. These films may look like romances, but they're about people who never quite fall in love. The characters invariably come from two different worlds. As they meet and make their earnest but futile efforts to reach one another, the action remains cautious, thoughtful, and slow. What Mr. Pollack's movies lack in momentum, they make up for in quiet gravity. Whether they work well (The Way We Were) or fail miserably (Bobby Deerfield), these films are soulful and serious, qualities that seem all too rare just now. There's some monotony to Mr. Pollack's approach, and an essential indecisiveness—each of these stories ends on a rueful note rather than a sharply dramatic one. Yet the intelligence of his work is unusual and rewarding, even when that work goes slightly awry. Absence of Malice, which opens today at Loew's Tower East, would seem to have a tough, controversial subject, because it concerns itself with journalistic impropriety and a gangland killing. But this is a Sydney Pollack film before it's anything else, and it has the pensiveness to prove it. If other recent films have glorified the role of the investigative reporter, this is one that attempts to look closely and rather pessimistically at the profession. Its heroine, Megan Carter, violates so many basic rules of journalism—from neglecting to check her story to sleeping with the man it is about—that it becomes impossible to view her behavior as representative. And yet, through Megan, the movie is able to raise a number of questions about reportorial tactics and the difference between what is accurate and what is true. Megan (Sally Field) erroneously reports that Michael Gallagher (Paul Newman), a Florida liquor wholesaler whose father was a gangster, is implicated in the disappearance of a local labor leader. She has been tricked into doing this by a too-eager Government investigator (Bob Balaban) who knows that Gallagher is innocent but would like to pressure him into naming names. As the story grows more and more convoluted, Meg becomes what she describes as "involved" with Gallagher, and meanwhile does inestimable damage to a timid, devout Catholic woman (Melinda Dillon) who is not Gallagher's lover but his close friend. Mr. Pollack's movies are often field days for the actors involved, and that is particularly true of Absence of Malice. Every performance from the large supporting cast—Mr. Balaban, Miss Dillon, Barry Primus, Josef Sommer, Don Hood, Luther Adler, and the scene-stealing Wilford Brimley, who is even more satisfyingly righteous at the end of this film than he was in the last moments of The China Syndrome—is extremely good. They're able to be because the scenes, as written by an ex-journalist, Kurt Luedtke, concentrate less heavily on moving the plot along than they do on giving everyone enough to do. Even when the action seems wrongheaded—and it frequently does—the movie is richly textured and well played. Miss Field's big scene with Miss Dillon, for instance, shows the reporter behaving abominably from both a professional standpoint and a personal one, yet the sequence is a strong one anyhow. "I'm used to dealing with girlfriends," Miss Field says patronizingly, and proceeds to extract a painfully intimate confession from the other woman. She then threatens to print it, and has no patience for Miss Dillon's plea that this story will ruin her. "It's 1981. People will understand," Miss Field says carelessly. Nobody understands less than she. Miss Field is in the unenviable position of having to play a hardboiled, unsympathetic woman whose behavior is sufficiently reckless to raise questions about whether she ought to be employed anywhere, let alone in a big-city newsroom. Even the scenes designed to make Megan more likable—as when Gallagher comes to visit her in the emptily modern apartment where she lives alone—don't soften the character, nor does the occasional misplaced kittenishness that Miss Field brings to the role. It doesn't help that the film's attitude about Megan's actions is understandably, but damagingly, indefinite. In another movie, someone like Megan might well be presented as a villain. In this one, a scene in which Gallagher wants to do her physical harm is tempered before it can get out of hand, even though his desire for a violent reprisal has become very understandable. As for Gallagher, he is one of Mr. Newman's better characters in years, played so close to the vest that he never offers an extra syllable and eventually outsmarts everyone else in the story. Thanks to the plot's complexity and the painstaking fashion in which it is detailed for the audience, that seems quite an accomplishment. Even the foolish or misguided figures in the story are too thoughtful to be easily outsmarted.
A Bug's Life (color, 1998, 1 hour 35 minutes, G, Waft Disney Home Video) Description There was such a magic on the screen in 1995 when the people at Pixar came up with the first fully computer-animated film, Toy Story. Their second feature film, A Bug's Life, may miss the bull's-eye but Pixar's target is so lofty, it's hard to find the film anything less than irresistible. Brighter and more colorful than the other animated insect movie of 1998 (Antz), A Bug's Life is the sweetly told story of Flik (voiced by David Foley), an ant searching for better ways to be a bug. His colony unfortunately revolves around feeding and fearing the local grasshoppers (lead by Hopper, voiced with gleeful menace by Kevin Spacey). When Flik accidentally destroys the seasonal food supply for the grasshoppers he decides to look for help ("We need bigger bugs!"). The ants, led by Princess Atta (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), are eager to dispose of the troublesome Flik. Yet he finds help--a hearty bunch of bug warriors--and brings them back to the colony. Unfortunately they are just traveling performers afraid of conflict. As with Toy Story, the ensemble of creatures and voices is remarkable and often inspired. Highlights include wiseacre comedian Denis Leary as an un-ladylike ladybug, Joe Ranft as the German-accented caterpillar, David Hyde Pierce as a stick bug, and Michael McShane as a pair of unintelligible pillbugs. The scene-stealer is Atta's squeaky-voiced sister, baby Dot (Hayden Panettiere), who has a big sweet spot for Flik. More gentle and kid-friendly than Antz, A Bug Life's still has some good suspense and a wonderful demise of the villain. However, the film--a giant worldwide hit--will be remembered for its most creative touch: "outtakes" over the end credits à la many live-action comedy films. These dozen or so scenes (both "editions" of outtakes are contained here) are brilliant and deserve a special place in film history right along with 1998's other most talked-about sequence: the opening Normandy invasion in Saving Private Ryan.
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source: Joseph E Champoux (2001). Animated Film as a Teaching Resource, Journal of Management Education. 25(1) A group of freeloading grasshoppers dominate an ant colony.' Hopper (Kevin Spacey), the grasshoppers' leader, perceives ants as an inferior species put on earth to serve grasshoppers. The otherwise conformist colony includes Flik (Dave Folly), a nonconformist, innovative ant. He tries to defend the colony with a group of warrior bugs he recruits in the city. These bugs were laid-off troupers from a flea circus, a fact unknown to Flik. Introducing the heterogeneous bugs to the ant colony leads to mayhem, humor, and, finally, success. A stunning sequence toward the end of A Bug's Life shows emergent leadership and leadership effects on a group. Other scenes from the film show the absence and presence of diversity, a topic treated elsewhere (Champoux, 1999b). All scenes are short enough for classroom use. You also can assign the entire film as an outside-of-class activity. Scenes (Start. L-30.51; Stop: 1:34.22; RT. 6 minutes) These scenes start after the burning bird machine crashes. Hopper grabs Dot (Harden Pacesetter) as she runs out of the machine. They end after the ants and their friends put Hopper into the cannon. Flik salutes him and says, "Happy landing, Hopper." The movie cuts to a rain storm. Questions Who are the leaders in these scenes? Are leaders always in formal organizational positions, or can they emerge within a group because of their behavior? What are the effects of leadership on the ant colony? Analysis Hopper tries to put the ants in their secondary place of serving the grasshoppers. He refers to them as "mindless, soil shoving losers." Flik's impassioned speech convinces the ants of their self-worth. He tells Hopper about their accomplishments, something the ants had not thought of before. Flik emerges as a leader among the ants. Princess Atta (Julia LouisDreyfus), with a more formal position in the colony, also reasserts herself. The ant colony, and the recently arrived other bugs, become cohesive with a strong focus on defeating the grasshoppers. The animation shows the spread of this cohesiveness as a wave of arm linking through the crowd. Movie Analysis in Newspaper Source; The New York Times, November 25, 1998, By JANET MASLIN It looks as if "A Bug's Life," from the computer-animation outfit Pixar and some of the personnel behind "Toy Story," is the best ant colony movie of the year. And that's no small distinction, considering the bug-eat-bug movie rivalry under way. Both this and the uncannily similar "Antz" are sophisticated, entertaining feats of animation, but "A Bug's Life" has the conceptual edge as a clearly defined family film (as opposed to the more verbally adult, yet visually youth-oriented "Antz"). As directed by John Lasseter, who directed "Toy Story," and Andrew Stanton, who collaborated on the "Toy Story" screenplay, "A Bug's Life" makes jaunty, imaginative use of both extraordinary technology and bold storytelling possibilities within the insect world. At first "A Bug's Life" looks disappointingly familiar, as one more line of identical insect drones trudges across the screen. "Antz" started with the same collective mentality and then invoked bugs with star personalities (Woody Allen in one of his funniest recent performances) to deliver some zest. But this time the ants' story is more coherent on its own terms, so the audience is more caught up in narrative than in all-star individual characters. Also, "A Bug's Life" shows off the same shrewd anthropomorphism that gave "Toy Story" so much spark. Though no children's film is without tyrants these days, and the bullies here are towering grasshoppers (with Kevin Spacey nice and threatening as their ringleader), "A Bug's Life" is still relatively benign. It concerns a whimsical, daydreamy ant named Flik (with the voice of Dave Foley) who accidentally runs afoul of the grasshoppers. Clinging to a sprig of dandelion fuzz and blowing off into the wind, Flik sets out to find reinforcements who will help defend the ant colony, but he accidentally comes across a bug circus. With these show-biz types, there's a bit of misunderstanding about what "knock 'em dead" means. The circus clowns (with Denis Leary as a macho ladybug, David Hyde Pierce as a stick-shaped bug, Bonnie Hunt as a black widow spider and Madeline Kahn as a butterfly) show off some hilarious teamwork before being reluctantly dragged into the ant colony's troubles. Meanwhile, Phyllis Diller supplies the voice of an ant queen with a flower for a hairdo, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus frets charmingly as the princess who's sweet on Flik. There's no real need to know more than this except that the material combines pastel colors, natural settings and vibrant, comical insects into a spectacle that lots of children ought to find irresistible. The film's message about standing up for freedom is similar to that of "Antz," but it's delivered with less strife and a lighter hand. "A Bug's Life" is being shown with Pixar's Academy Award-winning short, "Geri's Game," in which an old man playing chess imagines a doppelg?ger partner for himself and is then carried away by the excitement of the game. It's a showcase for the incredible range of facial expressions that make this type of animation more and more invitingly lifelike all the time. Although "A Bug's Life" is rated G, it includes big, scary grasshoppers who are sure to get their comeuppance in the end.
All the President’s Men (1976). Description In the run-up to the 1972 elections, Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward covers what seems to be a minor break-in at the Democratic Party National headquarters. He is surprised to find top lawyers already on the defence case, and the discovery of names and addresses of Republican fund organisers on the accused further arouses his suspicions. The editor of the Post is prepared to run with the story and assigns Woodward and Carl Bernstein to it. They find the trail leading higher and higher in the Republican Party, and eventually into the White House itself. http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0074119/plotsummary
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source: Mordecai Lee & Susan C. Paddock (2001). Strange But True Tales From Hollywood: The Bureaucrat As Movie Hero, Public Administration & Management, 6(4) In their effort to expose the Watergate cover-up, Washington Post reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward repeatedly hit dead-ends and might fail. Two high-ranking bureaucrats, who disagree with the White House’s effort to stymie the FBI’s investigation, agree to serve as anonymous sources. The one most remembered is Woodward’s source, dubbed ‘Deep Throat’ (Hal Holbrook). He keeps their expose reporting alive with advice on what direction the reporters should go. He is obviously a very high ranking administrator, since he is familiar with the details of the FBI’s investigation, the Justice Department’s handling of the case and the White House’s interactions with the investigation. Deep Throat is putting his job in jeopardy by even talking to Woodward. The Nixon White House would certainly fire him if he were exposed and would probably also engage in character assassination in an effort to impugn his credibility as a source. Nonetheless, he continues to meet with them to assure that the cover-up will not succeed. The second heroic bureaucrat in the story is usually overshadowed by Deep Throat and often forgotten. Nonetheless, Bernstein has a source in the FBI, who in the movie is only called Joe (Jess Osuna). Like Deep Throat, Joe is unhappy with how the FBI has been manipulated to prevent a full and free investigation of all possible crimes related to Watergate. While extremely worried about keeping his job, he tries his best to help the reporters. Both Joe and Deep Throat are courageous bureaucrats who believe in the rule of law and the Constitution.
Movie Analysis in Newspaper Source; The New York Times, October 17, 2004 Sunday, By FRANK RICH
Will We Need a New 'All the
President's Men'? Source; The New York Times, April 8, 1976, By VINCENT CANBY Newspapers and newspapermen have long been favorite subjects for moviemakers—a surprising number of whom are former newspapermen, yet not until All the President's Men, the riveting screen adaptation of the Watergate book by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, has any film come remotely close to being an accurate picture of American journalism at its best. All the President's Men, directed by Alan J. Pakula, written by William Goldman, and largely pushed into being by the continuing interest of one of its stars, Robert Redford, is a lot of things all at once: a spellbinding detective story about the work of the two Washington Post reporters who helped break the Watergate scandal, a breathless adventure that recalls the triumphs of Frank and Joe Hardy in that long-ago series of boys' books, and a vivid footnote to some contemporary American history that still boggles the mind. The film, which opened yesterday at Loews Astor Plaza and Tower East Theaters, is an unequivocal smash-hit—the thinking man's Jaws. Much of the effectiveness of the movie, which could easily have become a mishmash of names, dates, and events, is in its point of view, which remains that of its two, as yet unknown reporters—Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman), highly competitive and a little more experienced than his partner, and Bob Woodward (Robert Redford), very ambitious and a dog for details. It's through their eyes—skeptical, hungry, insatiably curious—that All the President's Men unfolds. It begins logically on the night of June 17, 1972, when five men were arrested in an apparent break-in at the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate complex in Washington, and continues through the spectacular series of revelations, accusations, and admissions of guilt that eventually brought the Nixon Presidency to its conclusion. Like Bernstein and Woodward in the course of their investigation, the film maintains bifocal vision, becoming thoroughly absorbed in the seemingly unimportant minutiae out of which major conspiracies can sometimes be reconstructed, yet never for long losing sight of the overall relevance of what's going on. Although All the President's Men is first and foremost a fascinating newspaper film, the dimensions and implications of the Watergate story obviously give it an emotional punch that might be lacking if, say, Bernstein and Woodward had been exposing corruption in the Junior League. Thus the necessity of the director's use of newsreel footage from time to time—the shots of President Nixon's helicopter making a night landing at the White House, which open the film; the television images of the President entering the House of Representatives, and of other familiar folk including former Attorney General John N. Mitchell, former Vice President Agnew, and, especially, Representative Gerald R. Ford in the course of his nomination of President Nixon at the 1972 Republican National Convention. Though the film will undoubtedly have some political impact, its strength is the virtually day-by-day record of the way Bernstein and Woodward conducted their investigations, always under the supervision of a kindly avuncular Ben Bradlee (Jason Robards), the Post's managing editor who (in this film) gives out advice, caution, and, occasionally, a "well-done," acting as Dr. Gillespie to their Dr. Kildares. Mr. Redford and Mr. Hoffman play their roles with the low-keyed, understated efficiency required since they are, in effect, the straight men to the people and the events they are pursuing. The film stays out of their private lives but is full of unexpected, brief, moving glimpses into the private lives of their subjects, including a frightened bookkeeper (Jane Alexander) for the Committee to Re-elect the President, Donald Segretti (Robert Walden), the "dirty tricks" man, and Hugh Sloan, Jr. (Stephen Collins), the committee treasurer, and his wife (Meredith Baxter). The manners and methods of big-city newspapering, beautifully detailed, contribute as much to the momentum of the film as the mystery that's being uncovered. Maybe even more, since the real excitement of All the President's Men is in watching two comparatively inexperienced reporters stumble onto the story of their lives and develop it triumphantly, against all odds.
American Beauty (1999) Description Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) is suffering a mid-life crisis that affects the lives of his family which is made up of his super bitch of a wife Carolyn and rebelling daughter Jane who hates him. Carolyn is a real estate agent a little too wrapped up in her job who takes on an affair with business rival Buddy Kane. Meanwhile Jane seems to fall in love with Ricky Fitts, the strange boy next door who is a drug dealer/documentarian who lives under a roof governed by a very strict marine father and a speechless mother. Lester's mid-life crisis causes him to drastically change his life around when he quits his job and works at a fast food restaurant. He starts working out to gain the attention of Angela, a friend of Jane's who brags about her sexual exploits every weekend. Lives change and not for the best. http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0169547/plotsummary
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source; Mordecai Lee (2002). Management history as told by popular culture: the screen image of the efficiency expert, Management Decision, 40(9) Plot relating to efficiency expert: To cut costs, the 47management at a media trade publication brings in efficiency expert Brad Dupree (Barry Del Sherman). Dupree then meets with one of the employees: Dupree: So I'm sure you can understand the need to cut corners around here. Burnham: Oh, sure. Times are tight, and you gotta free up cash. Gotta spend money to make money. Right? Dupree: Exactly ... Nobody's getting fired yet. That's why we're having everyone write out a job description, mapping out in detail how they can contribute. That way, management can assess who's valuable and - Burnham (interrupting): - Who's expendable. Dupree: It's just business (Ball, 1999, pp. 6-7). Movie Analysis in Newspaper Source; The New York Times, September 15, 1999, By JANET MASLIN
Americanization of Emily(1964). Description During the build-up to D-Day in 1944, the British found their island hosting many thousands of American soldiers who were "oversexed, overpaid, and over here". That's Charlie Madison exactly; he knows all the angles to make life as smooth and risk-free as possible for himself. But things become complicated when he falls for an English woman, and his commanding officer's nervous breakdown leads to Charlie being sent on a senseless and dangerous mission. http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0057840/plotsummary
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source: Mordecai Lee (2001). The image of the government flack: movie depictions of public relations in public administration, Public Relations Review, 26 (3) Senior US Navy staff stationed in London are preparing for the 1944 Normandy invasion. While they talk frequently about the impending landing, they worry obsessively about its public relations implications rather than the lives about to be lost. An admiral complains, "I don't like the way the Navy's been left out of the publicity in [Operation] Overlord. I want extreme measures taken to publicize the Navy's role in the Invasion." Seeking to placate him, an Army general promises, "I've been instructed to say we'll put on a few more Navy staff officers at Supreme Headquarters, and we're going to push the P-R-O [public relations office] people to send out more Navy releases." Dissatisfied, the admiral later has a brainstorm, telling his staff, "The first dead man on Omaha Beach must be sailor!... I want a movie made that shows the first brave man to die on those beaches was a sailor." One of his aides, Lieutenant Commander Madison, says to his colleague and friend, Lieutenant Commander Cummings, "This movie's just an unnecessary piece of Naval public relations, and I won't risk my life for that." Madison's protests are for naught. He and Cummings accompany the first wave of Navy sappers landing on Omaha Beach. Madison acts cowardly during the landing. As soon as the shooting begins, he turns around to reboard to the landing craft. Cummings tries to force him to fulfill the assignment by firing a shot in his general direction. Madison falls to the ground, becoming, apparently, the first dead man on Omaha beach who also happens to be from the Navy. Thinking Madison is dead, Cummings takes his picture. It ends up on the cover of Life magazine. When that happens, Cummings observes, "We honestly didn't think it would catch on that big. Our Press Office people just sent it out as a standard release... Our public relations office is talking now about holding sort of a ceremony over his grave, building some sort of monument." However, it turns out Madison is not dead after all. He had merely been knocked unconscious. When he had regained consciousness, he was disoriented and evacuated from the beach by medics. It had taken a long time for him to be processed and transported to a military hospital. During all this time, he hadn't been able to call his office. Finally, he is disembarked and calls the Admiral's HQ. When the admiral finds out that Madison is alive, he isn't chagrined at all at perpetrating misleading publicity. Instead, he decides to celebrate the fact that the `dead hero' survived after all. "We're going to make a big, brass-band hero out of Charlie, using every coarse theatricality the Public Relations Office is overpaid to think up." Movie Analysis in Newspaper Source; The New York Times, October 28, 1964 By Bosley CrowtherIf you can stand watching Julie Andrews playing a role in which she doesn't sing, but in which she does make some beautiful music with a delightfully unheroic man, then nothing should deter you from going as swiftly as you can to see The Americanization of Emily, which opened last night at Loew's State. (It opens today at the Tower East for a simultaneous run.) Here is a film that not only gives the charming Miss Andrews a chance to prove herself irresistible in a straight romantic comedy but also gets off some of the wildest, brashest, and funniest situations and cracks at the lunacy of warfare that have popped from the screen in quite some time. Indeed, when you think about it, you recognize the amazing fact that the comedy is more fascinating than the complementary byplay of romance and that James Garner as the antihero is more the wheelhorse than is the graceful female star. It is Mr. Garner as the expert "dog robber"—or surefire aide—of an American admiral dwelling in somewhat gaudy luxury in a London hotel in 1944 who moves at the head of a skillful and deadly satiric thrust at the whole myth of war being noble and that "to die a hero is a glorious thing." And it is his taut and stalwart perseverance in acting an unregenerate coward that keynotes the yarn that Paddy Chayefsky has brilliantly adapted from a novel by William Bradford Huie. What Mr. Garner is expressing in this sharply outspoken film, which conceals the deadly point of its thesis within some mischievously nimble farce, is that the philosophy of pacifism is the highest morality and that wars will be abolished only when people stop thinking it is noble to fight. "So long as valor is a virtue, we will have soldiers," he says in a speech in a scene with Miss Andrews and Joyce Grenfell as her mother, which has respectably Shavian overtones. It is to discredit this virtue that his character takes the attitude that dead heroes are simply dead men, less fortunate or commendable than living cowards. This is, of course, a philosophy that shocks and initially repels the charming young English widow, a motor-pool driver, with whom he has an affair. But it even more seriously startles his gung-ho superiors when they start to execute their admiral's orders, conceived to elevate the image of the Navy, that a sailor must be "the first dead man on Omaha Beach." It is a tense and sensitive area into which the comedy finally gets as it wildly propels its cowardly hero toward a cross-Channel landing craft and a lonely spot on the Normandy beachhead with a movie camera in his hands. There may be those who will find it distasteful after all that has gone before—the kidding of the Navy "brass" in London and the bouncing about of chairborne sailors in hotel beds. But this deadly touch does put a climax to the serious implications of the film and provides an opportunity for resolving the previously faltering romance. In addition to the splendid performances that Mr. Garner and Miss Andrews give—his with an edge of crisp sarcasm, hers with a brush of sentiment—there are dandy jobs by James Coburn as a swiveling "Annapolis man," Melvyn Douglas as the eccentric admiral, and Edward Binns as a solid hunk of "brass." Also deft in small roles are Miss Grenfell, Keenan Wynn as a terrified swab, and Liz Fraser as a motor-pool driver who gladly accepts the Americans' silk stockings and Hershey bars.
Antz (color, 1998, 1 hour 23 minutes, PG, Dream Works Home Entertainment) Description Woody Allen as a worker ant with an inferiority complex? Sylvester Stallone as an affable soldier ant who discovers that digging tunnels is cool? The animation playground we all knew so well is turning into a theme park full of in-jokes for grownups. Antz explores age-old topics (one person--err, insect--can make a difference, individuality and social responsibility must exist side by side, war is hell) with comic asides and Woody Allen's funniest quips this side of PG (adults will chuckle at the socialist slogans bandied about as he campaigns for workers' rights). Sharon Stone voices the rebellious princess with a fun-loving streak that doesn't quite overcome her royal bearing and court training, but she can learn. Gene Hackman is all teeth (ants have teeth?) and menacing grins as the Army general plotting insect-icide. This bug's-eye view of life on Earth gives Allen's neurotic nonconformist an epic adventure of microscopic proportions: a devastating war with a termite colony, an odyssey to the fabled land of plenty (a picnic ground), and a race to save his fellow workers from certain death. Other voices include Anne Bancroft as the Queen, Christopher Walken, Jennifer Lopez, Danny Glover, Dan Aykroyd, Jane Curtin, and John Mahoney. The computer animation isn't exactly realistic but feels as solid and contoured as puppet animation with the smoothness and slickness of traditional cel cartoons, and the character designs and animation offer a marvelous range of expressions. The PG rating includes a gritty battle sequence that may frighten youngsters. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/6305244855/102-7578747-5519345
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source: Joseph E Champoux (2001). Animated Film as a Teaching Resource, Journal of Management Education. 25(1) Z (Woody Allen) is an insignificant worker ant in a massive ant colony.' He is trying to find his role in life and to pursue Princess Bala (Sharon Stone). Everything changes after he trades places with his soldier ant friend Weaver (Sylvester Stallone). A termite war and the pursuit of the evil General Mandible (Gene Hackman) takes Z's life to unexpected places. This DreamWorks production is a wonderful example of modern computer animation. Giving students a visual image of the world of work can act as a useful context for a management or organizational behavior course. Issues such as the meaning of work, work attitudes, and supervisory behavior are easily discussed in oral or written form. Developing a visual image of these issues comes easier from film, especially the strong visualization of animated film. The opening scenes of Antz offer some striking visual images of the world of work and commentary about it. Showing these scenes at the beginning of a course can engagingly set a context of the world of work to which you can often refer. This film is rich enough in scenes that you can assign the entire film for group analysis or individual homework assignments. I comment on some scenes later in this section. Scenes (Start 0:04:11; Stop: 0:11.21; RT. 7 minutes) These scenes start after the opening credits with a shot of the New York skyline. Z says in the voice-over, "All my life I've lived and worked in the big city." They end as General Mandible and Colonel Cutter (Christopher Walken) leave to meet the queen. Mandible says, "Our very next stop, Cutter." Questions What are the major work-related issues raised in these scenes? Do you see these issues in your work experiences? What is your preferred "world of work"? Analysis Z symbolically represents any worker who does not feel his or her job meaningfully contributes to oneself and the larger organization. The ant colony asks its members to give up their individuality and contribute to the greater good. Azteca (Jennifer Lopez) has a positive view that Z finds hard to understand. The foreman (Grant Shaud) symbolically represents supervisors in the world of work who do not understand human motivation. The General Mandible part of these scenes (start: 0:09:50; stop: 0:11:26; RT: 2 minutes) can work well on its own. Mandible has the leadership traits of dominance, self-confidence, intelligence, and energy. He lacks honesty and integrity. His behavior is strongly production centered and high in initiating structure. He sets high performance goals and expects high performance. For example, Mandible says to the foreman, "You are going to finish this tunnel on schedule, come hell or high water." Another set of scenes (start: 0:51:04; stop: 0:56:59; RT: 6 min) symbolically shows some parts of human perceptual processes. Z and Bala have discovered part of "Insectopia." They find a human picnic with cans of soda, sandwiches, and the like. They also have an encounter with a boy walking through the picnic. Every object appears gigantic to them. The objects are the perceptual targets. Their size emphasizes an aspect of an object that affects one's detection and recognition threshold. These wonderfully entertaining, vivid scenes should create powerful images in your student's minds about these abstract concepts. The film's closing scenes show problem solving (start: 1:13:37; stop: 1:20:07; RT: 7 min). The problem is how to escape from the flooding colony. Z has the innovative idea of building a giant ladder from the ants to reach the megaroom's roof. They escape safely in a dramatic close to the film. Movie Analysis in Newspaper Source;
The New York Times,
October 2, 1998,
Friday,
By
JANET
MASLIN In a
Workers' Paradise, This Ant Feels Insignificant
Apocalypse: Caught in the Eye of the Storm(1998). Description Bronson Pearl and Helen Hannah are two news broadcasters who are covering the impending war in Israel. Yet, suddenly millions of people disappear, then a new leader performs an incredible miracle. These are astounding media events. Helen soon comes to the realization that these times are fulfilling biblical prophesy... and she was left behind. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0149695/plotsummary
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source: Mordecai Lee (2001). The image of the government flack: movie depictions of public relations in public administration, Public Relations Review, 26 (3) Christendom's End of Days and Second Coming are occurring in contemporary times. In Bonn, Germany, a spokesman for all the Foreign Ministers of the members of the European Union makes a statement to a huge throng of reporters about a 7-year peace agreement between Jews and Muslims that was negotiated by the apparent Messiah.
Apollo 13(1995) Description It had been less than a year since man first walked on the Moon, but as far as the American public was concerned, Apollo 13 was just another "routine" space flight--until these words pierced the immense void of space: "Houston, we have a problem." Stranded 205,000 miles from Earth in a crippled spacecraft, astronauts Jim Lovell (Hanks), Fred Haise (Paxton) and Jack Swigert (Bacon) fight a desperate battle to survive. Meanwhile, at Mission Control, astronaut Ken Mattingly (Sinise), flight director Gene Kranz (Harris) and a heroic ground crew race against time--and the odds--to bring them home. http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0112384/plotsummary
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source: Mordecai Lee (2001). The image of the government flack: movie depictions of public relations in public administration, Public Relations Review, 26 (3) Henry Hurt is a fictional character with the merged duties of a real-life NASA public affairs and protocol officer. At the Kennedy Space Center, he accompanies a group of members of Congress on a tour. The tour guide is astronaut Jim Lovell. When Lovell is called away during the tour, he turns the group over to Hurt with a familiar and declarative "Henry?" During the ill-fated mission of Apollo 13, Hurt deals with both the press and Lovell's family. Marilyn Lovell trusts him, knowing that he will give her accurate and honest information. When the networks don't air a live TV broadcast from the spaceship that occurred before the accident, he frankly explains to her, "We've made going to the moon about as exciting as taking a trip to Pittsburgh." When a problem arises with the press camped outside the Lovell home, he goes there to talk it over with Marilyn. She demonstrates her comfortable relationship with him by jibing him, as he enters the house in the morning, "Henry, don't you ever sleep?" At another point, we see a reporter taking him aside for a frank assessment of the chances of the crew returning safely. Hurt responds smoothly, fulfilling the reporter's request without saying anything that would embarrass his agency. Movie Analysis in Newspaper Source; The New York Times, June 30, 1995, By JANET MASLIN extraordinary verisimilitude. No film about space travel has done a more realistic job of conveying the strangeness and exhilaration of such exploits, not to mention the terror summed up by Mr. Bacon's Jack Swigert: "If this doesn't work, we're not going to have the power to get home." Crippled by the explosion of one of its oxygen tanks as it neared the moon, the spaceship Odyssey experienced sudden electrical failures that forced the astronauts to shut it down. They took refuge in their lunar exploration module, the Aquarius, which was neither built nor programmed to bring three men back to earth. Computer readjustments, navigational problems, lack of heat in space, fear of incineration on re-entry, condensation that made the flight "a little like trying to drive a toaster through a car wash": all these troubles are grippingly dealt with in cinematically unconventional ways. When the guys in this film frantically get out their slide rules, they're executing a gutsier rescue than the maneuvers of any cape-wearing cartoon superhero. Thanks largely to Mr. Hanks' foursquare presence here, the empathy factor for "Apollo 13" is through the roof. This actor's way of amplifying the ordinary side of an extraordinary character remains supremely fine-tuned. Playing the tough, commanding Jim Lovell is a substantial stretch for Mr. Hanks, but as usual his seeming ingenuousness overshadows all else about the role. There's not a false move to anything he does on screen. Once again, he gives a performance that looks utterly natural and is, in fact, subtly new. The other principal performances are equally staunch, giving vivid, likable impressions of characters whose rough edges have been only slightly smoothed. (The fact that Gene Kranz liked to start his day listening to John Philip Sousa marches, as reported in Andrew Chaikin's lucid Apollo overview, "A Man on the Moon," is the kind of thing not dealt with by Mr. Harris's tight, steely performance.) Also notable about "Apollo 13": James Horner's rousing music, convincing rocket scenes that don't come from NASA and an authentic glimpse of the role of television reporting during the Apollo crisis. The news media can be faulted for some of the behavior seen here, but Mr. Howard doesn't waste time taking those potshots. Truly, "Apollo 13" has better things to do.
Attack! (1956) Description During the closing days of WWII, a National Guard Infantry Company is assigned the task of setting up artillery observation posts in a strategic area. Lieutenant Costa knows that Cooney is in command only because of 'connections' he had made state-side. Costa has serious doubts concerning Cooneys' ability to lead the group. When Cooney sends Costa and his men out, and refuses to re-enforce them, Costa swears revenge. http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0048966/plotsummary
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source; Jay M. Shafritz and Peter Foot (1999), Organization Development in Hollywood War Movies: from The Sands of Iwo Jima to G. I. Jane, Public Voice 4(2) Jack Palance stars as an infantry platoon leader who has to "carry" his inept commanding officer -- at least until Palance, for excellent reasons, shoots his cowardly commander. Because it graphically demonstrates that sometimes the best way to save the organization is to kill the boss, this is one of the few American war movies of the 1950s to be made without the cooperation of the U.S. Department of Defense.
Away All Boats (1956) Description The story of USS 'Belinda', Attack Transport PA22, launched late 1943 with regular-navy captain Hawks and ex-merchant captain MacDougall as boat commander. Despite personal friction, the two have plenty to deal with as the only experienced officers on board during the "shakedown." Almost laughable incompetence gradually improves, but the crew remains far from perfect when the ship sees action, landing troops on enemy beachheads. And few anticipate the challenges in store at Okinawa... http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0048971/plotsummary
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source; Jay M. Shafritz and Peter Foot (1999), Organization Development in Hollywood War Movies: from The Sands of Iwo Jima to G. I. Jane, Public Voice 4(2) the best navy organization development film is Away All Boats (1956) starring Jeff Chandler as the captain of a Pacific theater troop transport. This film shows organization development at two levels: the captain develops his staff of officers while the chiefs develop the sailors in a parallel manner. In each of these films the plot is a pure organization development play in that the captain is taking command of a brand new ship; then he has the opportunity to instill the organizational culture he thinks will be most effective.
Babe (color, 1995, 1 hour 32 minutes, G, Universal Studios Home Video) Description Babe is a little pig who doesn't quite know his place in the world. With a bunch of odd friends, like Ferdianad the duck who thinks he is a rooster and Fly the dog he calls mom, Babe realizes that he has the makings to become the greatest sheep pig of all time, and Farmer Hogget Knows it. Babe with the help of the sheep dogs and the sheep babe learns that a pig can be anything that he wants to be. http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0112431/plotsummary
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source: Joseph E Champoux (2001). Animated Film as a Teaching Resource, Journal of Management Education. 25(1) This charming Australian film featuring an eccentric, quiet farmer who trains a pig he won at the fair to herd his sheep.' His eccentricity turns to determination when he enters the pig in the Australian National Sheepdog Championships. Academy Award winning visual effects include a seamless mixture of animatronic doubles, computer images, and live animals.4 Douglas McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y (McGregor, 1960) has been a prominent part of organizational behavior and management teaching since the 1960s. Managers who hold Theory X assumptions believe people do not like to work, have little ambition, and avoid responsibility. Managers who hold Theory Y assumptions believe that work is a natural part of people's lives, people will seek responsibility, and they can commit to work goals without external control. Those who hold Theory X assumptions typically behave in a dominant, controlling way. Those who hold Theory Y assumptions rely on self-motivation to reach work goals. The film Babe has an early scene that shows Theory X and Theory Y assumptions.2 The scenes make visual points about these assumptions and related behavior better than any number of words. These scenes also work well for showing aspects of workforce diversity and performance. A discussion of this use of these and other scenes from Babe appears elsewhere (Champoux, 1999b). Scenes (Start: 0:44. 10; Stop: 0. 50:25; RT. 6 minutes) The scenes start with Farmer Hoggett (James Cromwell) opening his new motor-powered gate and calling his dogs. Hoggett says, "Come Rex. Come Fly. Come Pig." The scenes end as a horse-drawn wagon goes down a hill. Babe (Christine Cavanaugh) and Fly (Miriam Margoles) are talking. Fly says to Babe, "No, no, now. I think you better leave that to me." The sheep refer to the dogs as "wolves." Questions Are Babe's methods of herding sheep different from those used by sheep dogs? If so, what are the differences? Do Rex (Hugo Weaving) and Fly behave according to Theory X or Theory Y assumptions? What are examples of their behavior? Which assumptions guide Babe's behavior? What are examples of his behavior? Analysis Rex and Fly behaved according to a clear set of Theory X assumptions. They assumed the sheep were inferior to sheep dogs. The sheep are dumb so the dogs must use aggressive, dominant behavior to herd them. Babe starts with the same set of assumptions but quickly learns that they do not fit his basic philosophy. He believes that winning the sheep's cooperation and treating them with respect (Theory Y) will get the herding job done. The resulting sheep behavior also differs under the different assumptions. Rex and Fly's Theory X behavior resulted in a disorderly herd; Babe's Theory Y behavior resulted in an orderly herd. Movie Analysis in Newspaper Source; The New York Times, August 4, 1995, By STEPHEN HOLDEN The title character of "Babe," an endearing children's movie from Australia, is a plucky little pig who rebels from his assigned role in barnyard society and insists on behaving like a sheepdog. Adapted from Dick King-Smith's book "The Sheep-Pig," the movie maintains a refreshingly light touch in spinning a fable about individualism and conformity. The one incongruous element is an overbearing "Rocky"-style soundtrack that treats Babe's canine aspirations as an Olympian quest for gold. The movie's blending of real animals and computer-animated puppetry is seamless to the point that one hardly notices the shifts. And the actors' voices imbuing farm animals and domestic pets with distinctive personalities are unusually well chosen and imaginative. Particularly evocative are Hugo Weaving as Rex, a proud, short-tempered sheepdog with a hearing disability; Evelyn Krape as Old Ewe, the fussy but good-hearted grande dame of the farm's flock of sheep, and Danny Mann as Ferdinand, a cheeky duck who dreams of being a rooster. Narrated by Roscoe Lee Browne, the story unfolds as a series of episodic vignettes introduced by chapter titles, which follow the rites of passage of Babe, whom Christine Cavanaugh plays as a slightly timid but ultimately brave child. When Babe goes to live with Farmer Hoggett (James Crowell) and his wife (Magda Szubanski), he is taken under the wing of Fly (Miriam Margolyes), a maternal sheepdog who knows the ways of the farm. In his first misadventure, Babe breaks the rules and creates havoc by venturing indoors with Ferdinand to try to steal an alarm clock that the duck feels has usurped his roosterlike role. At holiday time, there is much suspense over whether the Hoggett family will choose duck a l'orange or roast pork for its Christmas dinner. Babe's life is spared when duck is chosen. A crisis erupts when a pack of wild dogs attacks the sheep herd. Babe, who is initially blamed, becomes a hero when it is revealed that he scared the dogs away. Babe's heroism so irks Farmer Hoggett's arrogant house cat that the feline takes revenge by informing Babe that the pig's only purpose on the farm is to be food for the farmer. Once Babe demonstrates his sheep-herding skills to Farmer Hoggett, his fate doesn't seem so brutally sealed. The film's comic high point is Babe's hilarious performance at a sheep-herding contest. The movie, directed by Chris Noonan, who wrote the screenplay with George Miller, takes a child's-eye view of a world that is photographed to look like a storybook come to life. Without bearing down too heavily, the movie suggests the Darwinian order of things, and Babe's experiences (except for his final preposterous triumph) roughly parallel a child's awakenings to the realities of the world.
Black Sheep Squadron, aka Baa Baa Black Sheep (1977) - TV series Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source; Mordecai Lee (2002). Management history as told by popular culture: the screen image of the efficiency expert Management Decision, 40(9) Title of episode with efficiency expert: "The Fastest Gun" Plot relating to efficiency expert: Captain Floyd Matson (Paul Lichtman) is a efficiency expert during the Second World War. He studies the operations of the Black Sheep Squadron that is based on a Pacific Island.
Blaze(1989). Description Based on the true story of Louisiana Governor Earl Long's scandalous love affair with stripper Blaze Starr, BLAZE retells the tale of the fiery, eccentric governor, who falls for a New Orleans stripper. Their relationship forces him to choose between the office he's got and the woman he wants. He chooses both! http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=hv&id=1800363420&cf=info&intl=us
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source: Mordecai Lee (2001). The image of the government flack: movie depictions of public relations in public administration, Public Relations Review, 26 (3) Due to his increasingly erratic behavior, including living with a stripper, Louisiana Governor Earl Long is committed against his will to Mandeville State Hospital. He is furious. His allies and girl friend are trying to get him out while his family and enemies are trying to keep him in. The press is clamoring for a statement from the institution. A spokesman for the asylum reads a statement about the Governor's status and medical condition to the press on front steps of the hospital. Along with the rest of the senior management of the institution, he is caught between the ethical pressures for an accurate statement and the governor's desire not to mention mental impairment. The spokesman yields to the governor and reads a statement that is misleading because it only refers to physical ailments, such as high blood pressure, arteriosclerosis "and general exhaustion." Lying by omission is still lying. The spokesman has bowed to political realities of the wishes of his boss's boss, which wins out over a professional commitment to truth telling. Movie Analysis in Newspaper Source; The New York Times, December 13, 1989, By JANET MASLIN 'Blaze,' a Story of a Rogue and a Stripper The way ''Blaze'' remembers it, its heroine was just a simple country girl when she first got into stripteasing for a living. She was working as a waitress in a doughnut shop when a stranger asked if she wouldn't like to sing and play her guitar at his nightclub, and she thought that would be fine. But when she got there, complete with a new stage name (''Your eyes are like stars and your hair is like fire. . . .,'' said this poetic stranger), some of the fellas in the audience thought she ought to take off her clothes. So she did, but only to be polite. She was so polite she even folded up her clothes. Here and elsewhere, ''Blaze'' takes an extremely and sometimes implausibly generous view of Miss Starr, which is not surprising, since the film is based on her memoirs. Another reason it's not surprising is that ''Blaze'' was written and directed by Ron Shelton, who here attempts to create another sexy and available muse on the order of Susan Sarandon's ardent baseball fan in ''Bull Durham,'' which Mr. Shelton also wrote and directed. But Blaze Starr, presented here as some strange hybrid of stripper and Brownie, isn't a figure of great fascination. And Lolita Davidovich's amiable but unremarkable performance makes it hard to see what all the fuss was about. (Old photos of the real Miss Starr and her show-stopping physique make it easier to understand.) Besides, ''Blaze'' isn't really about Blaze Starr anyway. It's about Earl Long, whose affair with Miss Starr is given great and perhaps undue importance. The film is happy to invent, for instance, a tender deathbed scene that apparently never happened and to largely overlook the existence of Earl's wife. ''Blaze'' is inventive in other ways too, attributing to Earl at least one little victory that was apparently his brother Huey's. (According to A. J. Liebling's account in ''The Earl of Louisiana,'' in seeking to find jobs for black workers at a segregated hospital, Huey professed horror at the idea that white nurses might be caring for black patients, and that way got some black nurses hired.) In Louisiana, where the Longs held such powerful sway and Earl served three terms as governor, these were very clever tactics indeed. Earl Long, acknowledged to be ''better at conniving than Huey,'' may never have had as wide a power base as his older brother, but he did have the lion's share of eccentricities. The role of Earl Long is tailor-made for Paul Newman, who looks much too good for the part of ''a portly, peppery, white-haired man, as full of hubris as a dog in spring'' (according to Liebling). Despite that, he does a terrific job of grandstanding his way through Mr. Shelton's big, blustery and for the most part very lively film. Mr. Newman appears to be having a great deal of fun bringing Earl to life (and he only shows strain in the film's obligatory cute sex scene, which harkens back to ''Bull Durham'' in its coyness and has Mr. Newman claiming to be a doddering old geezer who wears boots to bed). There's an enjoyable shade of his Judge Roy Bean in this shameless, shotgun-toting old charlatan who is eventually committed to a state mental hospital for his antics, and happily sacks the hospital's administrator in order to get out. Earl Long's proclamations lend themselves to Mr. Newman's gruffly expansive delivery. And he makes the most of observations like: ''That's a goddamn lie! I never bought a Congressman in my life! I rent 'em. It's cheaper.'' Boldly welcoming Blaze, whom he has met in a strip club in New Orleans, to a dinner at the Governor's mansion, he introduces her to ''my yes-men and their lovely wives.'' Mr. Shelton has a flair for funny conversational hokum, and the screenplay is loaded with it, as when a crony tells Earl ''Blaze Starr is the most progressive idea you got.'' The trouble is, that's not true on the evidence of the film. And Earl's political, mental and tax problems, not to mention his cagily progressive stance on civil rights, wind up seeming substantially more interesting than his love life.
Boys Town (1938) Description Against all odds Father Flanagan starts "Boys' Town" after hearing a convict's story. Whitey Marsh comes there. He runs away but, hungry, returns. He runs away again but, when friend Pee Wee is hit by a car, returns. He runs away and joins his brother's gang. Flanagan and the boys capture the crooks and the reward saves the town. http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0029942/plotsummary
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source: What does Hollywood think Nonprofit CEOs do all day? An initial exploration of screen depictions of top management in the Nonprofit sector Father Edward J. Flanagan (played by Spencer Tracy) had been permitted by his bishop to create a storefront social service agency, Flanagan's Refuge, for men who are down and out. It provides them with something to eat and a place to sleep. However, he comes to realize that it is too late to change these adults' lives for the better. Instead, he wants to dedicate his efforts to helping boys who verge on delinquency. His philosophy is that `there is no such thing as a bad boy.' He asks his bishop for permission to create a residence for these at-risk boys as an alternative to being sent to live in a reformatory. The bishop gently chides him for focusing on a "dream." Nonetheless he grants Flanagan's request, but offers neither diocesan financial support nor a building. Flanagan has to create and fund the agency on his own from scratch. The movie shows how he turns his dream into a reality. He asks Dave Morris, a pawnbroker whose storefront window was broken by a stone thrown by one of the boys, for a $100 contribution. At first apoplectic, Flanagan gently coaxes Morris. Wanting to know what he'll get in return, Flanagan says, "Tonight, before you go to sleep, you're going to like yourself - a lot." With that money, he rents a house and furniture for it. He then is able to arrange for some newspaper publicity about Father Flanagan's Home for Boys, which prompts a modicum of contributions from readers. However, opposition by law and order oriented leaders threatens the existence of the home. A local headline says it all: "Public Support Lacking as Father Flanagan Pleads in Vain for Funds." The agency barely survives. Some months, he's unable to pay all the bills. However, instead of focusing on accomplishing financial stability, Flanagan dreams of an even larger residence, a Boys Town out in the country. Morris, now a successful businessman and ongoing supporter of the agency, says to Flanagan: “You can't handle a thing as big as this without a lot of public support. Contributions ... You're biting off more than you can chew. Why, the newspapers aren't friendly to you as it is. What are they gonna say about this?” Flanagan goes to meet with the publisher of the local newspaper that has been hostile to his agency and philosophy. He tells the publisher plaintively, "What little I've done, I've done on nothing." The publisher is won over and says, "Your sincerity is worth a shot. Father, I'm not going to fight a plan as unselfish as yours." Eventually, enough money is raised to buy the land in the country and build Boys Town. However, the money only covers the down payments and the agency took out three mortgages to cover the remaining construction costs. Morris, now apparently a member of the Board of Directors and serving as its treasurer, thinks the debt load is insurmountable: “Look at the sweating you've done to raise nickels, dimes, quarters. Penny contributions! Now, you've got to get dollars: hundreds, thousands ... You've got to stop thinking from here [points to heart] and start thinking from here [points to head] a little bit.” Flanagan disregards the advice. Later, Mr. Burton, the chairman of the board of directors, comes with Morris to meet with Flanagan. They are worried about the possibility the agency will go bankrupt. "We have a bad situation here," Burton says. Flanagan is distracted throughout the meeting, preoccupied by a problem with one of the boys. Burton tries to shift Flanagan's attention from that individual boy to the big picture, "If we don't attend to this, there will be a lot of boys in trouble." But, Flanagan ignores these financial problems and instead focuses on helping the troubled boy. Burton says that the Board of Directors has unanimously decided to support a solution to the financial problems. They want Flanagan to admit more boys whose families can pay for their room and board while reducing the number of boys who can't afford to pay. Flanagan blows up: “Figures, figures, figures. I've made liars out of figures all my life. If I hadn't, there wouldn't be one stone on top of another in Boys Town. Hundreds of boys have gone through here and they're out in the world with their heads up. They're making good. Every last one of them ... I'm afraid we'll have to think of something else.” Following a dramatic series of events, $50,000 in small contributions comes in the mail. Morris is ecstatic. In the movie's last scene, he tells Flanagan that Boys Town is now finally in the black Flanagan is already dreaming about the future. Flanagan responds, "How much would it cost to build a dorm for 500 [more] boys?" Fade out. For Father Flanagan, being the head of a large social service agency means that he focuses on multiple aspects of management including a vision for the agency and working directly with clients. He is also media savvy and understands the role of publicity in promoting the .fortunes of the agency. He knows the importance of fundraising and sets financial goals, yet leaves many of the details to the Board to handle. He is constantly looking to the future with new plans to grow the agency while, financially, it has trouble covering its operating costs. He assumes that the financial problems will take care of themselves if the agency does a good job and the Board fulfills the role he has assigned it.
Brazil (1985) Description In an Orwellian vision of the future, the populace are completely controlled by the state, but technology remains almost as it was in the 1970's. Sam Lowry is a civil servant who one day spots a mistake in one of the pieces of paperwork passing through his office. The mistake leads to the arrest of an entirely innocent man, and although Lowry attempts to correct the error, it just gets bigger and bigger, sucking him in with it. http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0088846/plotsummary
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source: Mordecai Lee & Susan C. Paddock (2001). Strange But True Tales From Hollywood: The Bureaucrat As Movie Hero, Public Administration & Management, 6(4) This movie depicts the classic negative image in popular culture of bureaucracy (Zinke, 2000). In a hellish retro-futuristic world, the all-powerful state bureaucracy makes a mistake, something that supposedly never happens and which disrupts the smooth flow of paperwork. A promising mid-level bureaucrat, Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce), tries to rectify the mistake and while doing so falls in love with an anti-state activist. He risks his job as he maneuvers within the bureaucracy to help the family of the mistaken victim as well as his romantic interest. Eventually, he is caught and accused of such crimes as “bringing into disrepute the good name of the government…and wasting Ministry time and paper” (Mathews, 1998, p. 324). Like 1984, this film simultaneously condemns bureaucracy while glorifying a bureaucratic hero. Movie Analysis in Newspaper Source; The New York Times, December 18, 1985, By JANET MASLIN TERRY GILLIAM'S ''Brazil,'' a jaunty, wittily observed vision of an extremely bleak future, is a superb example of the power of comedy to underscore serious ideas, even solemn ones. ''Brazil,'' which was not scheduled for 1985 release until the Los Angeles Film Critics Association voted it best film of the year, was slated, as of yesterday, to open on Dec. 25 for one week in order to qualify for Academy Awards consideration. However, the opening was suddenly advanced, and it began its weeklong engagement today at Loew's New York Twin. It is scheduled to reopen on Feb. 14. ''Brazil'' may not be the best film of the year, but it's a remarkable accomplishment for Mr. Gilliam, whose satirical and cautionary impulses work beautifully together. His film's ambitious visual style bears this out, combining grim, overpowering architecture with clever throwaway touches. The look of the film harkens back to the 1930's, as does the title; ''Brazil'' is named not for the country but for the 1930's popular song, which floats through the film as a tantalizing refrain. The gaiety of the music stands in ironic contrast to the oppressive, totalitarian society in which the story is set. The plot itself, from a screenplay by Mr. Gilliam, Tom Stoppard and Charles McKeown, is rather thin; it exists mainly as an excuse to lead the viewer into various corners of an unexpectedly humorous Orwellian world. Mr. Gilliam's answer to Mr. Orwell's Winston Smith is one Sam Lowry, a gray-suited bureaucrat who has a forbidden love, a lively fantasy life and a socialite mother. Ida Lowry (played hilariously by Katherine Helmond), who is constantly in the company of her in-house plastic surgeon, spends most of her time lunching with lady-friends and a bit of it worrying about her son's limited career. So Ida - whose fashion sense dictates that she wear hats that look very much like upside-down shoes - arranges a promotion for Sam. He winds up in an office so small that he has only half a desk and half a poster sharing both with the bureaucrat next door. This change somehow propels Sam into a romance with a woman who may be a terrorist and into a series of hellish nightmares. Much of the cleverness of ''Brazil'' has to do with its tiny details, the sense of how things work in this new society. Signs glimpsed in the background say things like ''Loose Talk is Noose Talk'' and ''Suspicion Breeds Confidence,'' while television advertisements are for things like fashionable heating ducts ''in designer colors to suit your demanding taste'' (the production design makes sure that heating ducts are everywhere). Politeness counts for everything, as in an early scene where one hapless Mr. Buttle is arrested in his own living room, stuffed into what looks like a large canvas bag, and led away, never to be seen again. At least Mrs. Buttle is given a written receipt for her confiscated husband. Harry Tuttle, the man the police were actually after until a large bug dropped into a computer and caused a typographical error, is played by Robert De Niro as a combination repairman and commando. Mr. De Niro has only the briefest of roles here, but he makes it count for a lot, as does Bob Hoskins as a sinister fellow passing himself off as a rival repairman. The friends of Sam's mother are also nicely played, particularly Shirley (Kathryn Pogson), who tells Sam shyly that she doesn't like him at all. Michael Palin is both ominous and funny as Sam's friend Jack Lint, and Jonathan Pryce is especially good as Sam. Giving his regards to Jack's twins and learning that they are triplets, Sam responds by saying ''Triplets! How time flies.'' Also in ''Brazil'' is Kim Greist as the pretty young woman who fascinates Sam in reality and in his dreams; in the latter, she has angelic blond hair and he appears as a magnificent winged silver creature swooping through the skies. Earlier in his career, Mr. Gilliam might have staged such a scene more facetiously, but here it has a real poignance. For all its fancifulness, ''Brazil'' and its characters seem substantial and real.
Broadcast News(1987) Description Basket-case network news producer Jane Craig falls for new reporter Tom Grunnick, a pretty boy who represents the trend towards entertainment news she despises. Aaron Altman, a talented but plain correspondent, carries an unrequited torch for Jane. Sparks fly between the three as the network prepares for big changes, and both the news and Jane must decide between style and substance. http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0092699/plotsummary
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source: Mordecai Lee (2001). The image of the government flack: movie depictions of public relations in public administration, Public Relations Review, 26 (3) The movie is about working in a TV network's Washington news bureau. During a special broadcast of breaking news, a silver haired Pentagon spokesman is seen on a studio monitor reading a statement to the press about the latest developments. Movie Analysis in Newspaper Source; The New York Times, December 16, 1987, By VINCENT CANBY THERE once was a time when big news events had the power to stun and, sometimes, to cause a certain amount of anxiety. Wars, earthquakes, airplane crashes, stock market busts, mass-murder sprees, kidnappings, duplicity in positions of public trust, political assassinations. These things could upset daily routine. They were reminders of the precariousness of the existence we tend to take for granted. Today, having harnessed the atom, we're well on the way toward the taming of fate or, at least, our perception of random events as presented on the home television screen. Today, thanks to the warmth and sincerity of Dan and Peter and Jane and Connie, we might even accept -with little more than informed concern - the imminent end of the world: after the bang, we'll have these messages from the sponsors and then tomorrow's weather. Television news-as-entertainment is the very funny, occasionally satiric subtext of ''Broadcast News,'' the bright new comedy written and directed by James L. Brooks, with three smashing star performances by William Hurt, Albert Brooks and Holly Hunter. ''Broadcast News'' opens today at the Coronet. In his first film since his Oscar-winning ''Terms of Endearment,'' Mr. Brooks goes inside the offices and studios of the Washington bureau of a national television network to show us how things work. As exposes go, ''Broadcast News'' is gentle. It's far more amused than angry. Its wit is decently humane. It also says something about the pervasive nature of television that, although the subject is parochial, ''Broadcast News'' is no more or less arcane than ''Miami Vice.'' The movie is mainly concerned with the fortunes of three ambitious colleagues. Tom Grunick (Mr. Hurt) is on his way up as an anchor. When he arrives at his new Washington berth, he is, by his own admission, ''no good at what I'm being a success at.'' He can't write. He has no experience as a newsman. Yet he's making a fortune. What he does have, in addition to good looks, is a lot of savvy on how to use the camera. Seen sitting at his anchor desk in a big fat close-up, Tom Grunick can take information being fed to him (via a hidden head-mike from the control room) and translate it into an expression of a singularly magnetic public personality. Cool, intelligent, caring. Off camera, Tom Grunick is earnest, well meaning, none too well informed. On camera he's the soul of Walter Cronkite inhabiting the physique of a matinee idol. Aaron Altman (Albert Brooks) is an old-fashioned reporter. He's his own best legman. He's a quick study and possesses the kind of curiosity that equips him to cover just about any kind of story. He's a successful on-camera reporter, the sort who, without missing a beat, can switch from a story about equal opportunity employment to one about a war veteran. More than anything else, Aaron Altman wants to be an anchor. However, when the lights are on him, behind that great, photogenic, immaculate desk in the news studio, Aaron Altman, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, goes to pieces. He sweats like a weight lifter and projects the charm of an unsuccessful salesman of used cars. Jane Craig (Miss Hunter) is a pretty, brainy young woman who's obsessed with her work as a producer of television news spots. She's smart enough to know news from filler material and how best to present it. She's one of those women sometimes thought to be too smart for her own good, and sometimes she has to agree. When the head of the network news division says, with a good deal of sarcasm, ''It must be nice to always think you're the smartest person in the room,'' she replies, ''No, it's awful.'' The private lives of Tom, Aaron and Jane are scarcely more than slight interruptions in their careers. They exist entirely within their jobs. In the course of ''Broadcast News,'' as the network goes through various upheavals, the three become emotionally involved in ways that would seem heartbreaking to people less ambitious. Here it's the material of high comedy. Mr. Brooks's screenplay overstates matters both at the beginning of the film and at the end, with a prologue that strains to be cute and an epilogue that is just unnecessary. In between, however, the movie is a sarcastic and carefully detailed picture of a world Mr. Brooks finds fascinating and also a little scary. Mr. Hurt, a most complicated actor, is terrific as a comparatively simple man, someone who's perfectly aware of his intellectual limitations but who sees no reason for them to interfere with his climb to the top. Miss Hunter, whose performance as the wife in ''Raising Arizona'' was lost in that film's comic frenzy, is a delight as a woman who at heart is quite satisfied to be liberated. Miss Hunter is a bit reminiscent of Debra Winger (who seems to be this year's role model for actresses) but is idiosyncratic enough to lend her own substance to the film. As the fast-talking Aaron, Albert Brooks comes very close to stealing ''Broadcast News.'' Mr. Brooks, who has directed and starred in three genially oddball comedies of his own (the most recent being ''Lost in America''), is more or less the conscience of ''Broadcast News.''
Brubaker (1980) Description Henry Brubaker is the new warden at Wakefield prison. He makes his entrance as a prisoner in order to get a convict's-eye-view of the real state of the institution. To his horror he finds all manner of abuse and corruption which, after disclosing his real identity, he sets out to correct. http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0080474/plotsummary
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source: Mordecai Lee & Susan C. Paddock (2001). Strange But True Tales From Hollywood: The Bureaucrat As Movie Hero, Public Administration & Management, 6(4) Henry Brubaker (Robert Redford) is hired as warden of an Arkansas prison farm to implement reforms in the institution. He begins his tenure by disguising himself as a prisoner in order to observe the rumored abuses. After a few weeks, he reveals himself and begins instituting major reforms in the operation of the prison. In the process of doing so, he uncovers corruption and insider dealing that victimize the prisoners, denying them adequate food, shelter and medical care. The culprits extend throughout the local and state power structure, including a powerful local state senator and the governor. In the climactic scene, Brubaker is asked to discontinue searching for the graves of prisoners who had been brutally murdered and then covertly buried in an unmarked area of the prison farm. The establishment does not want to be embarrassed by a public scandal that reveals their acquiescence to these crimes and their cover-up. He is told that if he ceases to pursue the exhumations, he will receive all the funding for the improvements he had been begging for and denied: a rebuilt prison, better medical facilities, better farming equipment, a new heating system. In a final showdown with his boss, both articulate their opposing worldviews. In an exchange that has a tone of more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger, he states his moral code as an administrator: Superior: And you don’t see any other options? No middle ground? Brubaker: No, I don’t see playing politics with the truth. Superior: No way to compromise? Brubaker: Oh, on strategy, maybe. But not on principle. He refuses to compromise and is fired. Interestingly, two of the standard movie directories criticize, rather than applaud, Brubaker’s administrative morality. According to Pym, although Brubaker is “all gritty integrity and inner resolve,” because of the “attribution of every evil to simple human greed, the melodrama remains hamfisted” (Pym, 1998, p. 118). Scheuer condemns Brubaker for “torpedo[ing] his own efforts for the sake of an obscure moral principle” (Scheuer, 1991, p. 136). Thus, this movie highlights an ethical dilemma experienced by many public administrators, namely whether the ends justifies the means. Movie Analysis in Newspaper Source; The New York Times, June 20, 1980, By VINCENT CANBY
Bullitt (1968) Description Frank Bullitt is selected by Chalmers, a politician with ambition, to guard a Mafia informant. Bullitt's friend is shot and the witness is left at death's door by two hit men who seem to know exactly where the the witness was hiding. Bullitt begins a search for both the killer and the leak, but he must keep the witness alive long enough to make sure the killers return. Chalmers has no interest in the injured policeman or the killers, only in the hearings that will catapult him into the public eye and wants to shut down Bullitt's investigation. http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0062765/plotsummary
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source: Mordecai Lee & Susan C. Paddock (2001). Strange But True Tales From Hollywood: The Bureaucrat As Movie Hero, Public Administration & Management, 6(4) Detective Lieutenant Frank Bullitt (Steve McQueen) is the head of a special unit of the San Francisco Police Department. His team has been given the assignment of guarding a member of the mob who is willing to expose the inner workings of organized crime by testifying at a public hearing of a Senate Subcommittee in San Francisco. The testimony of this star witness is expected to be a major news story. Walter Chalmers (Robert Vaughn), a rich and influential citizen who is planning to run for elected office, has arranged for this witness to come forward and expects to benefit politically from the appearance. Bullitt’s team is directed to go to a secret location at a downtown hotel to ‘baby-sit’ the witness for the weekend, with Bullitt assigning shifts to the team members. Since he is not part of the first shift, Bullitt leaves. While he is away, intruders burst into the room and shoot the witness, notwithstanding the efforts of Bullitt’s team member to protect him. The witness undergoes emergency surgery at a hospital in a desperate effort to save his life. Bullitt’s supervisor, Captain Sam Bennett (Simon Oakland), arrives at the hospital to confer with Bullitt. Bennett knows that the repercussions of this failure to protect the witness could ruin Bullitt’s career and perhaps his own, as well. He says to Bullitt, “I’ll try to back you up.” Later, the witness dies in the hospital, but Bullitt decides to keep the death a secret. He hopes that a false perception that the witness survived the shooting might make it easier to track down the source of the security leak and the assassins. The next morning, Chalmers intercepts Bennett, just as he and his family are about to enter church for Sunday services. He pressures Bennett to order Bullitt to reveal the location of the missing witness, who he thinks is still alive. Chalmers suggests that Bennett’s career would benefit from his political influence if Bennett would cooperate. Bennett responds in a flat monotone, “I’ve given him complete charge of the case” and then excuses himself to enter the church. Later that day, in a showdown at police headquarters, Bullitt hands Bennett his written report. Captain Baker (Norman Fell), an ally of Chalmers within the department, demands to know the location of the witness. Bullitt informs both, for the first time, that the witness is dead. Baker demands that Bennett immediately punish Bullitt. Bennett knows that Baker is voicing the views of the departmental leadership, the city’s politicians and Chalmers. He says without any inflection, “This is Sunday. I’m going to hold that written [report] till we come to work on Monday.” This seemingly mundane observation is Bennett’s way of maneuvering within the bureaucracy to protect his underling and give him as much time as he can so that Bullitt can accomplish his goals. Baker stomps out of the room and then orders departmental staff not to provide any assistance to Bullitt while he continues his investigation. Bullitt knows what a courageous decision Bennett has just made. He has been given 24 more hours to work the case before everything will come crashing down on him, and -- because of what Bennett has just decided -- on Bennett as well. Movie Analysis in Newspaper Source; The New York Times, October 18, 1968, By Renata Adler Bullitt is a terrific movie, just right for Steve McQueen—fast, well acted, written the way people talk. The plot is dense with detail about the way things work: hospitals, police, young politicians with futures, gangsters, airports, love affairs, traffic, dingy hotels. There are a lot of Negroes cast, for a change, in plausible roles. The setting, in San Francisco, is solidly there, and the ending should satisfy fans from Dragnet to Camus. There are excellent chases, one around and under jet aircraft taking off by night, the other, by car, over the San Francisco hills. The car chase in particular is comic and straight. (Nobody drives better than Steve McQueen.) McQueen, quietly stealing a newspaper because he hasn't got the dime or exchanging just the right look with a Negro surgeon who understands, or even delivering a line that consoles and sums up the situation with his girl (played by Jacqueline Bisset) embodies his special kind of aware, existential cool—less taut and hardshell than Bogart, less lost and adrift than Mastroianni, a little of both. The movie, which is in color (rather dark and yellow), was directed by Peter Yates and also features Don Gordon, Robert Duvall, Simon Oakland, Robert Vaughan (from U.N.C.L.E.), and Norman Fell (of the 87th Precinct). They and the minor characters are all fine, dry, and natural, as this particular detective form requires. Television has almost stolen the genre, or made it unserious, but Bullitt tightens and reclaims it for the movies. McQueen simply gets better all the time.
Caine Mutiny (1954) Description During the Second World War, onboard a small insignificant ship in the U.S. Pacific Fleet, an event occurs unlike any that the United States Navy has ever experianced. A Ship's Captain is removed from his command by his Executive Officer in an apparent outright act of munity. As the trial of the mutineers unfold, it is then learned that the Captain of the ship was mentally unstable, perhaps even insane. The Navy must then decide: was the Caine Mutiny a criminal act? Or an act of courage to save a ship from destruction at the hands of her Captain. http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0046816/plotsummary
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source: Charles T. Goodsell & Nancy Murray. (1995). Public administration illuminated and inspired by the art. The classic motion picture The Caine Mutiny (1954) tells of the overthrow of a skipper in the U.S. Navy during World War II. The anatomy of the mutiny is seen through the personalities and relations of the men involved. The officers are subjected to a court-martial and are cleared of wrongdoing. At a celebration afterward, the officer who successfully defended the mutineers privately dresses down his colleagues for ruining the life of a career officer. The viewer is jolted to understanding the incident from the perspective of the loser.
Cast Away (2000) Description Amazon.com video review: Cast Away is a good movie that wants to be much better. While director Robert Zemeckis's earlier film Contact achieved a kind of mainstream spiritual significance, Cast Away falls just short of that goal. That may explain why the film's most emotionally powerful scene involves the loss of an inanimate object, even as it presents a heart-rending dilemma in its very human final act. It's three movies in one, beginning when punctuality-obsessed Federal Express systems engineer Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) departs on Christmas Eve to escort an ill-fated flight of FedEx packages. Following a mid-Pacific plane crash, movie number two chronicles Chuck's four-year survival on a remote island, totally alone save for a Wilson volleyball (aptly named "Wilson") that becomes Chuck's closest "friend." Movie number three leads up to Chuck's rescue and an awkward encounter with his ex-girlfriend Kelly (Helen Hunt, in a thankless role), for whom Chuck has seemingly risen from the grave. It's fascinating to witness Chuck's emerging survival skills, and Hanks's remarkable physical transformation is matched by his finely tuned performance. With slow, rhythmic camera moves and brilliant use of sound, Zemeckis wisely avoids the postcard prettiness of The Black Stallion and The Blue Lagoon to emphasize the harshness of Chuck's ascetic solitude, and this stylistic restraint allows Cast Away to resonate more than one might expect. Even the final scene--which feels like a crowd-pleasing compromise--offers hope without shoving it down our throats. You may not feel the emotional rush that you're meant to feel, but Cast Away remains a respectable effort. --Jeff Shannon http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0162222/amazon
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source; Mordecai Lee (2002). Management history as told by popular culture: the screen image of the efficiency expert, Management Decision, 40(9) Plot relating to efficiency expert: Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) is a troubleshooter for Federal Express. When critiquing the slow handling of packages at the Moscow shipping center in Russia, he berates the employees, "Time rules over us without mercy... We live or we die by the clock ... 87 hours [to deliver a package] is a shameless outrage, 87 hours is an eternity." Later, a FedEx plane he is on crashes in the Pacific. He is the only survivor to make it to an uninhabited and remote island. During the four years he is stranded there, he discovers that to survive he needs to view time in a totally different way. Movie Analysis in Newspaper Source; The New York Times, December 22, 2000, By STEPHEN HOLDEN Ultimate Survivor, Man Against Nature
Catch-22 (1970) Description Amazon.com video review: Joseph Heller's novel was one of the seminal literary events of the 1960s, but Mike Nichols's film ultimately proved too literal in its attempt to bring Heller's fragmented fiction to the screen. Still, Nichols, who made this on the heels of The Graduate, seemed the ideal candidate to tackle this Buck Henry adaptation. The story deals with bomber pilot Yossarian (Alan Arkin), who has flown enough missions to get out of World War II but can't because the number of missions needed for discharge keeps getting raised. The satire and absurdity of Heller's book get lost in Nichols's effort to give screen time to the members of his all-star cast, which includes Orson Welles, Jon Voight, Bob Newhart, Anthony Perkins, Richard Benjamin, and Martin Sheen, among others. --Marshall Fine http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0065528/amazon
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source: Marc Holzer & Linda G.Slater (1995). Insight into Bureaucracy from Film: Visualizing Stereotypes. Public administration illuminated and inspired by the art, Charles T. Goodsell & Nancy Murray (Eds) In Catch-22, a World War II bureaucratic farce that was first a novel and then a movie, corruption is prevalent, accountability nonexistent, and the treatment of individuals callous. The war's goals are replaced by those of profit and individual comfort. The interests of the illicit M&M Syndicate become more important than military success or soldiers' lives. Similarly, Colonel Cathcart continually increases the number of dangerous missions required of his men, solely to enhance his own reputation. Perhaps the most important theme in the movie, as in the novel, is the ludicrous nature of bureaucratic rules; the image of circular reasoning is so powerful that "Catch-22" has become a common phrase in our language. Movie Analysis in Newspaper Source; The New York Times, June 25, 1970, By Vincent Canby Panic, like some higher forms of grief and joy, is such an exquisite emotion that nature denies its casual recollection to all except psychotics, a few artists, and an occasional, pre-existential hero like Yossarian, the mad bombardier of Joseph Heller's World War II novel, Catch-22. Once experienced by the normal neurotic, panic is immediately and efficiently removed from reality, twice removed, in fact, transformed into a memory of a memory. But Yossarian is not your normal neurotic. At the United States Air Force base on the tiny Mediterranean island of Pianosa, which Heller describes as a defoliated, shrunken, surreal Corsica, Yossarian lives in a state of perpetual, epic panic. For Yossarian, a willing convert to paranoia, panic is a kind of Nirvana. He is convinced that everyone wants him dead—the Germans, his fellow officers, Nurse Duckett, bartenders, bricklayers, landlords, tenants, patriots, traitors, lynchers, and lackeys. If they don't get him, Yossarian is aware that there are lymph glands, kidneys, nerve sheaths, corpuscles, Ewing's tumors, and possibly Wisconsin shingles that will. Because mankind is conspiring in his death, and he wants to survive, Yossarian knows that the whole world is crazy—and he's absolutely right, almost, you might say, dead-on-target. It's the special achievement of Heller's novel, as well as of Mike Nichols's screen version, that Yossarian's panic emerges as something so important, so reasonable, so moving, and so funny. In the peculiar, perfectly ordered universe of Pianosa, where the system of rewards and punishments is perfectly disordered, panic is positive and fruitful, like love. Catch-22, which opened yesterday at the new Paramount Theater on Columbus Circle and at the Sutton Theater, is, quite simply, the best American film I've seen this year. It looks and sounds like a big-budget, commercial service comedy, but it comes as close to being an epic human comedy as Hollywood has ever made by employing the comic conventions of exaggeration, fantasy, shock, and the sort of insult and reverse logic that the late Lulu McConnell elevated to a fine, low art form on radio's It Pays to Be Ignorant. I do have some reservations about the film, the most prominent being that I'm not sure that anyone who has not read the novel will make complete sense out of the movie's narrative line that Nichols and his screenwriter, Buck Henry, have shaped in the form of flashbacks within an extended flashback. Missing, too, are some relevant characters (ex-Pfc. Wintergreen, the dispassionate, God-surrogate who actually rules Pianosa) and relevant sequences, as when Chaplain Tappman learns to lie and thus makes his accommodation with the system. Great movies are complete in themselves. Catch-22 isn't, but enough of the original remains so that the film becomes a series of brilliant mirror images of a Strobe-lit reality. Nichols and Henry, whose senses of humor coincide with Heller's fondness for things like the manic repetition of words and phrases, have rearranged the novel without intruding on it. Most of the film is framed by Yossarian's delirium (after he has been stabbed by what appears to be a German P.O.W.) and is played in the form of funny and sad blackout sketches. These involve, to name just a few, Colonel Cathcart (Martin Balsam), whose dearest desire is to be featured in The Saturday Evening Post; Captain Nately (Art Garfunkel), the rich Boston boy who is fated to love a mean Roman whore, Major Major (Bob Newhart), the timid squadron commander, General Dreedle (Orson Welles), who likes to say "Take him out and shoot him" when people behave stupidly, Captain Orr (Robert Balaban), who practices crashing in preparation for an escape to Sweden, Milo Minderbinder (Jon Voight), the squadron's mess officer, a sort of one-man, free-enterprise convulsion, and glum old Doc Daneeka (Jack Gilford). Each one is marvelous, but it is Alan Arkin as Yossarian who provides the film with its continuity and dominant style. Arkin is not a comedian; he is a deadly serious actor, but because he projects intelligence with such monomaniacal intensity, he is both funny and heroic at the same time. The film is Nichols's third (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Graduate) so it may be safe to say now that he's something more than lucky. Catch-22 is a giant physical production, even by Hollywood's swollen standards, but the complexities of the physical production never neutralize the personal comedy, even when Nichols has a bomber crash in flames as the background to a bit of close-up dialogue. There are some things in the film that I wish he had resisted, such as images out of Fellini and a reference to Kubrick's use of "Zarathustra," which is also being used currently in a Swanson's Frozen Foods television commercial. Nichols's cinematic style now looks almost classic, in comparison with The Graduate. There is not as much cutting within sequences; he uses real tracking shots; zooms are held to a minimum, and he remains, as he was before, one of our finest directors of a certain kind of controlled comic performance. With the exception of Elizabeth Taylor, nobody in a Nichols film is ever allowed to overreach himself. Catch-22 is so good that I hope it won't be confused with what is all too loosely referred to as black comedy, which usually means comedy bought cheaply at the expense of certain human values, so that, for example, murder is funny and assassination is hilarious. Catch-22, like Yossarian, is almost beside itself with panic because it grieves for the human condition.
Chariots of Fur (color, 1996,39 minutes, no rating, Warner Home Video) Description The last Road Runner cartoon directed by
Chuck Jones - hence the last real Road Runner cartoon - was "To Beep or
Not to Beep", released in 1963. This one is now truly the last. It's
really just more of the same. But that's the wonder of it: that after
thirty-one years, the old studio crew long since dissolved, managed to
create a Road Runner cartoon that neatly fits in with the rest of the
series and is just as good - in fact, superior to most (the very best one,
if you ask me, was "Lickety-Splat", released 1961).
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source: Joseph E Champoux (2001). Animated Film as a Teaching Resource, Journal of Management Education. 25(1) This collection of Coyote and Road Runner cartoons includes the debut of Chariots of Fur (1996), the first new Road Runner cartoon in 30 years. Chuck Jones, the Road Runner's creator, directed it and produced it with his daughter Linda Jones Clough. When compared to the other cartoons in the collection, one can see this one's contemporary character by the modern references made. For example, early in this cartoon, Coyote encounters a sign in the road that reads "Warning The Surgeon General has determined that chasing Road Runners is hazardous to your health." Strategic planning and resulting strategies focus an organization and its managers on long-term goals. The strategy typically describes the allocation of resources to reach these goals. An organization's strategy is not static. It must change in response to changes in the external environment (Mintzberg, 1987a, 1987b). Wile E. Coyote has a single long-term goal: Catch the Road Runner and eat him. Wile E. never develops a successful strategy and related tactics. Everything backfires and ensnares or harms him. The Road Runner always escapes with flair. Coyote and Road Runner cartoons offer entertaining demonstrations of strategy and tactics. Although these cartoons show their failure, my students find them amusing and associate several incidents with concepts of strategy, strategic planning, and tactics. The cartoons are short, usually about 7 minutes long, fast paced, and painted in vivid colors. They are faster paced than live-action films, giving a gripping portrayal of strategic thinking. Scenes (Start. 0: 03:54; Stop: 0:10:32; Running Time [RT]: 6 minutes) The scenes start with the title screen reading "Chariots of Fur." They end as the iris closes on Wile E. Coyote jumping down the road chased by one of his lightning bolts. Questions Does Wile E. Coyote carefully define his strategy for catching the Road Runner? Does Coyote fully understand an important part of his external environmentthe Road Runner? Does he carefully adapt his strategy and tactics to the changing circumstances he faces? Analysis This updated cartoon shows Wile E. Coyote in another pursuit of the desirable Road Runner. Coyote never develops a well-defined strategy based on an analysis of his external environment--the Road Runner. The Road Runner shows his flexibility, speed, endurance, skills, and tactics that help him succeed. Coyote does not adapt to his changing environment and the information he gets about the Road Runner. The opening "Free Bird Seed" tactic backfires because of the Road Runner's flexibility; he is in two places at once. Later, Coyote tries the cactus decoy, but the Road Runner easily changes course around it. The cartoon closes with the lightning bolt weapon. Coyote tests its effectiveness, something he does not typically do. Road Runner shows his flexibility, speed, and endurance by outrunning the lightning bolt, which eventually finds Coyote. Coyote is an example of a manager moving forward in a headstrong way without a clear plan. He does little careful analysis or clear analytical planning. Wile E. deals with events as they happen instead of outlining contingencies and preparing for them in advance. Road Runner is an example of a competitor with the skills and tactics to outwit Wile E. Coyote. He always stays focused on his future.
Cheaper by the Dozen (1950) Description "Cheaper By the Dozen", based on the real-life story of the Gilbreth family, follows them from Providence, Rhode Island, to Montclair, New Jersey, and details the amusing anecdotes found in large families. Frank Gilbreth, Sr., was a pioneer in the field of motion study, and often used his family as guinea pigs (with amusing and sometimes embarrassing results). He resisted popular culture,railing against his daughters' desires for bobbed hair and comsmetics. http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0042327/plotsummary
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source; Mordecai Lee (2002). Management history as told by popular culture: the screen image of the efficiency expert Management Decision, 40(9) Character described as efficiency expert: Narrator/ daughter describes father as "an industrial engineer and a leader in the field of scientific management. If that sounds complicated, just say that he was an efficiency expert." Plot relating to efficiency expert: based on the real-life story Frank Gilbreth, Sr (Clifton Webb), an efficiency consultant who tried to apply the same methods to his household, with amusing results. For example, when he returns from a business trip, he summons his children and notes how long it takes them to assemble. "18 seconds, " he says, "not bad, not bad. But I still think we can make it in less." He asks his wife to time him as he buttons his vest. Which direction is faster? Seven seconds from top to bottom while only five and a half seconds the other way. Later, he is invited to address the "international management conference in Prague." Him: It's going to be a pretty high powered meeting. Attract the best scientific minds in the world. Her: That's why it's such a wonderful opportunity to show other countries what motion study really is. And to have your methods accepted universally ... It will establish you as a leader in the whole field. However, Gilbreth dies on his way to the conference. The movie ends with his wife delivering his paper in his stead and then successfully taking over his business.
City of Joy (1992) Description An American surgeon loses a young patient, quits the medical profession and goes to India to find himself. There he runs into a nun who is trying to establish a free clinic in a neighborhood of untouchables. He resists the call back to medicine, but eventually begins helping them build the clinic, which angers the local "Godfather" who tries to stop the project by intimidation. http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0103976/plotsummary
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source: Charles T. Goodsell & Nancy Murray. (1995). Public administration illuminated and inspired by the art. At times an American-made film, shot on location in another country, can offer a rich array of insights. City of Joy deals with the travails of an American physician working in an impoverished section of Calcutta: the frustrations, problems faced, the ingenuity with which he "makes do" with the meager resources at hand. His developing relationships with individuals in the community provide a decidedly upbeat impression when one considers the film as a whole. While not a motion picture for the fainthearted, it portrays the gamut of the doctor's feelings and responses under horrid conditions: from revulsion and frustration to adjustment and as much achievement as one could hope for. As his relationships and involvements grow, his work becomes more effective. It is this combination of professional objectives with one's personal awareness, including one's own history, that makes for effective action in any community. No matter how it is defined, the community to which the public administrator inevitably relates constitutes a distinct subculture with its unique, identifiable qualities and dynamics. A public official continually experiences a virtually organic relationship to her or his community. In a small jurisdiction, this can be a very direct interaction. Movie Analysis in Newspaper Source; The New York Times, April 15, 1992, By Vincent Canby After a night of boozing and wenching in the fleshpots of old Calcutta, Max Lowe (Patrick Swayze), a once-promising young Houston heart surgeon, is viciously beaten and robbed by a gang of street thugs. Max couldn't care less. Life has lost all meaning for him. The next morning he regains consciousness in an especially poor Calcutta quarter known as the City of Joy. He's in a primitive clinic run by Joan Bethel (Pauline Collins), a feisty, youngish, Irish-born variation on the Albanian-born Mother Teresa. When Joan tells Max the name of the place, he asks, "Is that geographical or spiritual?" Says Joan, "It depends on your point of view." At long last, "City of Joy," Roland Joffe's self-important new film, is about to get down to its serious business, which means to be uplift but is often heartburn. There has already been a dreamy, slow-motion pre-credit sequence set in a Houston hospital's operating room. When Max's patient, a little girl, dies during a transplant operation, the distraught surgeon floats blindly from the hospital, apparently to book the first flight to India. At some point in his life he seems to have read a paperback edition of "The Razor's Edge." There has also been a sequence in which an Indian farmer, Hasari Pal (Om Puri), his wife and children leave their poverty-stricken village and head for Calcutta to find work. "Remember," says Hasari's father, "A man's journey to the end of his obligations is a very long road." In the strange ways of fate in fiction like "City of Joy," it is Hasari who finds Max on the street and takes him to Joan's clinic, initiating a friendship between a man who has nothing but love and faith and a man who has everything except a reason to live. Standing by is the wise-cracking, saintly Joan, who sometimes talks like a self-help manual -- "There are three choices in life: to run, to speculate, to commit." "City of Joy" probably means well, but it exemplifies the worst kind of simple-minded Occidental literature, in which India exists to be a vast, teeming rehab center where emotionally troubled Americans can find themselves. Or, at least, those Americans who have the time and the money to fly off to India instead of taking a bus to a local clinic. Mr. Joffe made his directorial debut in 1984 with "The Killing Fields," which, though large in physical scale, was also coherent. Since then it's been downhill all the way with movies of big themes and moral muddle: "The Mission," "Fat Man and Little Boy" and now "City of Joy." Adapted by Mark Medoff from Dominique Lapierre's novel, "City of Joy" is phony from start to finish, though in fact it was shot mostly in Calcutta and employs a lot of Indian actors and extras. The setting is not the problem. It's the point of view, which is that of a concerned but hopelessly inept, sunny-natured tourist. With his passport and money gone, and with nothing better to do for the time being, Max grudgingly begins to work with Joan at her City of Joy Self-Help Dispensary. He delivers the healthy baby of a grateful leper mother. He sets about to put the dispensary in order and, when he sees the people in the City of Joy being exploited by the local "godfather," he organizes their resistance. His inspiration is Hasari, a man of incredible spirit who works, sunup to sundown, as a rickshaw man. It's not easy for Max to adjust. He misses his hamburgers. He's also impatient with the passivity of the people, who lack that good old-fashioned American get-up-and-go. Yet little by little, Max re-establishes his commitment to life, even as he witnesses terrible injustices and cruelties. There is an attack on the local lepers orchestrated by the greedy godfather. The face of a pretty young woman is slashed with a razor (onscreen). A great monsoon flood threatens to destroy the City of Joy and everyone in it. A decent man who appears to be in the terminal stages of tuberculosis receives severe stab wounds in the stomach and is on the point of death. This would be a vision of hell in any other movie, though not in "City of Joy." The godfather is told to cease and desist by the courts. The slashed young woman heals without scars. Nobody is lost to the flood and, when last seen, the tubercular man with the blood running out of his stomach is still walking upright. In Mr. Joffe's view of things, Calcutta is truly a magical place: it's a city without consequences. Some people may find this inspiriting, but to anyone who has seen Mira Nair's "Salaam Bombay!" (among other, far more honest films about India) it's more like a visit to a severely depressed Disneyland. "City of Joy" is lightweight. Mr. Swayze has more screen heft in the title role of "Ghost" than he does here. The character, as written, is impossible. Miss Collins is similarly disadvantaged. There are times when it seems as if there's going to be a romance between Joan and Max, but though that never happens, "City of Joy" doesn't seem more honest, only more faint of heart. It lacks the courage of its confused convictions.
City Slicker (1918) Description When a country hotel advertises for someone to help them modernize, Harold arrives from the city to take the job. He soon has the hotel re-organized and re-decorated, and he installs numerous mechanical gadgets in the rooms. Things are going smoothly until a society belle arrives, followed by a desperate suitor whom she has discarded. http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0008961/plotsummary Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source; Mordecai Lee (2002). Management history as told by popular culture: the screen image of the efficiency expert Management Decision, 40(9) Plot relating to efficiency expert: Harold (Harold Lloyd) is an efficiency expert from the city who comes to a small rural hotel that is in need of modernizing. He installs all sorts of gadgets and time saving devices such as a bed that comes out of the wall, a tub that emerges from the fireplace and a telephone in the mantle picture.
Contact (1997). Description Amazon.com Essentials: The opening and closing moments of Robert (Forrest Gump) Zemeckis's Contact astonish viewers with the sort of breathtaking conceptual imagery one hardly ever sees in movies these day--each is an expression of the heroine's lifelong quest (both spiritual and scientific) to explore the meaning of human existence through contact with extraterrestrial life. The movie begins by soaring far out into space, then returns dizzyingly to earth until all the stars in the heavens condense into the sparkle in one little girl's eye. It ends with that same girl as an adult (Jodie Foster)--her search having taken her to places beyond her imagination--turning her gaze inward and seeing the universe in a handful of sand. Contact traces the journey between those two visual epiphanies. Based on Carl Sagan's novel, Contact is exceptionally thoughtful and provocative for a big-budget Hollywood science fiction picture, with elements that recall everything from 2001 to The Right Stuff. Foster's solid performance (and some really incredible alien hardware) keep viewers interested, even when the story skips and meanders, or when the halo around the golden locks of rising-star-of-a-different-kind Matthew McConaughey (as the pure-Hollywood-hokum love interest) reaches Milky Way-level wattage. Ambitious, ambiguous, pretentious, unpredictable--Contact is all of these things and more. Much of it remains open to speculation and interpretation, but whatever conclusions one eventually draws, Contact deserves recognition as a rare piece of big-budget studio filmmaking on a personal scale. --Jim Emerson http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0118884/amazon
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source: Mordecai Lee (2001). The image of the government flack: movie depictions of public relations in public administration, Public Relations Review, 26 (3) The movie is about contact that another civilization tries to make with human beings on earth. In a brief scene, reporters are interviewing one of the key scientists associated with responding to the contact. Another scientist arrives by helicopter while the interview is still going on. Alighting from the helicopter, a NASA public relations staffer says, "The press would like to ask you a few questions as soon as they're done with Doctor Drumlin." She then leads the character towards the location of the press interview. Movie Analysis in Newspaper Source; The New York Times, July 11, 1997, By STEPHEN HOLDEN
Dead Man Walking (1996) Description A caring nun receives a desperate letter from a death row inmate trying to find help to avoid execution for murder. Over the course of the time to the convict's death, the nun begins to show empathy, not only with the pathetic man, but also with the victims and their families. In the end, that nun must decide how she will deal with the paradox of caring for that condemned man while understanding the heinousness of his crimes. http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0112818/plotsummary
The Chamber (1996) Description Having survived the hatred and bigotry that was his Klansman grandfather's only legacy, young attorney Adam Hall seeks at the last minute to appeal the old man's death sentence for the murder of two small Jewish boys 30 years before. Only four weeks before Sam Cayhall is to be executed, Adam meets his grandfather for the first time in the Mississippi prison which has held him since the crime. The meeting is predictably tense when the educated, young Mr. "Hall" confronts his venom-spewing elder, Mr. "Cayhall," about the murders. The next day, headlines run proclaiming Adam the grandson who has come to the state to save his grandfather, the infamous Ku Klux Klan bomber. While the old man's life lies in the balance, Adam's motivation in fighting this battle becomes clear as the story unfolds. Not only does he fight for his grandfather, but perhaps for himself as well. He has come to heal the wounds of his own father's suicide, to mitigate the secret shame he has always felt for the genetic fluke which made this man his grandfather, and to bring closure -- one way or another -- to the suffering the old man seems to have brought to everyone he has ever known. But, would mercy soften his grandfather's heart? http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0115862/plotsummary
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source; Mary Ann Eastep & Ali Farazmand (1999), Just Doin' My Job, Public Voice 4(2) Two recent films, The Chamber (1996), and Dead Man Walking (1996), each contribute unique insights into bureaucratic socialization as they traverse the work world of prison personnel charged with the implementation of society's ultimate punishment. Dead Man Walking is a complex examination of the issues related to the death penalty as it is currently applied in contemporary American society, and The Chamber explores the relationship of a young attorney and his death-row client (who is also his grandfather). But even as the viewer is forced to confront specific aspects of the death penalty (e.g., the horrors of the crimes that brought the condemned men to trial, the disparity of application of the ultimate punishment in the U.S., and the human desire for vengeance that drives the survivors and the politicians to push forward), the viewer is simultaneously confronted with yet another reality of the death penalty. The viewer sees the prison officers and wardens charged with carrying it out in the context of the work-a-day world of the bureaucrat. Taking the life of another, even when it is legally sanctioned and socially justified, is an enormous task to add to anyone's job description. The ease with which that is carried out, even given slight reservations by the staff of bureaucrats, causes (or perhaps should cause) the viewer to take pause for a brief moment and consider the factors that have led to the social construction of that particular reality. In the 1960's, Stanley Milgram conducted a set of experiments at Yale University designed to test how far his subjects would go to inflict punishment when directed by authority figures to do so. He was surprised to find a majority of subjects inflicted pain, many to the point of inflicting serious bodily harm or death (Milgram 1963:371-378). The subjects of those experiments were volunteers, and were not coerced by the power of a paid position. They were merely influenced by the power of social conditioning to obey authority. His experiments were begun in an effort to understand blind obedience to irrational leadership such as Hitler's, but his findings demonstrate how powerful authority can be in the determination of human behavior. In both films, The Chamber and Dead Man Walking, the correctional officers expressed, even subtly, the strength of that power of conditioning, even in the face of positive personal feelings toward the offenders. There was never any doubt the employees would carry out the mission. Even as the warden in The Chamber was plagued with stress-related illness, and admitted he could not endure another execution prior to his retirement, another was willing and even anxious to take his place. The ex-military officer chosen from the ranks of the other prison administrators to attend to the details of carrying out the penalty attended to the rites of the execution with care and conscientiousness. He reported regularly, taking great pride in his achievements as the final hour drew near. Likewise, one viewing the final hours of the condemned killer in Dead Man Walking is haunted by the memory of the guard's mundane words as they walked down that final corridor: "dead man walking," announced sturdily, yet matter-of-factly. Movie Analysis in Newspaper Source; The New York Times, December 29, 1995, By JANET MASLIN Dead Man Walking; A Condemned Killer And a Crusading Nun
Movie Analysis in Newspaper Source; The New York Times, October 11, 1996, By JANET MASLIN The chamber; A Racist and Killer Or Just Misunderstood?
Dead Poets Society (1989) Description Painfully shy Todd Anderson has been sent to the school where his popular older brother was valedictorian. His room-mate, Neil, although exceedingly bright and popular, is very much under the thumb of his overbearing father. The two, along with their other friends, meet Professor Keating, their new English teacher, who tells them of the Dead Poets Society, and encourages them to go against the status quo. Each, in their own way, does this, and are changed for life. http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0097165/plotsummary
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source: What does Hollywood think Nonprofit CEOs do all day? An initial exploration of screen depictions of top management in the Nonprofit sector Dr. Gale Nolan (played by Norman Lloyd) is Headmaster of Welton Academy, a college preparatory school for boys in New England. He runs the school like an army drill sergeant, barking out orders like "sit!", "come!" and "leave!" He began at the school decades earlier as an English teacher and has come to believe deeply in the school's traditions, especially its devotion to the "four pillars: tradition, honor, discipline and excellence." From Nolan's point of view, this approach has served the school well for 100 years and there's no reason to change. For him, all issues are black and white, with no other alternatives or shades of gray. During the 1959-60 school year, a new and iconoclastic English teacher urges his students to be creative instead of learning by rote. This greatly disrupts the life of the school and disturbs Nolan. He takes severe steps to shut down originality or spontaneity by the boys. When necessary, Nolan personally paddles one of the rule breakers. When he discovers that a group of boys have created a secret club for reciting poetry, he interrogates each boy individually, forces each to confess and then orders each to sign a statement blaming their behavior on the new English teacher. With that document in hand, Nolan fires the instructor in the middle of the school year and temporarily takes over teaching the class. From his own perspective, Nolan has been properly exercising his authority, with the goal of restoring equilibrium to the institution and re-establishing the trust of the parents. He has taken the steps to restore the organization's balance and tranquility, including its relationships with powerful stakeholders such as parents and faculty. However, he has turned a blind eye to the larger social trends in the external environment that, inevitably, will impose changes onto the institution irrespective of his efforts. Movie Analysis in Newspaper Source; The New York Times, June 2, 1989, By VINCENT CANBY The time is 1959 and the place is the Welton Academy in Vermont. Welton is one of those expensive, tradition-bound boys' preparatory schools somewhat more beloved in, and more significant to, English literature than American. This being 1959, Welton has not yet been pressured into accepting young women or blacks. Its world is insular, that of the privileged white male who, if he is not already a scion of Old Money, will probably marry it. Into this rarefied atmosphere comes John Keating (Robin Williams), himself a Welton alumnus, who returns to teach English and to shake up the old school with his enthusiasm for poetry and his unconventional teaching methods. One of the major problems with ''Dead Poets Society,'' Peter Weir's dim, sad new movie, is that although John Keating is the most vivid, most complex character in it, he is not around long enough. He is really no more than the catalyst who brings about events over which he has no control. ''Dead Poets Society,'' which opens today at Cinema 1 and other theaters, is far less about Keating than about a handful of impressionable boys who become bewitched by Keating's exuberant assaults on the order of academe. They include Neil Perry (Robert Sean Leonard), a hard-working honors student who dreams of becoming an actor though his father insists that he go to Harvard to study medicine. Todd Anderson (Ethan Hawke) is so shy that he is frozen with fear when required to speak in front of the other students. Charlie Dalton (Gale Hansen) has the makings of a true rebel and poet. At Keating's first class of the new semester, he orders his students to tear out the preface in their poetry anthology. The offending pages suggest that the value of poetry can be measured in much the same way as the area of a rectangle. Keating's credo: ''Carpe diem!'' (''Seize the day!''), because tomorrow we will all be food for worms. ''We don't read and write poetry because it is cute, but because it is full of the passion of life.'' He mixes great swatches of Whitman with imitations of Marlon Brando and John Wayne. He recalls that when he was a boy, ''I was the intellectual of 98-pound weaklings. I'd go to the beach and people would kick copies of Byron in my face.'' He drills his students mercilessly until each begins to perceive that, only by being out of step with others, will he have a chance to realize himself. With his encouragement, they revive a clandestine campus group of which Keating had been a founding member, the Dead Poets Society. After hours, the members meet in a nearby cave, tell ghost stories, read Tennyson aloud and, in one case, play the saxophone. In Mr. Williams's Keating, the movie has an authentic approximation of the kind of teacher who not only instructs, but also changes his students' lives. He is not, unfortunately, the center of Tom Schulman's screenplay, which moves with such deliberate predictability that one must walk very slowly not to walk ahead of it. One would have to have been raised in a space station not to know that Keating must come into conflict with the other masters, and that one of his students will take his teachings to some fatal length. Even worse, Mr. Schulman and Mr. Weir seem to accept the Keating character at romantic face value. In allowing him to remain a sort of hip Mr. Chips, they leave unexplored the contradictory nature of his responsibilities. In fact, the Keating character is far more culpable than either he or the movie realizes. In this fashion, the movie undercuts Mr. Williams's exceptionally fine performance, making the character seem more of a dubious fool than is probably intended. Mr. Weir (''Picnic at Hanging Rock,'' ''The Year of Living Dangerously'' and ''Witness,'' among others) obtains some very good performances from the younger actors, particularly from Mr. Leonard, and from Norman Lloyd, who plays the headmaster. Yet the director cannot resist tarting up the movie with the fancified effects that pass for art: broad, eerie shots of birds taking off (or landing), night scenes prettily lighted from sources of illumination that must have been provided by the gods, along with scenes from an amateur production of ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' in which Puck (for reasons that have more to do with the movie than the play) wears Christ's crown of thorns.
Desk Set, aka His Other Woman (1957) Description The mysterious man hanging about at the research department of a big TV network proves to be engineer Richard Sumner, who's been ordered to keep his real purpose secret: computerizing the office. Department head Bunny Watson, who knows everything, needs no computer to unmask Richard. The resulting battle of wits and witty dialogue pits Bunny's fear of losing her job against her dawning attraction to Richard. http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0050307/plotsummary
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source; Mordecai Lee (2002). Management history as told by popular culture: the screen image of the efficiency expert, Management Decision, 40(9) Character described as efficiency expert: Plot relating to efficiency expert: The head of a TV network hires efficiency expert Richard Sumner (Spencer Tracy) to review its research and reference department. He recommends that it be automated and computerized.
Do the Right Thing (1989) Description Spike Lee's incendiary look at race relations in America, circa 1989, is so colorful and exuberant for its first three-quarters that you can almost forget the terrible confrontation that the movie inexorably builds toward. Do the Right Thing is a joyful, tumultuous masterpiece--maybe the best film ever made about race in America, revealing racial prejudices and stereotypes in all their guises and demonstrating how a deadly riot can erupt out of a series of small misunderstandings. Set on one block in Bedford-Stuyvesant on the hottest day of the summer, the movie shows the whole spectrum of life in this neighborhood and then leaves it up to us to decide if, in the end, anybody actually does the "right thing." Featuring Danny Aiello as Sal, the pizza parlor owner; Lee himself as Mookie, the lazy pizza-delivery guy; John Turturro and Richard Edson as Sal's sons; Lee's sister Joie as Mookie's sister Jade; Rosie Perez as Mookie's girlfriend Tina; Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee as the block elders, Da Mayor and Mother Sister; Giancarlo Esposito as Mookie's hot-headed friend Buggin' Out; Bill Nunn as the boom-box toting Radio Raheem; and Samuel L. Jackson as deejay Mister Señor Love Daddy. A rich and nuanced film to watch, treasure, and learn from--over and over again. --Jim Emerson http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0097216/amazon
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source: Charles T. Goodsell & Nancy Murray. (1995). Public administration illuminated and inspired by the art. Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing (1989) depicts African-American life from an inside perspective. Through its vivid imagery the film presents racism as an urban phenomenon in contemporary terms. This film transport the viewer into the intimacy of the environment. One cannot help but grasp the dilemmas and the problems that produce enraged reactions in some, negative behavior in others, embattled challenges in still others. The meaning of family, or its absence, the influence of adults on children, the impact of external forces such as economic exploitation and the drug "culture" are conveyed in dramatic cinematic form. Movie Analysis in Newspaper Source; The New York Times, June 30, 1989, By VINCENT CANBY In all of the earnest, solemn, humorless discussions about the social and political implications of Spike Lee's ''Do the Right Thing,'' an essential fact tends to be overlooked: it is one terrific movie. From the sinuous and joshing solo dance sequence, which begins the fable on the dawn of the hottest day of the summer in Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant section, until the mournful fadeout 24 hours later, ''Do the Right Thing'' is living, breathing, riveting proof of the arrival of an abundantly gifted new talent. Mr. Lee has been edging up on us. First there was the slyly subversive comedy ''She's Gotta Have It,'' about a young woman who can be satisfied only by three men. Then there was ''School Daze,'' which examines intra-racial prejudice in the terms of the old-fashioned college movie-musical, which, until Mr. Lee came along, had always been Wonder Bread-white and utterly brainless. Each film was by way of preparation. With ''Do the Right Thing,'' which he wrote, produced, directed and stars in, Mr. Lee emerges as the most distinctive American multi-threat man since Woody Allen. The film, which opens today at the National Twin and other theaters, is the chronicle of a bitter racial confrontation that leaves one man dead and a neighborhood destroyed. The ending is shattering and maybe too ambiguous for its own good. Yet the telling of all this is so buoyant, so fresh, so exact and so moving that one comes out of the theater elated by the display of sheer cinematic wizardry. ''Do the Right Thing'' is a big movie. Though the action is limited to one more-or-less idealized block in Bed-Stuy, the scope is panoramic. It's a contemporary ''Street Scene.'' It has the heightened reality of theater, not only in its look but also in the way the lyrics of the songs on the soundtrack become natural extensions of the furiously demotic, often hugely funny dialogue. The film begins with disarming ease, introducing its dozen or so characters while Mister Senor Love Daddy (Sam Jackson), the local disk jockey, wakens the citizenry from the store-front studio of Station W(e)L(ove)R(adio). The sun is scarcely up, but it is already steamy. ''The color of the day is black,'' says Mister Senor Love Daddy, ''to absorb some of those rays!'' The rummy old ''Mayor'' (Ossie Davis) arises to search for a can of Miller High Life. The unexcitable, skeptical Mookie (Mr. Lee), who works as a delivery man for Sal's Famous Pizzeria, sits on the side of his bed, counting his cash. Radio Raheem (Bill Nunn) is walking the street with his giant boom box blasting into consciousness everyone who has managed to sleep through Mister Senor Love Daddy. In the Cadillac that eases to a stop in front of the pizzeria are Sal (Danny Aiello) and his sons, Pino (John Turturro) and Vito (Richard Edson). They haven't yet started work but the brothers are arguing about who must do what. Sal, who wants nothing but peace, threatens to kill someone before the day is over. Other characters are introduced: Mother Sister (Ruby Dee), whose eye on the world is the window from which she monitors the street; Buggin Out (Giancarlo Esposito), a young man whose anger has no target as yet; Smiley (Roger Guenveur Smith), a retarded man with a bad stutter who hawks copies of what is apparently the only photograph ever taken of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X together, and Tina (Rosie Perez), Mookie's pretty Puerto Rican girlfriend and the mother of his son, Hector. Tina, who seldom stops talking, is impatient and loving at the same time. The only way she gets to see Mookie is by ordering pizzas. There is also the three-man chorus: M L (Paul Benjamin), Coconut Sid (Frankie Faison) and Sweet Dick Willie (Robin Harris). Protected by a small umbrella, they sit on the corner, backed by a brick wall of brilliant vermilion. When they aren't commenting on each other, they are commenting on the people around them, including the Korean operators of the fruit-and-vegetable shop across the street. As the heat intensifies, so do the tempers. For a while potential fights are defused by good humor, but then the kidding starts to turn mean. Buggin Out asks Sal why the pizzeria is hung with photographs of Frank Sinatra, Sophia Loren and John Travolta, but no blacks. Says Buggin Out, ''Rarely do I see any Italian-Americans eating here.'' He decides to organize a boycott of Sal's. Mr. Lee's particular achievement is in building the tensions so gradually and so persuasively that the explosion, when it finally comes, seems inevitable. He doesn't deal in generalities. The movie is packed with idiosyncratic detail of character and event, sometimes very funny and sometimes breathtakingly crude. Every now and then Mr. Lee pulls back from the narrative to present montages that characterize time, place and urban condition. Heat and noise are palpable in the juxtaposition of images scored by the Steel Pulse number ''Can't Stand It.'' At another point, blacks, whites, Puerto Ricans and Koreans come forward in turn to recite a litany of bigoted epithets. At times, characters speak directly to the camera, as if in desperation to vent their rage. None of this would have the impact it does if the film didn't also possess a solidly dramatic center in the well-meaning but fallible Sal. As written by Mr. Lee and played by Mr. Aiello, he is the film's richest, most complex character, his downfall as harrowing as the events that bring it about. Mr. Lee is almost as good as a fellow who has been biding his time, good-naturedly slouching through life until the events of this day change him forever. Especially funny and affecting are Mookie's relationship with Tina and a love scene that is a temporary reprieve from all that is going on outside. Tina, silent for the moment, lies on the bed in her darkened room. ''Thank God for lips,'' says Mookie as he rubs an ice cube over her mouth. ''Thank God for necks, thank God for kneecaps, for elbows, for thighs.'' All of the other actors are fine, but some demand to be singled out: Mr. Edson, Mr. Turturro, Miss Perez, Mr. Esposito, Mr. Nunn and - performing dual functions - Miss Dee and Mr. Davis. Miss Dee and Mr. Davis are not only figures within the film but, as themselves, they also seem to preside over it, as if ushering in a new era of black film making. Note should also be made of the camerawork of Ernest Dickerson, Wynn Thomas's production design, and the original score by Bill Lee (the director's father), which makes a lot of witty comments on its own as it backs the narrative and provides the bridges between the musical recordings.
Dunkirk(1958) Description Two stories in one - an easygoing British Corporal in France finds himself responsible for the lives of his men when their officer is killed. He has to get them back to Britain somehow. Meanwhile, British civilians are being dragged into the war with Operation Dynamo, the scheme to get the French and British forces back from the Dunkirk beaches. Some come forward to help, others are less willing. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051565/plotsummary
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source: Mordecai Lee (2001). The image of the government flack: movie depictions of public relations in public administration, Public Relations Review, 26 (3) Near the beginning of the movie, to help set up the story of the Dunkirk evacuation, reporters are attending a series of press conferences at the British Ministry of Information in 1940. This is during the early months of World War II, just before the German invasion of France, Holland and Belgium. A military spokesman, wearing an Army officer's uniform, is briefing the reporters. He is shown giving three different briefings. The reporters mainly ask him to confirm information they have independently collected about military developments in Europe. He rigidly refuses to say anything that the government does not want confirmed, whether for reasons of military considerations, political implications or just plain ignorance of the facts. During the first briefing, in response to questions from reporters, he says twice, "I have nothing to add to the communiqué" and then a third time, "nothing to add." A reporter then asks sardonically, "Is there any security objection to our using the reports we have received or shouldn't the Germans be told what they're up to?" The spokesman responds evenly: "That's a matter for the censor." During the third briefing, in answer to questions, he says, "I am sorry, gentlemen, I have nothing further to say." The audience is left to conclude that either the reporters are better informed than the spokesman is or the spokesman is so severely hampered by his political bosses that he is practically irrelevant.
Dunston Checks In (1996) Description Robert's a beleaguered concierge of the luxury hotel owned by Mrs. Dubrow. She tells Robert an undercover reviewer is coming and to look sharp. If he does well he might get a promotion and some time off to take his sons, Brian and Kyle, on vacation. But then the villainous jewel-thief Rutledge checks in with his specially trained orangutan, Dunston. And when Dunston gets loose and tries to escape a life of crime with the help of Brian and Kyle, things go just a little lunatic. http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0116151/plotsummary
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source; Mordecai Lee (2002). Management history as told by popular culture: the screen image of the efficiency expert, Management Decision, 40(9) Plot relating to efficiency expert: Jewel thief takes room at opulent hotel in preparation for heisting guests' jewelry. Hotel owner Mrs Dubrow (Faye Dunaway) considers herself an efficiency expert and is constantly riding the hotel staff. For example, she says, "I like psychotic people. They get things done." Dubrow thinks the thief is actually a hotel critic travelling incognito. Trying to impress him, she makes life even more miserable for the employees. Movie Analysis in Newspaper Source; The New York Times, January 12, 1996, By STEPHEN HOLDEN
ER (1998) - TV series Description Michael Crichton has created a medical drama that chronicles life and death in a Chicago hospital emergency room. Each episode tells the tale of another day in the ER, from the exciting to the mundane, and the joyous to the heart-rending. Frenetic pacing, interwoven plot lines, and emotional rollercoastering is used to attempt to accurately depict the stressful environment found there. This show even portrays the plight of medical students in their quest to become physicians. http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0108757/plotsummary
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source; Mordecai Lee (2002). Management history as told by popular culture: the screen image of the efficiency expert, Management Decision, 40(9) Title of episodes with efficiency expert: "Freak Show: Obstruction of Justice; Do You See What I See?; Sharp Relief; Carter's Choice" Plot relating to efficiency expert: Due to fiscal problems, Dr Kerry Weaver considers affiliating the ER with Synergix, an ER management group specializing in balancing budgets. The company sends Dr Ellis West (Clancy Brown) to observe. Weaver agrees to attend a conference on ER management with West in St Barts. When back, Weaver begins lobbying the other doctors to approve having Synergix manage the ER. However, Weaver begins to question West's budget cuts and learns that Synergix closes most trauma centers it acquires. She then campaigns against the affiliation.
Esther and the King (1960). Description There isn't a whole lot to distinguish this middling biblical epic from the sea of others that came out in the mid-50's and early 60's, but it offers a certain degree of entertainment. Egan (decidedly miscast) plays the King of Persia (with Brillcremed hair and a standard American accent) who returns from a long battle to find that his wife has been enjoying the services of one or more of his men. He excuses himself from her and sets out to find a new virgin bride, choosing from all the maidens in his kingdom. Virginal Jewess Collins (yes...you read that right) is the title character. She is snatched away mere moments before becoming wed to Battaglia and is taken to the palace to be groomed for the selection process. Once there, she is protected by her uncle O'Dea (who entreats her to hide her Jewish heritage) and is targeted by Fantoni who is Egan's right-hand man. Fantoni has another lady in mind for the throne so he can use her to his own ends of taking over the kingdom. Eventually, Collins realizes that she and only she can spare her people from destruction and she decides to leave behind her dreams of a life with Battaglia and pursue Egan. Egan, still in very good shape physically, makes a handsome king and gives an okay performance. He is just patently contemporary in his look and delivery. Collins is very attractive throughout (complete with heavy bouffant 60's hair!) and does an adequate job as well, but is always more interesting as a villainess than as a docile young maiden. O'Dea lends able support as her wise and stalwart uncle. It would be difficult to summon up a more virile, hirsute, hunk of man than Battaglia as Collin's abandoned lover. Seeing him, one can understand the torment she had at having to turn her back on her past and move on. The location work, fancy sets, pageantry and gauzy costumes keep this from being too dull, but there is an awful lot of chatter and hand-wringing in between the action sequences. Stay awake for the scene in which Egan gifts Collins with a tiger cub and then immediately steps over to a lyre and plunks out what sounds like the opening strains of "Born Free"! As expected, considerable liberties have been taken with the original story, yet it doesn't result in that much more spectacular a film. http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0053800/usercomments
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source: Mordecai Lee & Susan C. Paddock (2001). Strange But True Tales From Hollywood: The Bureaucrat As Movie Hero, Public Administration & Management, 6(4) The Emperor of Persia (Richard Egan) appointed two senior administrators to run the day-to-day affairs of the Empire while he was away on a military campaign. Lord Mordecai (Denis O’Dea) is an ethical administrator, while First Minister Haman is corrupt and ambitious. Mordecai refuses to fight evil with evil and continues to oversee the financial affairs of the empire honestly. With the return of the emperor, Haman hatches a plot to gain power, even depose him. He falsely charges Mordecai with malfeasance. The punishment Mordecai faces is execution. Nonetheless, Mordecai persists in maintaining ethical conduct, based on the tenets of his Jewish faith. Finally, Haman is exposed and hanged while Mordecai is rehabilitated and restored to his high administrative post. At one point in the movie, the Emperor describes Mordecai’s work as the epitome of good public administration in a monarchy: “The eye of the king, my keeper of the accounts, my all-knowing minister.”
Final Countdown (1980) Description It is 1980 and the USS Nimitz puts to sea off of Pearl Harbor for routine exercises. After encountering a strange storm and losing all contact with the US Pacific Fleet, nuclear war with the Soviet Union is assumed and the USS Nimitz arms herself for battle. However, after encountering Japanese Zero scout planes and finding Pearl Harbor filled with pre-World War II battleships, it is realized that the storm the Nimitz went through caused the ship to travel back in time: to December 6th, 1941. http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0080736/plotsummary
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source; Mordecai Lee (2002). Management history as told by popular culture: the screen image of the efficiency expert, Management Decision, 40(9) Plot relating to efficiency expert: Warren Lasky (Martin Sheen) works for a company that had helped design and build the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Nimitz in the 1970s. The Defense Department has asked him to accompany the Nimitz on one of its routine cruises near Hawaii. An officer asks him about his job: Lasky: I'm a systems analyst. Officer: (laughs) 'An efficiency expert right?' Lasky: 'Yeah, you could say that' (In the novelization, he answers differently and acknowledges the negative image of the efficiency expert. "'And another way of saying efficiency expert,' Lasky said drily [sic], 'is that; you're a son of a bitch fifty miles from out of town.'" [Caidin, 1980, p. 23].) Later, a different officer asks for elaboration about his profession: Lasky: I'm a little bit of everything... I look at the way you people do things and, you know, if I can think of any alternatives, I write up a report and submit it to the Department of Defense. Officer: Think you'll find some? Lasky: There are always alternatives, Commander (emphasis in dialogue). Lasky's presence on the Nimitz proves indispensable. The ship is battered by an unprecedented electrical storm and then loses all communications with Navy headquarters. The captain and senior officers try to figure out what has happened. Lasky insists that they consider another alternative, no matter how incredible it may be. He points out that the data they have is consistent with the ship going through a time warp to 6 December 1941, the day before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Eventually, all officers agree that this could be only correct explanation. Movie Analysis in Newspaper Source; The New York Times, August 1, 1980, By VINCENT CANBY
Flintstone (1962) - TV series Description This popular animated television cartoon featured two Stone Age families, the Flintstones and their neighbors, the Rubbles. Much of the humor was based on its comic portrayals of modern conveniences, reinterpreted using Stone Age 'technology.' Most notably were their cars, complete with absence of floorboards to allow them to be 'foot-powered.' http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0053502/plotsummary
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source; Mordecai Lee (2002). Management history as told by popular culture: the screen image of the efficiency expert, Management Decision, 40(9) Title of episode with efficiency expert: "High School Fred" Plot relating to efficiency expert: Fred Flintstone's boss, Mr Slate, sends him back to finish high school on the advice of an efficiency expert.
Forces of Nature(1999). Description Ben Holmes, a pretty regular guy, is on his way to his wedding. A little accident hinders the takeoff, and soon Ben finds himself in a third person's rental car together with eccentric but attractive Sarah. Several catastrophic incidents later, the two are thought to be a married couple and run into Ben's best friend and his girlfriend, who happens to be the bride's best friend. Now, Ben and Sarah have to face the problem that they really might be made for each other, but they also might just be panicking about the upcoming events: His marriage and her first meeting with a special person. http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0141098/plotsummary
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source: Mordecai Lee (2001). The image of the government flack: movie depictions of public relations in public administration, Public Relations Review, 26 (3) Near the beginning of the movie, to help set up the story, an airplane is beginning to take off from a New York City airport. A flock of birds is sucked into one of the engines causing it to malfunction. The plane suddenly loses power and drops back onto the runway. It skids out of control. Without warning, the passengers are violently thrown about the cabin. Some are injured. The passengers are quickly disembarked and are in the terminal being treated for injuries. A spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is interviewed live by a TV reporter at the airport surrounded by passengers. He responds in a casual tone and style, without notes or formality, giving as much information as he knows. When asked about the cause of accident he says, "No official word on the cause of the crash at this time although there may have been a foreign object... " How many people were injured? "Well, everyone's pretty shook up. We had a couple of passengers go to a local hospital with concussions. But, most everyone's being treated here at the scene." Because of the crash, two passengers get to know each other and become romantically entangled, notwithstanding their other relationships. Movie Analysis in Newspaper Source; The New York Times, March 19, 1999, By JANET MASLIN
F Troop (1967) - TV series Becoming a hero by accidentally leading a cavalry charge the wrong way, Private Wilton Parmenter is given command of Fort Courage. The Fort's crafty Sgt. O'Rourke has a deal with the local Hekawi Indians to market their wares to the tourists. They must sometimes pretend to be enemies (and the Shugs really are enemies). Jane is out to marry the innocent Parmenter. http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0058800/plotsummary
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source; Mordecai Lee (2002). Management history as told by popular culture: the screen image of the efficiency expert, Management Decision, 40(9) Title of episode with efficiency expert: "Is this Fort Really Necessary?" Plot relating to efficiency expert: Major Terence McConnell (Charles Drake) is an army efficiency expert. He has been sent to review the operations at Fort Courage, with the authority to shut it down.
Ghostbusters (1984) Description Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, and Egon Spengler are three scientists at Columbia University in New York City. When their grant expires, the guys are fired and they go into business as a ghost extermination company called "Ghostbusters". Their first customer is orchestra cello player Dana Barrett, who was scared out of her apartment on the 22nd floor of a high rise apartment building on Central Park West. It seems that Dana's neighbor, Louis Tully, is also being affected by the strange happenings in the apartment building. Armed with proton guns, the Ghostbusters become wildly popular, and they are joined by Winston Zeddmore, who is looking for a job with good pay. Overzealous Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) agent Walter Peck thinks the Ghostbusters are frauds, and he has the Ghostbusters put in jail. Peck is forced to believe the Ghostbusters when New York City is put under siege by an ancient Sumerian God named Gozer the Gozerian, who is channeled through the apartment building that Dana and Louis live in, and the mayor has no choice but to let the Ghostbusters out of jail to face Gozer. http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0087332/plotsummary
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source: Marc Holzer & Linda G. Slater (1995). Insight into Bureaucracy from Film: Visualizing Stereotypes. Public administration illuminated and inspired by the art, Charles T. Goodsell & Nancy Murray(Eds) In Ghostbusters, which underscores the popular image of "bureaucrat as buffoon," an official of the Environmental Protection Agency obnoxiously demands to inspect a storage facility for ghostly spirits. Rejected because he did not use the magic word "please," he returns with a court order. Told that his actions will surely endanger the populace, he opts for rules and regulations, ordering the facility to be shut down. Even though his actions almost lead to disaster, the agitated bureaucrat still clings to the letter of the law. He is finally removed by the mayor, who opts for live, grateful voters over mindless procedures. The enduring message is that bureaucrats are dangerously incompetent. Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source; Lyn Holley and Rebecca K. Lutte (1999), Public Administration at the Movies, Public Voice 4(2) Lessons in Public Personnel Administration from Ghostbusters The pivotal event of Ghostbusters (1984) is a catastrophic explosion of negative ectoplasmic energy (i.e., destructive ghosts) into modern New York City. The explosion is triggered by the actions of Wallace Peck, a Federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Official. Peck is motivated to act by his unsupported assumptions that the entrepreneurial Ghostbusters (played by popular comedians Dan Ackroyd, Bill Murray, and Harold Ramis) are greedy frauds. He explicitly seeks revenge against Bill Murray's character who has `insulted' Peck. Peck uses the powers of his office to obtain court orders to `cease and desist all commerce,' for `seizure of premises and property,' for `entry and inspection,' and, key to the explosion, for shutting off electric power due to `use of a public utility for unlicensed waste handling.' The explosion places the New Yorkers in jeopardy. Peck could be considered a `worst case' example of Down's `zealot.' Peck takes a broad view of his role to protect the public--stretching his environmental mandate to include commercial fraud. Peck does not believe in ghosts; he thinks the Ghostbusters defraud the public by taking money for removing ghosts that never existed. On a psychological level, his inappropriate agitation suggests his personal beliefs are threatened by the groundswell of reports of spectral activity. Peck never yields an inch, even when the lives of millions of New Yorkers are threatened. Wallace Peck slips into the collective unconscious wrapped in a funny, exciting, fast-paced adventure story with a happy ending. Peck may cast a shadow as issues of the Friedrich-Finer variety are debated, particularly in regard to greater discretion for public officials. Ghostbusters includes many other lessons about public management. The outcomes of government's much lauded, expensive affirmative action initiatives resonate in the public library. An older, white female librarian patiently sorts and stacks books; the library director is white, male, and thirty-something. Later, the film depicts the ease with which private employers recruit outstanding minorities. Ernie Hudson, an African American, walks into an address listed in the `help wanted' section of the newspaper, and is added to the Ghostbusters' staff after a five minute conversation with their secretary. No expensive recruitment trips, no cumbersome personnel procedures or paperwork, no background check, no ceilings, no reports. The film suggests government diversity programs are ineffective, and government personnel `red tape' is superfluous. The public university is depicted as a hierarchy where students matter little, and unconventional ideas and faculty are unwelcome. The dean gleefully `fired' all three Ghostbusters by encouraging the Regents to cancel their funding. In the Dean's view, their science was `bad science.' The Ghostbusters were fired and evicted from their laboratory just at the time when their `scientific' but unconventional discovery was the only thing that could save New York City from calamity. Fortunately, the character played by Bill Murray was an `entrepreneur'. Under his leadership, the Ghostbusters took out a loan and went into private business. The wisdom of the marketplace prevailed, and the Ghostbusters' service became sufficiently well-known to be called upon by the Mayor at the city's time of need. The subtext of this endearing chapter is summarized in Dan Ackroyd's lament protesting Bill Murray's idea of going into business: "Personally, I liked the university. They gave us money and facilities. We didn't have to produce anything. You'd never been out of college. You don't know what it's like out there. I've worked in the private sector. They expect results." (Ghostbusters, 1984) The Ghostbusters commentary on public administration extends beyond the federal government and university to the municipal level of government. The city police department is shown to be effective and pragmatic at the street level, but helpless as a bureaucracy in the face of a novel threat too big to handle as a situational imperative. The mayor makes decisions about life and death issues affecting millions of people on the basis of potential votes. A subtext of the film is expressed in the lyrics of its hit music score, "Who you gonna call?" ... after absorbing these lessons, it probably won't be `the government.' (Ghostbusters, 1984)
Movie Analysis in Newspaper Source; The New York Times, June 8, 1984, By JANET MASLIN the systematic pursuit and apprehension of any spooks, vapors or phantasms to be found in a metropolitan area - seems a perfect profession for Bill Murray. It requires a cool head, which Mr. Murray most assuredly has, as well as the ability to remain unruffled by bizarre apparitions - the sight, say, of a fat green ghost in a hotel corridor, gobbling the scraps off somebody's room-service tray. This kind of work calls for the kind of sang-froid that, coming from Mr. Murray, amounts to facetiousness of the highest order. Ready and able as he is to take on the ordinary chores that come his way in ''Ghostbusters'' (like carrying around a sample of suspicious slime, or investigating a haunted refrigerator), Mr. Murray also seems game for the full-fledged horror parody that ''Ghostbusters'' could have been. But, however good an idea it may have been to unleash Mr. Murray in an ''Exorcist''-like setting, this film hasn't gotten very far past the idea stage. Its jokes, characters and story line are as wispy as the ghosts themselves, and a good deal less substantial. (The ghosts, incidentally, are very winning, especially that hungry green one, who in one scene springs out of a street vendor's cart with a big smile and a mouthful of hot dogs.) The screenplay is by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis, who play Mr. Murray's partners in parascience; Mr. Ramis plays the egghead type, and Mr. Aykroyd is more of a blank, since there's barely a role here for him at all. As for Mr. Murray, he is Dr. Peter Venkman, a psychologist specializing in psychic phenomena and women chasing, not necessarily in that order. When all three are booted out of Columbia University, they go into private practice, advertising on television and setting up shop in an abandoned Manhattan firehouse, since they like sliding down the pole. One of the more charming things about the movie is its blithe assumption that there is more than enough weirdness afloat to warrant its television advertisements, and to keep the ghostbusters doing a brisk business. As long as the film retains its playfulness and keeps the stakes low, things are promising. But once the trail leads to the refrigerator of Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver), which contains a hellhound and a gleaming, apocalyptic vision (''Generally, you don't see this kind of behavior in a major appliance,'' Dr. Venkman observes), the film gets out of hand. Ivan Reitman, the director, subsequently has to contend with spectacles like a rooftop demonic shrine and a 100-foot marshmallow dressed in a sailor suit, marching up Central Park West. Not surprisingly, with all this going on, there is more attention to special effects than to humor. There are also far too many loose ends in the screenplay, since few of the supporting characters wind up having much to do with one another. Some, like William Atherton as an Environmental Protection Agency inspector who challenges the heroes's means of ghost disposal, seem out of place in what's supposed to be a comic setting; others, like Annie Potts as the bored secretary of the ghostbusters, merely have nothing to do. Rick Moranis, who's certainly funnier here than in ''Streets of Fire,'' makes a good first impression as the creep who lives down the hall from Dana, and who watches her every move. But before that situation has a chance to take off, both characters find themselves in the throes of demonic possession. ''I think we could get her a guest spot on 'Wild Kingdom,' '' Dr. Venkman says, trying to describe Dana's condition. Miss Weaver looks great and shows herself to be a willing comedienne, as well as an excellent foil for Mr. Murray. But this is his movie, first and foremost, and it's another of the messy, near-miss films in which he seems to specialize. Put Mr. Murray in any setting where order, tidiness and rationality are taken seriously, and he becomes the consummate anarchic slob; that's enough to keep ''Ghostbusters'' going, like ''Stripes'' and ''Meatballs'' before it. But Mr. Murray would be even more welcome if his talents were used in the service of something genuinely witty and coherent, rather than as an end in themselves.
G.I Jane (1997) Description When a crusading chairperson of the military budget committee pressures the would be Navy secretary to begin full gender integration of the service, he offers the chance for a test case for a female trainee in the elite Navy SEALS commando force. Lt. Jordan O'Niel is given the assignment, but no one expects her to succeed in an inhumanly punishing regime that has a standard 60% dropout rate for men. However, O'Niel is determined to prove everyone wrong. http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0119173/plotsummary
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source; Jay M. Shafritz & Peter Foot (1999), Organization Development in Hollywood War Movies: from The Sands of Iwo Jima to G. I. Jane, Public Voice 4(2) Demi Moore is the new John Wayne. In the 1997 film G.L Jane she takes a disparate group of would-be Navy SEALS (for sea-air-land teams) and forges them into a competent combat team -- just in time to see "real" action on a fictional mission off the coast of Libya. What she did was not much different from what John Wayne did in the World War II films The Sands of Iwo Jima (1949) and Flying Leathernecks (1951). In the former, Wayne is the sergeant of a marine infantry squad; in the latter he is the commanding officer of a Marine fighter squadron. In both cases he forges his unruly and high-spirited young charges into an effective highly disciplined fighting force. He, as an older, more mature character, teaches them by example and instruction. And when someone inevitably dies because one of his men failed the group, Wayne is ready (in The Sands) with the kind of after-action fatherly consolation that makes his charges determined not to screw up again. "A lot of guys make mistakes, I guess, but every one we make, a whole stack of chips goes with it. We make a mistake, and some guy don't walk away -- forevermore, he don't walk away." He says this with his eyes swelling up with moisture and his voice choking to give it greater poignancy. Wayne was always most effective, as here, when he gets almost to the point of crying but manfully holds it in. Taking a cue from the John Wayne school of acting, Demi Moore also "manfully" holds in her tears throughout much of G.L Jane, never more so than when she demonstrates extraordinary bravery during a brutal mock prisoner of war interrogation. She is finally accepted by the SEALS as one of the guys when she, hands tied behind her back, attacks her sadistic interrogator with a brutal kick to the groin (thus denying him -at least temporarily -- his masculine advantage) and lets forth with a blue streak of verbal abuse that shows once and for all that she can use the foul language of the barracks like the toughest of the guys. After this the men she commands are ready to follow her anywhere. The point is that her actions, her example just like Wayne's, forges them into an effective team; whereas before they lacked group cohesion. G.L Jane and many other war movies such as those of John Wayne demonstrate how organization development is, and always has been, an inherent part of military training. Of course Moore, even with her hair in a crew cut, is not really the new John Wayne. After all, it is highly unlikely that she will make a career of war movies and become the symbol of an aggressive American military. Movie Analysis in Newspaper Source; The New York Times, August 22, 1997, By JANET MASLIN
Heaven help us (1985) Description Sixteen-year-old Michael Dunn arrives at St. Basil's Catholic Boys School in Brooklyn circa 1965. There, he befriends all of the misfits in his class as they collide with the repressive faculty and discover the opposite sex as they come of age. http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0089264/plotsummary
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source: What does Hollywood think Nonprofit CEOs do all day? An initial exploration of screen depictions of top management in the Nonprofit sector Brother Thadeus (played by Donald Sutherland) is headmaster of St. Basil's Catholic Boys School in Brooklyn in 1965. The school is associated with a religious order and all the teachers are members of the order. Tbadeus is very strict. At the beginning of the movie, he is interviewing a new student and acclaimating the boy to St. Basil's culture. While he speaks softly, he orders the boy around like a drill instructor during basic training. In the course of the conversation, he says: On your feet. Say 'yes, Brother Thadeus'. Don't interrupt, Mr. Dunn. Speak when directly addressed or questioned. Understood? In a conversation with a young member of the order, who has just joined the school's faculty, he explains, "Authority must never be undermined by display of dissension among the faculty. For the students sake, you understand?" These two scenes suggest that Tbadeus values discipline above all other elements of the school's culture. However, as the movie unfolds, he demonstrates that other values are as important as discipline, perhaps even more important sometimes. As the senior member of the order at the school, he sits at the head of the table during meals attended by all the brothers. One of the teachers, Brother Constance, observes during dinner that student misbehavior is threatening the discipline at the school and begins to say, "If I were headmaster..." Thadeus cuts him off: "If you were headmaster, you'd probably call out the National Guard. But, at the moment, I am the headmaster and at the moment I want to enjoy my dinner." In a showdown scene, Constance engages in excessive corporal punishment of some students who had been disruptive. The students and the teacher are gathered in Thadeus's office for him to handle the aftermath of the incident. Constance wants the students expelled. Thadeus announces that he has decided to suspend the students for two weeks. Then, unexpectedly, he turns to Constance and hands him a document he has just signed. Thadeus (calmly and speaking softly): I'm having you transferred out of the school. I don't want you working with children any more. Constance (heatedly): You can't do this! I will demand an investigation! I'll take this all the way to the bishop if I have to! Thadeus (still calm and speaking softly, rises from chair and opens the door to his office): Take it wherever you want, Brother. Just take it out of my office. Thadeus' decisions as headmaster indicate that he has a nuanced view of the values that should be promoted in the curriculum and culture of the school. While he is a strict disciplinarian, he also has a long-term focus on the school's overall educational mission that includes the inculcation of other values as well. Such values include preventing the atmosphere in the school from becoming too militaristic, keeping the students in school by suspending rather than expelling them, rejecting the principle that the teacher is always right in a conflict with students and protecting the student's physical safety from sadistic teachers. These are values to be nurtured along with the focus on discipline. Movie Analysis in Newspaper Source; The New York Times, February 8, 1985, By JANET MASLIN ST. BASIL'S, the Brooklyn parochial school at which ''Heaven Help Us'' takes place, is not the usual setting for schoolboy comedy. But then, ''Heaven Help Us'' is not the familiar assemblage of gags and antics, though it contains enough of these to draw a teen-age crowd. The director Michael Dinner, making his feature debut, and the screenwriter Charles Purpura have an unusually good feeling for the time, the place, the characters as kids and the adults they later turned into. It is this last group at which ''Heaven Help Us,'' like ''Diner'' and the current ''Flamingo Kid,'' is principally aimed. The adults at St. Basil's - the headmaster (Donald Sutherland), the hipster neophyte (John Heard), the sadistic disciplinarian (Jay Patterson) and the sex-crazed priest (Wallace Shawn) who insists on a lecture about lust and hellfire just before a school dance - are as well-drawn as their students, which gives the film an effective tension. So does the casting of the young men, who are a diverse but memorable lot: quiet, serious Michael Dunn (Andrew McCarthy), a new boy with a sad history; Caesar (Michael Danare), who's the resident egghead and looks like Richard Dreyfuss crossed with a walrus; and Rooney, a likable lout played by Kevin Dillon, who resembles his brother Matt. In a smaller role, Stephen Geoffreys speaks volumes while barely saying anything, as a boy with absolutely no control over what the priests keep telling him are his basest impulses. ''Heaven Help Us,'' which formerly had the much more apt title ''Catholic Boys'' and which opens today at the Gemini, works as a series of vignettes, the best of them detailing life in the small, claustrophobic St. Basil's community. Waiting on line to make their confessions, the boys engage in a form of plea-bargaining; they tone down their most blatant sins and then just add lying to the list. Running afoul of their most vicious teacher, they may find themselves wearing gum on their noses or balancing volumes of the encyclopedia in either hand for long stretches. The teachers, for their part, can't stand to hear ''Dominique'' on the radio and are moved to tears when they venture to Manhattan to watch the Pope make his visit. The boys, seeing this temporary softening on the part of the faculty, use this as an occasion to sneak off to the movies to watch Elvis in ''Blue Hawaii.'' At obligatory intervals, Mr. Dinner must give one of the kids a chance to wreck his father's car or throw up or whatever; he also ends the film with a jokey and superfluous epilogue. If that gives ''Heaven Help Us'' a certain inconsistency of tone, it doesn't damage the small, well-observed moments Mr. Dinner handles best. A good example is Michael Dunn's courtship of the pretty, sullen tomboy who runs the local soda fountain (Mary Stuart Masterson), a sequence made gently effective as they dance to an Otis Redding song and wind up under the boardwalk. Mr. Dinner gives this episode some novelty and emotional force by keeping it sexually ambiguous, and by giving Michael a subsequent scene with his kid sister that puts the romance into larger perspective. The look of ''Heaven Help Us,'' one that's almost comically gloomy, is captured by the cinematographer Miroslav Ondricek and enhanced by some well-chosen props, particularly the unfashionable eyeglasses that turn up on much of the cast. Mr. Danare's make him especially funny, though he would be anyhow. At the other end of this film's wide temperamental spectrum, Mr. Patterson's make a prim, malicious teacher seem all the more frightening.
Hidden Agenda (1990) Description When an American human rights lawyer is assassinated in Belfast, it remains for the man's girlfriend, as well as a tough, no nonsense, police detective to find the truth... which they soon discover to be contained in an audio tape which the man had with him, exposing political manipulations at the highest levels of government. But such underlying agendas require careful considerations to avoid worse things than murder. http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0099768/plotsummary
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source: Charles T. Goodsell & Nancy Murray. (1995). Public administration illuminated and inspired by the art. The protagonist, at the climax of the film, unearths a major, politically engendered crime. He must decide between walking away from the truth-but securing the remaining few years of his career as a police officer-and exposing the conspiracy, thereby incurring dismissal from the service, notoriety, and the loss of financial security. It is an agonizing decision with intense pressure from both sides, one of the strongest depictions of ethical conflict portrayed in any film. Movie Analysis in Newspaper Source; The New York Times, November 21, 1990, By CARYN JAMES As the camera sweeps over gorgeous green hills, it settles on the cramped, urban cluster of Belfast. There, at an exuberant loyalist parade, an I.R.A. sympathizer surreptitiously passes a tape to an American human-rights activist; the transaction turns out to be a death warrant. "Hidden Agenda," the English director Ken Loach's lucid political thriller about Northern Ireland in the 1980's, is bracketed by such contrasts. It begins with a quote from Margaret Thatcher insisting that Northern Ireland is part of Britain. It ends with one from a former British intelligence agent, stating, "There are two laws running this country: one for the security forces and the other for the rest of us." But the film soon situates itself between those extremes, in a city that breeds murder and paranoia, a place where truth is never stark or easy to discover. Though the story concerns political assassination and government conspiracies, the film's strength is that it shows terrorism and ideology in the cold light of day on Belfast streets, where violence from both sides is a daily battle with no end in sight. Most political thrillers opt for melodramatic darkness, but "Hidden Agenda" is all the more chilling because its atmosphere is so bright and ordinary. The film's own political agenda is straightforward: the British Government is shown to be the villain very early on. At the start, an international group of human-rights observers gathers evidence of torture and killings, and of the "shoot to kill" policy by which the British security forces fire at suspected I.R.A. terrorists on sight. The film's human face is established by two American actors, Frances McDormand and Brad Dourif, as the observers. This casting reflects the film's assertion that if something happens to an American the British cannot sweep it under the rug. We soon witness what Ms. McDormand's character, Ingrid Jessner, and a British police investigator named Peter Kerrigan will spend much of the film trying to discover. Two men -- one an I.R.A. member -- are ambushed and shot without warning by the police as they drive on an isolated country road before dawn. The police steal important anti-British evidence, then claim the car ran through an ordinary checkpoint. Kerrigan, who arrives from England to look into these deaths, is clearly based on John Stalker, who spent two years looking into the shoot-to-kill policy and was removed from his job shortly before the investigation was finished. His dismissal caused an uproar in England. Like Mr. Stalker, Kerrigan encounters resistance from the local chief of the Royal Ulster Constabulary. And like Mr. Stalker, he places himself in danger by visiting the families of I.R.A. members who have been killed. Both Ms. McDormand and Brian Cox as Kerrigan are believably obsessed and jittery. But their major function is to convey the escalating sense of danger (Kerrigan finds a bullet and a warning note in his car) and their gradual recognition of the British Government's immense power to obscure and manipulate the truth. "Hidden Agenda" takes on one scandal too many when it links Kerrigan's thwarted investigation to a right-wing conspiracy that powerfully influences British politics. At that point, late in the film, "Hidden Agenda" relies on talky exposition, pitting the heroic Kerrigan in a conversation against stuffy, unconvincing Members of Parliament. Until then it avoids the pitfall of didacticism and argues its case through its characters, working as methodically as Kerrigan conducts his investigation. This politically opinionated, unsensational manner takes advantage of Mr. Loach's long experience creating semi-documentaries about such issues as homelessness and working-class struggles. The style of "Hidden Agenda" is not fashionable. But this quietly explosive film comes to resonate more loudly than melodrama.
Hoffa (1992) Description Amazon.com Essentials: A titanic performance by Jack Nicholson powers this fact-and-fiction biography of Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa. From the opening moment--Hoffa sitting alone in the back of a car--Nicholson's performance is one of his best, and a rare role as a historical person. The sweeping all-American story of a common worker who reaches the highest pinnacle in the world's most powerful union is sweepingly told with wondrous detail, in wardrobe, sets, and trucks. The better-documented facts of Hoffa's life, including his struggle against Attorney General Bobby Kennedy (Kevin Anderson), supply the backbone of the story. But the hope of what the Teamsters are to the American Dream is what makes the film glow (swept along by David Newman's score). The screenplay by David Mamet takes two wild and entertaining divergences from fact. The first is the character of Hoffa's ubiquitous sidekick Bobby Ciaro, played by the film's director, Danny DeVito. It's a fictitious role, a composite character that allows the story to be clearly told, as does the second--Mamet's explanation of Hoffa's famous disappearance. --Doug Thomas http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0104427/amazon
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source: What does Hollywood think Nonprofit CEOs do all day? An initial exploration of screen depictions of top management in the Nonprofit sector In 1957, Jimmy Hoffa (played by Jack Nicholson) was elected President of the Teamsters Union. Upon his election, he demonstrates his management style when he immediately hands a list of names to an aide, saying: Tomorrow morning, you go in [to Teamster headquarters], you fire every one of these cocksuckers. [If] you're gonna can a lotta people, make sure you do it the first day. That way, the ones that are left don't feel insecure. You see, what they'll feel is grateful. You do it all piecemeal, they gonna turn against you. (Mamet, 1990, p. 95, emphasis in printed screenplay.) Hoffa intuitively understood that, as Machiavelli had observed, fear is the most effective emotion for a leader to instill. Fear helps assure staff responsiveness to the leader's projects and priorities. Yet, Hoffa mixes fear with vision. Later, as president, he works directly with architects to design a wholly encompassing retirement village for teamsters to provide them and their families with all the municipal and social services they would need. Gesturing at a mock-up model of the project, he tells one of his associates, "Bobby, this is my dream." When the federal government investigates alleged illegal behavior on his part, he complains that their unrelenting harassment is interfering with his day-to-day managerial responsibilities. "I'm a busy man. I got a union to run. I've got a job to do. We're not a small organization with two people up in an office," as when he had headed a union local. these scenes, the CEO of a large labor union is depicted as having a multidimensional and seemingly contradictory management approach. On one hand, he brusquely decides which staff to fire and which to retain while simultaneously working to implement his dream of a novel project that would benefit the members of the organization. Yet, to him, all his actions are part of one management style: first instill fear, then lead. Movie Analysis in Newspaper Source; The New York Times, December 25, 1992, By VINCENT CANBY IN his 1960 book, "The Enemy Within," Robert F. Kennedy, soon to be the Attorney General of the United States, wrote about his first face-to-face meeting with the man he had sworn to send to prison, James R. Hoffa, the powerful president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Kennedy was surprised by how short the labor leader was, "only five feet five and a half." Anyone who knows anything about Hoffa's rise and fall will be similarly surprised by how much he's grown in "Hoffa," the riveting, almost impressionistic new film biography, written with mean brilliance by David Mamet and directed by Danny DeVito in a splashy style best described as Las Vegas Empire. The film not only presents a Jimmy Hoffa with the beefed-up physical dimensions of Jack Nicholson, who gives a gigantic powerhouse of a performance, but it also effectively rearranges the hierarchy of American heroes as it's understood in the 1990's. Many people may be uncomfortably surprised. "Hoffa" sees Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1968 in the middle of his campaign for the Democratic Presidential nomination, as he was perceived by Hoffa: a whiny, aggressive, Harvard-educated rich kid desperate for publicity, ready to use fair means and foul to trap Hoffa, and no match at all for Hoffa in their furious verbal confrontations. Mr. DeVito and Mr. Mamet don't whitewash Hoffa, but they seem almost nonjudgmental about him. By omission they appear to sanction a complicated, very dubious, if colorful, character. In the context of most commercial movies today, which insist on explaining too much or repeating the obvious at seemingly endless length, "Hoffa" remains cool and detached, not unlike Mr. DeVito's very funny, very dark comedy, "The War of the Roses." Yet "Hoffa" is not a comedy. It is a take on history. It's a serious consideration of the career of a man whose gift for the expedient and personally profitable alliance was the near-equal of Talleyrand's. Hoffa's ties to the Mafia not only cost the rank-and-file teamsters millions of dollars but also set a pattern for corruption that tainted the entire labor movement. His is a quintessentially American story, for only in America did Big Labor become a big business to rival Big Business. "Hoffa" is a remarkable movie, an original and vivid cinematic work, but is that enough? I think it is. Others will have legitimate objections to the ways the film operates. Mr. DeVito and Mr. Mamet stay at a discreet distance from Hoffa, neither sentimentalizing him nor attempting to analyze him beyond his own automatic defense that you have to do it unto others before others do it unto you. Without comment, and in very general terms, they document Hoffa's evolution from small-time labor reformer to big-time labor racketeer, master shakedown artist and influence-peddler, and friend to mobsters of frightening moment. The tale is told in a series of flashbacks from the last day of Hoffa's life. On July 30, 1975, Hoffa disappeared forever, having been shot, according to some reports, his body placed inside an automobile compactor, the remains then buried in a location that no one yet has discovered. The movie opens as the nervous, exhausted Jimmy, accompanied by his trusted factotum and pal, a fictitious character named Bobby Ciaro (Mr. DeVito), waits in the back seat of a Cadillac in the parking lot of a roadhouse near Detroit. Jimmy has an appointment with a long-time Mafia associate who, he hopes, will support him in his attempts to win back his place as the teamsters' president. Convicted of jury-tampering and sent to jail in 1967, Jimmy was paroled in 1971 on the condition that he remain out of union politics until 1980. It's not a condition he has ever taken seriously. The recollections that are the body of the film are not Jimmy's, but the adoring, busy Bobby's. Bobby can't sit still. He paces around the parking lot, goes into the roadhouse to make phone calls, returns with paper cups of coffee for Jimmy, reminisces a bit, gets out of the car again and paces. Bobby frets over Jimmy's situation, recalling his first meeting with the vital, energetic Jimmy in the depressed 1930's when, one night on the road, Jimmy invited himself into the cab of his truck and attempted to recruit him for the teamsters. Jimmy was then something of an idealist. As the long day passes in the parking lot, Bobby chronologically remembers his way through Jimmy's career: their days as members of a teamster goon squad, torching a company that failed to recognize the union; Jimmy's success in a brutal confrontation with police while organizing the Railway Transport workers, and his introduction to the Mafia in the person of (the fictitious) Carol D'Allesandro (Armand Assante). He's the film's representation of the forces that provided much of the pressure and muscle that made possible Hoffa's rise within the teamsters' union. In one of the film's more bizarre inventions, Bobby remembers a crucial hunting trip during which D'Allesandro outlines the ways Jimmy might manipulate the teamsters' pension fund to make loans to the mob and enrich all concerned, with the exception of the membership. As the two men are signing an agreement on the back of a hunting license, Bobby, not a natural hunter, spots a sluggish deer, takes out his pistol and shoots it between the eyes. Although Bobby's memory is fond, "Hoffa" sees all impassively, with a shrug that seems to ask, "Well, what can you do about it?" This gives "Hoffa" a bitterly skeptical edge that is rare in American movies. It forces viewers to make up their own minds, something that can be immensely disorienting as well as rewarding. The film suggests there are times when you have to think for yourself. A more reasonable objection to the movie is the way it necessarily foreshortens history, simplifies events, and either ignores important real-life characters or reinvents them as composites. This is dramatic license, but dramatic license often seriously distorts, which is not easily acceptable when the subject is as rich and significant as the Jimmy Hoffa story. The movie notes in passing, but doesn't appear to understand, Hoffa's real achievement in negotiating the precedent-setting National Master Freight Agreement, guaranteeing teamsters uniform wage and benefit conditions across the country. The movie also doesn't begin to suggest the profound complexity of Hoffa's connections to the mob, his relations to his wife and family, and the teamsters' connections to the Government. A lot has been left out, which is unfortunate, since the snarl of these relationships is what seems finally to have done him in. The great thing about "Hoffa" is that it doesn't pretend to be a docudrama or anything like it. It's not a vulgarized rip-off of Costa-Gavras movies, reduced to the exploitation of the latest case of murder, kidnapping or child molestation, or a briefly notorious domestic disagreement. "Hoffa" is an original work of fiction, based on fact, conceived with imagination and a consistent point of view. In addition to Mr. Assante and Mr. DeVito, the excellent supporting cast includes J. T. Walsh as Hoffa's colleague and successor, Frank Fitzsimmons; John C. Reilly as a protege who squeals on Hoffa; Natalija Nogulich, briefly seen as Jimmy's wife; Kevin Anderson as Robert Kennedy; Frank Whaley as a young man befriended by Bobby in the course of the day in the roadhouse parking lot, and Robert Prosky as another early associate of Jimmy. Mr. DeVito's direction is full of extravagant gestures that seem entirely in keeping with Bobby's highly colored memories of life with Jimmy. There are a number of grand overhead shots, as if the camera were in the position of a gaudy casino chandelier, whether it's a scene of Jimmy in prison or a panoramic view of union men fighting scabs. At the same time, Mr. DeVito knows when to use close-ups, that is, to reveal character rather than to punctuate dialogue. When the director shows a remembered explosion and fire, they have the huge proportions of something reported in a tall story told late at night in a favorite bar. Mr. Nicholson has altered his looks, voice and speech to evoke Hoffa, but the performance is composed less of superficial tricks than of the actor's crafty intelligence and conviction. The performance is spookily compelling without being sympathetic for a minute. Unlike Norman Jewison's "F.I.S.T." (1978), an underrated Sylvester Stallone movie about a Hoffa-like character, the new film doesn't mourn Jimmy's lost innocence. "Hoffa" is a tough movie about American life. It hasn't time for tears.
Ikiru (1952). Description Kanji Watanabe is a longtime bureaucrat in a city office who, along with the rest of the office, spends his entire working life doing nothing. He learns he is dying of cancer and wants to find some meaning in his life. He finds himself unable to talk with his family, and spends a night on the town with a novelist, but that leaves him unfulfilled. He next spends time with a young woman from his office, but finally decides he can make a difference through his job... After Watanabe's death, co-workers at his funeral discuss his behavior over the last several months and debate why he suddenly became assertive in his job to promote a city park, and resolve to be more like Watanabe. http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0044741/plotsummary
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source: Mordecai Lee & Susan C. Paddock (2001). Strange But True Tales From Hollywood: The Bureaucrat As Movie Hero, Public Administration & Management, 6(4) A Japanese bureaucrat (Takashi Shimura) has worked nearly 30 years in an office where “he sits behind a desk piled high with paper…busy putting his seal to various documents” (Kurosawa, 1992, p. 9). After learning that he has a fatal illness, he decides that a petition from a poor neighborhood for a park should be acted on, rather than simply stamped and forwarded to another department in a normal endless bureaucratic runaround. “Against official indifference, active discouragement, even intimidation, he forces the park into being” (Richie, 1992, p. 4). When the park is completed, he feels, finally, that for once he has used the bureaucracy to accomplish something concrete that serves the citizens. He dies shortly thereafter. This is “a moral existentialist drama about the loneliness of the long-distance bureaucrat who finds redemption by helping victims of bureaucratic indifference” (Bernstein, 2000). Movie Analysis in Newspaper Source: The New York Times January 5, 2003, Sunday, By DAVID THOMSON
Kurosawa's Quiet, Tragic Bureaucrat
I'm All Right Jack (1959) Description In postwar Britain tricky Bertram Tracepurcel plans to get an Arab arms contract for his missile company then arrange for a strike so that his partner Sidney Cox gets the work at a higher price. Central to the scheme is Tracepurcel's innocent nephew whom he persuades to take a job on the shop-floor knowing he is bound to cause union problems. With shop steward Fred Kite always ready to assert workers' rights trouble is indeed assured, though not quite in the way Tracepurcell and Cox intended. http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0052911/plotsummary
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source; Mordecai Lee (2002). Management history as told by popular culture: the screen image of the efficiency expert, Management Decision, 40(9) Plot relating to efficiency expert: Labormanagement relations in a British factory are complicated by the manager's attempt to hide a time and motion expert (John Le Mesurier) among the workers to observe their pace. The expert documents how many more crates could be loaded and unloaded if the workers were more efficient. Using the evidence, a new schedule is promulgated by management. The workers call a strike. Movie Analysis in Newspaper Source; The New York Times, April 26, 1960, By Bosley Crowther Of all the unlikely subjects for successful satirizing on the screen—organized labor and management in modern industry—the British Boulting brothers, John and Roy, have picked it for their film I'm All Right, Jack. And what do you know!—they have run it into the brightest, liveliest comedy seen this year. Much like their Private's Progress, which took a decidedly scandalous view of life in the British Army during World War II, this new satire at the Guild Theatre plays absolutely devastating hob with the obstructive tactics of trade unions—and with the intrigues of management, too. As a matter of fact, most of the characters in this delightfully sharp and rowdy farce are the same as were in Private's Progress, only grown a little longer in the tooth. There's Ian Carmichael, the private, still a naive and dizzy gentleman, seeking a place to dispose his peacetime talents and finding it as a laborer in a missile-making plant. There's Richard Attenborough, the Cockney schemer, now become a dapper man of affairs, and Dennis Price, the art-purloining major, now the head of the arms factory. These two arch and practiced connivers are joined in a clearly crooked plot, with Marne Maitland as a shifty-eyed Mohammedan, to mulct an unnamed Arab country on a big arms deal. And whom do you think these fine industrialists have as the labor-relations manager in their plant? None other than bucktoothed Terry-Thomas, the snarling major in that other film. He's the frenzied but foxy fellow who is now stuck with the patience-fraying job of dealing with the bland, lint-picking workers and spying on their time-wasting toils. However, someone new has been added—an outsider to complicate the lives of these memorable and mischievous war buddies and make their best-laid schemes gang agley. He is a stalwart and solemn-faced shop steward, a provokingly pompous, priggish type. And he is played so sensationally by Peter Sellers that the whole film is made to jump and throb. Truly, it's hard to tell you what it is that Mr. Sellers does to make this figure of a union fanatic devastatingly significant and droll. Up to the point of his entrance, the comedy runs along in an innocent, charming fashion, poking fun at the British upper class and making a mockery of modern manufacturing and merchandising, somewhat in the manner of Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times. But when Mr. Sellers strides into the picture at the head of a shop committee, breathing fire and rattling off union specifications in an educated Cockney tone of voice, it is as if Mr. Chaplin's Great Dictator has come upon the scene. He is all efficiency, righteous indignation, monstrous arrogance, and blank ineptitude. He is the most scathing thing that union labor has ever had represent it on the screen. He is also side-splittingly funny, as funny as a true stuffed shirt can be. We're not going to try to tell you how it all comes out; how Mr. Carmichael, with the best intentions, upsets the labor apple cart and precipitates a strike that puts a spoke in the conniving management's scheme and how this arouses the nation and compels a television panel show, in which the honest Mr. Carmichael exposes labor and management alike. All we'll say further is that John Boulting, Frank Harvey, and Alan Hackney have written a script that is one of the liveliest in a long time, although loaded with cryptic British slang; that Mr. Boulting has directed it briskly; that Margaret Rutherford, Irene Handl, Liz Fraser, and Victor Maddern play it finely, along with all those mentioned above—and that this is a picture that only members of the National Association of Manufacturers, the unions, and a few million other Americans should be sure to see.
Jaws (1975) Description The peaceful community of Amity island is being terrorised. There is something in the sea that is attacking swimmers. They can no longer enjoy the sea and the sun as they used to, and the spreading fear is affecting the numbers of tourists that are normally attracted to this island. After many attempts the great white shark won't go away and sheriff Brody, with friends Hooper and Quint decide to go after the shark and kill it. http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0073195/plotsummary
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source: Mordecai Lee & Susan C. Paddock (2001). Strange But True Tales From Hollywood: The Bureaucrat As Movie Hero, Public Administration & Management, 6(4) Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) is the police chief of the town of Amity. He likes the quiet and uneventful life of a small town police chief compared to his earlier career as a cop in New York City. He is content with a low-key job of managing a small department. Yet, when a shark threatens the safety of swimmers, the political and commercial leaders of the town do not want Brody to order a closing of the beaches because of the economic effect it would have on tourism. At first, he “lets others shape his decisions” Later he insists on exercising his discretionary powers to close the beaches, although he is not even sure he actually has the specific legal power to do so. He says, “I can do anything, I'm the chief of police.” That statement exemplifies the reality that a large degree of discretion is delegated to every major public manager, but especially so in law enforcement. Finally, when nothing else works, he bullies the mayor – theoretically his boss -- into signing a document so that Brody can hire an expert fisherman to kill the shark: You’re gonna do what you do best. You’re going to sign this voucher so I can hire a contractor...You’re gonna do the right thing. That’s why you’re gonna sign this and we’re gonna pay that guy what he wants. Sign it, Larry! Brody will no longer bend to the wishes of the elected officials. He exercises his authority to protect the public, including unorthodox approaches to accomplishing his goal of killing the shark.
JFK(1991) Description Part fact and part opinion, mainly of Jim Garrison and director Oliver Stone, as to the events surrounding the proposed conspiracy of the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas. New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison began a probe into the actions of the F.B.I. and other officials of whom he suspected where covering up information that could lead to evidence of multiple shooters. The motive is believed to be to escalate the United States involvement in the Vietnam War. President Kennedy was attempting to prevent any further involvement in this situation, but which Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson supposedly promised the United States government that he would "give them the war". Thus, the motive for eliminating President Kennedy. The movie also details the events of many people involved in the assassination, from Lee Harvey Oswald to Clay Shaw, a prominent figure in New Orleans. http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0102138/plotsummary
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source: Mordecai Lee (2001). The image of the government flack: movie depictions of public relations in public administration, Public Relations Review, 26 (3) During the first days after the assassination of President Kennedy, New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison arrests a man he thinks might be connected to the assassination. A few days later, the FBI releases the man. A spokesman for the FBI's New Orleans office reads a prepared statement at a press conference announcing the release of the man for lack of any evidence connecting him to the shooting. Movie Analysis in Newspaper Source; The New York Times, December 20, 1991, By VINCENT CANBY IN one of the dizzying barrage of images with which Oliver Stone begins "J. F. K.," President Dwight D. Eisenhower is seen on television not long before he left office in 1961. It is one of Ike's finer moments. There he is, the former five-star general, the man who salvaged the Presidency for the Republican Party, warning the American people to beware of the military-industrial complex, a vested interest that, one might reasonably suppose, was oriented more toward the Republicans than the Democrats. "J. F. K." goes on for another three hours or so. Yet as busy and as full of exposition as it is, it never becomes much more specific than Ike. The conspiracy that, "J. F. K." says, led to the assassination of Eisenhower's successor, John F. Kennedy, in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963, remains far more vague than the movie pretends. According to "J. F. K.," the conspiracy includes just about everybody up to what are called the Government's highest levels, but nobody in particular can be identified except some members of the scroungy New Orleans-Dallas-Galveston demimonde. That the subject is hot is apparent from all the criticism the movie received even before it was completed. The ferocity of that outrage should now subside, in part because "J. F. K.," for all its sweeping innuendos and splintery music-video editing, winds up breathlessly but running in place. The movie will continue to infuriate people who possibly know as much about the assassination as Mr. Stone does, but it also shortchanges the audience and at the end plays like a bait-and-switch scam. "J. F. K." builds to a climactic courtroom drama, the details of which it largely avoids, to allow Kevin Costner, the film's four-square star, to deliver a sermon about America's future with an emotionalism that is completely unearned. What the film does do effectively is to present the case for the idea that there actually was a conspiracy, rather than the lone gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald, specified by the Warren Commission report. Beyond that "J. F. K." cannot go with any assurance. This is no "All the President's Men." The only payoff is the sight of Mr. Costner with tears in his eyes. The film's insurmountable problem is the vast amount of material it fails to make coherent sense of. Mr. Stone and Zachary Sklar, who collaborated on the screenplay, take as their starting point Jim Garrison's book, "On the Trail of the Assassins." Mr. Garrison, played in the film by Mr. Costner, is the former New Orleans District Attorney who, five years after the assassination, unsuccessfully prosecuted Clay Shaw, a New Orleans businessman, in connection with the Kennedy murder. To give the film something resembling conventional shape, Mr. Stone has turned Mr. Garrison into what he describes as "a Frank Capra character," that is, a plain, dedicated down-home fellow called Jim, someone who represents "the best American traditions." Like millions of Americans, the movie's Jim admires President Kennedy and mourns him when he is murdered. But Jim also comes to see Kennedy as the 20th century's great fearless dove, whose death might be traced, if only the facts were allowed to come out, to everyone who benefited from his death. These would include corporations profiting from the Vietnam War, members of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Secret Service and, by clever indirection, even President Lyndon B. Johnson, Kennedy's Vice President. Acting in concert with them or at their behest, though in ways that remain undetermined, are ultra-right-wing fanatics represented in the movie by Clay Shaw (Tommy Lee Jones), some unidentified Cuban exiles and a former F.B.I. man named Guy Bannister (Ed Asner). Also involved are various fringe types like David Ferrie (Joe Pesci), a pilot for hire; the small-time mobster Jack Ruby (Brian Doyle Murray), and Oswald (Gary Oldman), whose place in the conspiracy has become utterly mysterious by the time the movie ends. "J. F. K." begins with a promise of intrigue and revelation, though it soon becomes clear that Mr. Stone is Fibber McGee opening the door to an overstuffed closet. He is buried under all the facts, contradictory testimony, hearsay and conjecture that he would pack into the movie. What is fact and what isn't is not always easy to tell. Though one character is officially listed as having committed suicide, the movie allows us to see him being forced to take lethal pills. This is not speculation. Anything shown in a movie tends to be taken as truth. The movie sees everything through the bespectacled eyes of the tireless Jim. "J. F. K." suffers with him when the Donna Reed character, Jim's wife, Liz (Sissy Spacek), says, "Honestly, I think sometimes you care more about John Kennedy than you do your own family!" Jim has missed a luncheon at Antoine's with Liz and the children. Some things, such as Presidential assassinations, require terrible sacrifices from those who would investigate them. "J. F. K." is suitably aghast when Jim goes to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington to meet a man who identifies himself only as X (Donald Sutherland) but who is obviously high in the military-industrial complex. X is the one who, in a very long omnibus sort of monologue accompanied by images that jump all over the world, suggests that Jim check into the participation in the conspiracy of everyone who stood to gain from Kennedy's death. Says Jim in his golly-gee-whiz manner, "I never realized that Kennedy was so dangerous to the Establishment!" The movie rushes frantically on, its unsubstantiated data accumulating while Jim becomes a victim of a caustic press and a vicious, self-serving Establishment. Little by little Mr. Stone seems to identify Jim with John Kennedy. When X says of the conspiracy, "It's as old as the Crucifixion," it suddenly appears that the film maker would elevate Jim and John to an even higher pantheon. By the time "J. F. K." reaches the Clay Shaw trial, most uninformed members of the movie audience will be exhausted and bored. The movie, which is simultaneously arrogant and timorous, has been unable to separate the important material from the merely colorful. After a certain point, audience interest tunes out. It's a jumble. "J. F. K." rivets in the manner that was intended in two sequences: its presentation of the evidence about the number of bullets fired at the Kennedy motorcade and its presentation of the so-called Zapruder film, the record of the assassination itself. But even in these latter sequences, the movie remains an undifferentiated mix of real and staged material. Mr. Stone's hyperbolic style of film making is familiar: lots of short, often hysterical scenes tumbling one after another, backed by a soundtrack that is layered, strudel-like, with noises, dialogue, music, more noises, more dialogue. It works better in "Born on the Fourth of July" and "The Doors" than it does here, in a movie that means to be a sober reflection on history suppressed. Some of the performances are good, all by actors who get on and off fairly fast: Mr. Jones, Mr. Pesci, Mr. Asner, Jack Lemmon (as a feckless crony of one of the New Orleans suspects) and Kevin Bacon, who plays a male hustler. When Walter Matthau turns up for a brief, not especially rewarding turn as Senator Russell B. Long, "J. F. K." looks less as if it had been cast in the accepted way than subscribed to, like a worthy cause. The cause may well be worthy; the film fails it.
Just Shoot Me (1998) - TV series Description Maya Gallo is an industrious and dedicated reporter, who lashes out at people who don't respect her. she loses her job at a tv news show when she chose to lash back at the anchorwoman she loses her job and is unable to get another one. She then goes to her father, Jack who owns Blush magazine. Problem is that Jack has not exactly been a devoted and nurturing parent and he is now married to one of her former classmates. But she goes to him and gets a job. She also has to contend with some unusual people who works there, Nina, the former super model, Dennis, Jack's assistant, who's obnoxious and devious, and Elliot, the photographer, who has had every model he has shot. http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0118364/plotsummary
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source; Mordecai Lee (2002). Management history as told by popular culture: the screen image of the efficiency expert, Management Decision, 40(9) Title of episode with efficiency expert: "Eve of Destruction" Plot relating to efficiency expert: Efficiency expert Bill Slatton (Dan Butler) is hired to review the magazine's operations. With his `spit and polish' attitude, it seems that he is more interested in bullying the staff than improving their performance. It turns out that he really is the publisher's caddy. Movie Analysis in Newspaper Source; The New York Times, December 25, 1992, By VINCENT CANBY
Lawrence of Arabia(1962, 1992) Description There's no getting around a simple, basic truth: watching Lawrence of Arabia in any home-video format represents a compromise. There's no better way to appreciate this epic biographical adventure than to see it projected in 70 millimeter onto a huge theater screen. That caveat aside, David Lean's masterful "desert classic" is still enjoyable on the small screen, especially if viewed in widescreen format. (If your only option is to view a "pan & scan" version, it's best not to bother; this is a film for which the widescreen format is utterly mandatory.) Peter O'Toole gives a star-making performance as T.E. Lawrence, the eccentric British officer who united the desert tribes of Arabia against the Turks during World War I. Lean orchestrates sweeping battle sequences and breathtaking action, but the film is really about the adventures and trials that transform Lawrence into a legendary man of the desert. Lean traces this transformation on a vast canvas of awesome physicality; no other movie has captured the expanse of the desert with such scope and grandeur. Equally important is the psychology of Lawrence, who remains an enigma even as we grasp his identification with the desert. Perhaps the greatest triumph of this landmark film is that Lean has conveyed the romance, danger, and allure of the desert with such physical and emotional power. It's a film about a man who leads one life but is irresistibly drawn to another, where his greatness and mystery are allowed to flourish in equal measure. --Jeff Shannon http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0056172/amazon
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source: Charles T. Goodsell & Nancy Murray. (1995). Public administration illuminated and inspired by the art. A classic cinematic study of leadership is the monumental Lawrence of Arabia (1962, reissued in 1992). In it, T E. Lawrence is portrayed as brilliantly successful in achieving his objectives. Like other leaders, he defies "regulations," seizes opportunities, takes enormous, seemingly irresponsible risks, and succeeds in a sensational manner. Yet the viewer is left seriously wondering whether this larger-than-life character is not at least half mad! Bear in mind that motion pictures are a dramatic art. The medium does not reflect for the viewer; it presents to the viewer. The consequent meaning is in the eye of the beholder. We see more the manifestations of leadership, its visual impacts, perhaps its motivating relationships-not a deep, thoughtful analysis. Movie Analysis in Newspaper Source; The New York Times, December 17, 1962, By Bosley Crowther Like the desert itself, in which most of the action in Lawrence of Arabia takes place, this much-heralded film about the famous British soldier-adventurer, which opened last night at the Criterion, is vast, awe-inspiring, beautiful with ever-changing hues, exhausting, and barren of humanity. It is such a laboriously large conveyance of eye-filling outdoor spectacle—such as brilliant display of endless desert and camels and Arabs and sheiks and skirmishes with Turks and explosions and arguments with British military men—that the possibly human, moving T. E. Lawrence is lost in it. We know little more about this strange man when it is over than we did when it begins. Sure, a lean, eager, diffident sort of fellow, played by blue-eyed Peter O'Toole, a handsome new British actor, goes methodically over the ground of Lawrence's major exploits as a guerrilla leader of Arab tribesmen during World War I. He earnestly enters the desert, organizes the tribes as a force against the Turks for the British, envisions Arab unity, and then becomes oddly disillusioned as the politicians move in. Why Lawrence had a disposition to join the Arab tribes, and what caused his streak of sadism, is barely hinted in the film. The inner mystery of the man remains lodged behind the splendid burnoosed figure and the wistful blue eyes of Mr. O'Toole. The fault seems to lie first in the concept of telling the story of this self-tortured man against a background of action that has the characteristic of a mammoth Western film. The nature of Lawrence cannot be captured in grand Super-Panavision shots of sunrise on the desert or in scenes of him arguing with a shrewd old British general in a massive Moorish hall. The fault is also in the lengthy but surprisingly lusterless dialogue of Robert Bolt's overwritten screenplay. Seldom has so little been said in so many words. There are some great things in the picture—which runs, incidentally, for three hours and forty minutes, not counting intermission. There is some magnificent scenery, barbaric fights, a mirage in the desert that is superb (the one episode in the picture that conveys a sense of mystery). And there are some impressive presentations of historic characters. Alex Guinness as the cagey Prince Feisal, Anthony Quinn as a fierce chief, Omar Sharif as a handsome Arab fighter, and Jack Hawkins as General Allenby stand out in a large cast that is ordered into sturdy masculine ranks by David Lean. But, sadly, this bold Sam Spiegel picture lacks the personal magnetism, the haunting strain of mysticism and poetry that we've been thinking all these years would be dominant when a film about Lawrence the mystic and the poet was made. It reduces a legendary figure to conventional movie-hero size amidst magnificent and exotic scenery but a conventional lot of action-film clichés. It is, in the last analysis, just a huge, thundering camel-opera that tends to run down rather badly as it rolls on into its third hour and gets involved with sullen disillusion and political deceit.
Living Single (1995) - TV series Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source; Mordecai Lee (2002). Management history as told by popular culture: the screen image of the efficiency expert, Management Decision, 40(9) Title of episode with efficiency expert: "Stormy Weather" Plot relating to efficiency expert: Kyle Barker races to a store to buy a pregnancy test for a friend, partially to get away from an ill-advised one-night stand with Melissa (Roxanne Beckford), an annoying efficiency expert.
Male Animal (1942) Description The trustees of Midwestern University have forced three teachers out of their jobs for being suspected communists. Trustee Ed Keller has also threatened mild mannered English Professor Tommy Turner, because he plans to read a controversial piece of prose in class. Tommy is upset that his wife Ellen also suggested he not read the passage. Meanwhile, Ellen's old boyfriend, the football player Joe Ferguson, comes to visit for the homecoming weekend. He takes Ellen out dancing after the football rally, causing Tommy to worry that he will lose her to Joe. http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0035020/plotsummary
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source: What does Hollywood think Nonprofit CEOs do all day? An initial exploration of screen depictions of top management in the Nonprofit sector The movie takes place at 'Midwestern College.' The story centers on an English professor who wants to read to his English Composition class, along with other examples of effective writing by nonprofessional writers, a letter by Bartolomeo Vanzetti, a left-wing martyr from the 1920's. The Board of Trustees threatens to fire him if he does that. In the movie, the College's president, Cartwright, is depicted as the ministerial implementer of the policies set by the Board of Trustees. He is consistently referred to in the movie in ways that indicate his lack of policymaking power. At one point in the movie, a Trustee "who is the biggest voice and strongest hand on the board" (Epstein et al, 1941, p. 33) tells the professor, "We just had a meeting of the Trustees in the resident's office. Michael Barnes [a student] is out and you're on the way out. You're going to be asked to resign tonight" (Epstein et al, 1941, p. 132, emphasis added). Later, the Trustee suggests avoiding the showdown: Trustee: Why don't you read something else? Why don't you read something by President Cartwright? There's some good stuff in his book. Professor: Cartwright can't write as well as Vanzetti. Trustee: Oh, that's a terrible thing to say. You'll get in trouble saying things like that ... Get this straight: You read that letter and you're through. Throughout the movie, the Board of Trustees wholly overshadows Cartwright's role in running the university. The trustees are depicted as the decision makers who truly are in charge of the day-to-day management of the institution. For example, they fire three professors for having left-wing politics and then turn down an appeal to reinstate them "Americanism is what we want taught here," says the leader of the trustees who defines his job as including control over curriculum (Epstein et al, 1941, p. 44). In another situation, the English Composition professor is told that his job would be in jeopardy if he tried to "defy the authority of the trustees" and keep his job, an indication of the minor role of the college president (Epstein et al, 1941, p. 133, italics added). "Do you think the Trustees are afraid of a few discontented bookworms?" the trustee asks. Early in the movie, a leader of the Board is on the phone with the Chairman of the English Department: “We're making a clean-up. I'm calling the heads of all Departments. Be on the lookout for Reds [i.e. communists] ... Can't find Reds? Get at the pinks!” When a student literary magazine runs an editorial opposing such campus policies, it criticizes not the president, but the Trustees. The president is unmentioned in the editorial (Epstein et al, 1941, pp. 18-9). The narrative arc of the movie depicts the college CEO as a nonentity, wholly overshadowed by the Board of Trustees. President Cartwright's role is little more than hosting meetings of the Board in his office. The Trustees make decisions, he doesn't. The movie depicts a nonprofit agency with an out-of-control board of directors and a CEO who pem-jits that to continue. (In the stage play, there is one fleeting reference to the legislature, indicating the college depicted in the stage play is in the public sector [Thurber and Nugent, 1940, p. 179]. That line also appears in an early draft of the screenplay [Epstein et al, 1941, p. 137].. However, it was deleted from the final version of the movie. Significantly, the line was changed from a reference to the legislature to "the Trustees." This change clearly indicates that the college in the movie is a nonprofit one.)
Marooned(1969). Description After spending several months in an orbiting lab, three astronauts prepare to return to earth only to find their rockets wont fire. After initially thinking they might have to abandon them in orbit, NASA decides to launch a daring rescue. Their plans are complicated by a Hurricane headed towards the launch site and a shrinking air supply in the astronauts capsule. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064639/plotsummary
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source: Mordecai Lee (2001). The image of the government flack: movie depictions of public relations in public administration, Public Relations Review, 26 (3) Reflecting reality, the movie shows a NASA public affairs officer sitting at his console in the Missions Operations Control Room (MOCR), or Mission Control for short. Throughout the movie, he is seen speaking into a microphone describing, as in actual practice, the "real-time story to the news media." However, his clout within the organization is signified by where he is seated in the control room. The PAO is in the group of the four most minor officials who are the farthest away from the operational apex, the Flight Director. At the dramatic turning point of the movie, a problem develops with the spaceship. The Public Affairs Officer (PAO) has not made any public announcements since the problem first arose. On his own initiative, he talks to the Director of Manned Space Flight and tells him that some announcement should be released to the public. The Director snaps, "No announcement!" The PAO does not back down. "I think we should say something, sir. We've been off the air now for almost –." "OK," the Director interrupts him, "Keep it trivial. Keep it routine. We may not have a problem." The PAO then makes a factually accurate announcement without exaggerating or hyping the problem as major or catastrophic. In this scene, the PAO demonstrates his commitment to professional ethics, regarding the need to disclose promptly not just good news, but also bad news. He is willing to argue with his superior and prevail. At the same time, he successfully copes with the conflicting pressures for disclosure from the media and against it from his agency.
Melrose Place (1995) - TV series Description The lives and loves of a group of young adults living in "Melrose Place" in California. Each with their own dreams and drives, the inevitable conflicts, conquests, and consummations ensue. http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0103491/plotsummary
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source; Mordecai Lee (2002). Management history as told by popular culture: the screen image of the efficiency expert, Management Decision, 40(9) Title of episodes with efficiency expert: "Bye Bye Baby"; "They'Shoot Mothers, Don't They?" Plot relating to efficiency expert: Dr Peter Burns co-owns an advertising agency. He hires efficiency expert Caitlin Mills (Jasmine Guy) to study, supposedly, the agency's operations. She becomes a major headache for its president, Amanda Woodward. Peter and Caitlin are actually conspiring to nullify Amanda's employment contract and have Caitlin replace her.
Memphis Belle (1990) Description Amazon.com video review: If you've never seen an aviation movie before in your entire life, you'll be blissfully ignorant of the fact that Memphis Belle shamelessly (and yet gloriously) incorporates just about every cliché in the flight-movie handbook. If you're a big fan of aviation movies--especially movies about World War II bomber crews--you'll be glad that the genre's clichés have been handled with such professional flair. As it follows the crew of a B-17 bomber on its final and most dangerous mission over Germany, Memphis Belle may be little more than a slick and highly authentic presentation of familiar thrills and characters, but it's a rousing piece of entertainment. Featuring an ensemble cast of fresh faces who've since enjoyed thriving careers (including Billy Zane, Sean Astin, Eric Stoltz, D.B. Sweeney, and Harry Connick Jr.), the movie exists as a fitting tribute to the men who fought and often died in the air over hostile territory. It's the Hollywood version of a 1944 wartime documentary made by legendary director William Wyler (whose daughter served as one of this film's producers), and as such it's a bit contrived and melodramatic. And yet, this exciting movie is almost certain to grab and hold your attention, offering an honorable reminder of the bravery and integrity that were crucial ingredients of any bomber's crew. --Jeff Shannon http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0100133/amazon
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source: Charles T. Goodsell & Nancy Murray. (1995). Public administration illuminated and inspired by the art. Memphis Belle (1990), based on a true story about a bomber crew during World War II that engaged in heavy and dangerous bombing runs over Europe, delves into the personalities of its officers and men. Casualties in the Eighth Air Force were as close to catastrophic as one could imagine. Yet this crew of one bomber, this mixture of officers and men, combining great skill and compatible combat personalities, survived more than their share of missions. Unquestionably, luck played a major role, as it always does in war. At the same time, these men faced incredible odds on many of their raids. In the film, we see them differentiated as individuals as well as members of an organization. Movie Analysis in Newspaper Source; The New York Times, October 12, 1990, By VINCENT CANBY ''Memphis Belle'' is about the officers and crew of one United States Air Force B-17 bomber, called Memphis Belle, on its 25th and final mission, a daylight raid over Germany on May 17, 1943. It is fiction of an earnest sort, remarkable only for the way in which the air battles of nearly a half-century ago have been re-created with such seeming authenticity. More interesting than the film is its provenance. ''Memphis Belle'' was co-produced by David Puttnam and Catherine Wyler, daughter of William Wyler, who, during World War II, took a leave of absence from Hollywood to work with the United States Army. In the course of his duty, Wyler (then Colonel Wyler) helped to photograph, and supervised the production of, a fine 41-minute documentary titled ''The Memphis Belle.'' It was distributed in 1944 by Paramount Pictures on a nonprofit basis for the War Department and the Office of War Information. ''The Memphis Belle'' was both stirring propaganda and terrifically accomplished film making. It's not easy to understand what Mr. Puttnam and Miss Wyler expected to accomplish by making fiction from William Wyler's skillfully organized fact - perhaps the revelation of some larger truth. Instead, their ''Memphis Belle'' looks as if it were a homage to the sort of service films Hollywood made during the war, with some contemporary gaucheries standing in for the sentimental cliches that burdened, say, ''Flying Fortress,'' a Warner Brothers potboiler of 1942. The new film's format is similar to but not as exciting as that of Howard Hawks's ''Air Force'' (1943), about the air war in the Pacific. The 10-man crew of the Memphis Belle represents a dimly characterized cross section of American fighting men. The plane's straight-arrow captain (Matthew Modine), who was in the furniture business in civilian life, wants to get a dirty job done and return to his family. His co-captain (Tate Donovan) is jealous of the captain until he has a change of heart during the Memphis Belle's final flight. The crewmen include a superstitious fellow who goes to pieces when his lucky charm is lost, a man who is a virgin, one who sings like Frank Sinatra, sort of, and a very young ladies' man called Rascal. The inventions of Monte Merrick's screenplay are either small and commonplace or large and crude. The movie's most peculiar invention is a pushy Army public relations man (John Lithgow), who goes to England to prepare a publicity campaign featuring the Memphis Belle's crew. The man is incredibly callous and unfeeling, which seems to be the movie's attitude toward public relations, though the original ''Memphis Belle'' was a product of the Army's same public-relations machine. The direction by Michael Caton-Jones, the Englishman whose first theatrical feature was ''Scandal,'' is undistinguished here, but the material is not great. There's not much any director could do to keep the audience from squirming when Mr. Modine, the night before the final mission, is required to have a heart-to-heart talk with the nose of his airplane. The movie picks up interest when the Memphis Belle takes off. Flying Fortresses were technical marvels for their time. They carried twice the load of earlier bombers, but they were agonizingly slow, easy targets for both enemy fighter planes and ground-based fire. It took guts to fly them, especially in the daylight raids whose high casualties were offset only by the great numbers of planes involved. The movie effectively dramatizes the noise, the physical discomfort and the paralyzing terror faced by these men on each mission. The aerial combat sequences are staged with skill and, considering the fact that only a handful of B-17's are still around, with resourcefulness.
Mister Roberts (1955) Description Mister Roberts is aboard a US cargo ship, working in the Pacific during the Second World War. He'd do anything to leave the quiet of the ship to join in the "action". Trouble is, the captain of the ship, is a bit of a tyrant, and isn't willing to sign Roberts' transfer requests. Also on board is Ensign Pulver, who avoids work as best he can, whilst living off the riches of his buying and selling. Roberts and the crew are in constant battle, even over the smallest of disagreements. http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0048380/plotsummary
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source: Marc Holzer & Linda G. Slater (1995). Insight into Bureaucracy from Film: Visualizing Stereotypes. Public administration illuminated and inspired by the art, Charles T. Goodsell & Nancy Murray (Eds) In Mister Roberts, the obstinate imposition of discipline conveys the inflexible image of the military mind. Although Doug Roberts, the cargo officer of a World War II transport ship, is anxious to see combat, his requests for transfer are routinely denied by a stupid, petty captain. The compulsively authoritarian officer not only trashes Roberts's requests but is pathologically inflexible-ruling solely on the basis of Weber's legal-rational model. The crew is forced to respect the authority of his office but refuses to accord him any respect as a leader or motivator. Its members finally forge the captain’s signature on Roberts's request to transfer, with unintentionally tragic consequences; he is killed in action. Movie Analysis in Newspaper Source; The New York Times, July 15, 1955, By A. H. Weiler Now hear this! Another twenty-one-gun salute is hereby accorded Mister Roberts and the raffish, rough, and lovable World War II gobs who landed at the Music Hall yesterday. The motley complement of that ungainly Navy cargo "bucket," the Reluctant, who first sailed the Pacific in the novel by the late Thomas Heggen and then were transferred to the Broadway stage for a justifiably long cruise, now have emerged triumphantly in the complimentary full dress of CinemaScope and color. It was a trip worth making. Like its predecessors, this version of Mister Roberts is a strikingly superior entertainment. Although it is obliquely ribald now, it is still hilarious. Again, it is wonderfully sentimental and touchingly perceptive about its civilian seamen caught in the backwash of a war they neither saw nor fully comprehended. And, while this long voyage now gives them room to roam, the script by Frank Nugent and Joshua Logan has not deviated from the dramatization to any great extent. Mister Roberts once again pictures life aboard a "bucket" that tiresomely traffics between the islands of Tedium and Apathy with side trips to Monotony. The story revolves, as it always did, around the quietly towering figure of this supply vessel's cargo officer—Lieutenant Roberts, whose liaison with the crew is the essence of understanding. Although he desperately longs for a berth on a fighting ship, he remains their strong bulwark against the stupidity and tyrannies of the captain, who sees in Roberts's know-how the means to a promotion. And it is also concerned with Roberts's unselfish sacrifice for his men and the final, tragic achievement of his goal. But director John Ford (forced to quit by illness) and Mervyn LeRoy, who took up the directorial reins, as well as the scenarists and producer Leland Hayward, are not purveying static drama. The hatreds, dissensions, boredom, and the captain's fanaticism are not the bucket's sole cargo. It is loaded to the gunwales with screamingly funny scenes which, in several instances, are visual improvements on the play. Count among these the crew's riotous return from its first liberty ashore in months; the mad general quarters alarm sounded by the frantic captain when his treasured palm tree is tossed overboard by Mr. Roberts; the sailors' long-distance discovery, via binoculars, of the charms of nurses; and the inventive Ensign Pulver's happy destruction of the ship's laundry with a home-made, giant firecracker. Since Henry Fonda already has earned his stripes as Mr. Roberts on stage, it should be noted that he does not simply give the role a professional reading. It now appears as though he is Mr. Roberts. It evolves as a beautifully lean and sensitive characterization, full of dignity and power. Although James Cagney's portrait of the captain has little shading, he still comes across as a petty, ludicrous, but viciously dictatorial figure. Jack Lemmon's Ensign Pulver is a broad delineation of the amorous misfit anxious to please his idol Roberts. He exhibits the explosive ebullience of a kid with a live frog in his britches. And William Powell's ship's doctor also is a bit of fortunate casting. His polished portrayal of the middle-aged, ennui-filled medico is subdued and effective. The Reluctant's large crew, including such salty stalwarts as Ward Bond, Phil Carey, and Ken Curtis, rates good conduct medals for comparatively small but muscular stints. And the bevy of nurses, led by Betsy Palmer, are decorative in brief appearances.
Mr Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr (1999) - documentary Description Documentary about Fred Leuchter, an engineer who became an expert on execution devices and was later hired by revisionist historian Ernst Zundel to "prove" that there were no gas chambers at Auschwitz. Leuchter published a controversial report confirming Zundel's position, which ultimately ruined his own career. Most of the footage is of Leuchter, puttering around execution facilities or chipping away at the walls of Auschwitz, but Morris also interviews various historians, associates, and neighbors. http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0192335/plotsummary
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source; Mordecai Lee (2002). Management history as told by popular culture: the screen image of the efficiency expert, Management Decision, 40(9) Plot relating to efficiency expert- The career of efficiency expert Leuchter, who worked to improve the methods of killing convicts sentenced to death and then became a holocaust denier.
My Little Margie (1952) - TV series Description "My Little Margie" was the story of Margie Albright (played by Gale Storm), the vivacious, irrepresable, 21-year-old daughter of Vernon Albright (played by former silent screen star, Charles Farrell), a widowed executive at the investment-counseling firm of Honeywell & Todd. The Albrights resided in a Fifth Avenue apartment in New York. Margie was always trying to help her father get a client, avoid a designing woman, or just to act his age as she felt he should. Margie's elaborate plans almost always included a disguise of some sort, she masqueraded as everything from a male opera singer to Vern's mother to her own, non-exsistant sister to the Albright's equally non-exsistant maid. Usually helping her with her schemes were the spunky Mrs. Odett's, the Albright's aged neighbor, and Freddie Wilson, Margie's ardent boyfriend, whom Vern disliked intently. Other characters in the mix were Mr. Honeywell, Vern's exasparated boss; Roberta, Vern's girlfriend; and Charlie, the elevator operator in the Albright's apartment building. In 1952, the TV series "My Little Margie" became a radio series, with Gale Storm and Charles Farrell reprising their roles in original episodes which ran concurrently with the TV series. http://www.tv.com/my-little-margie/show/5686/summary.html&full_summary=1
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source; Mordecai Lee (2002). Management history as told by popular culture: the screen image of the efficiency expert, Management Decision, 40(9) Title of episode with efficiency expert: Efficiency Expert Plot relating to efficiency expert: Vern prods his daughter, Margie, to find someone ambitious to marry. She teaches him a lesson by dating Dillard Crumbly (Alvy Moore), an obnoxious efficiency expert who is driving everyone in the office crazy.
National Velvet (1955) - TV series Description Velvet Brown lives on a dairy farm with her parents Martha and Herbert, an ex-jockey, Mi Taylor, her brother Donald and her sister Edwina. Teddy is Edwina's boyfriend. Velvet owns a beautiful horse, King, which she hopes will run in the Grand National Steeplechase some day. http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0053526/plotsummary
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source; Mordecai Lee (2002). Management history as told by popular culture: the screen image of the efficiency expert, Management Decision, 40(9) Title of episode with efficiency expert: Efficiency Expert Plot relating to efficiency expert: Harrison Willaby is hired by Winters Dairy to evaluate the efficiency of the 20 farms that supply it with milk. A young production engineer, trained at an agricultural college, he visits the farms and brusquely directs them how to increase their milk output. To the lead character, he criticizes the efficiency of her family's farm, saying, "Your father is using the best possible area for a silo as a barn and paddock for a race horse." Willaby recommends discontinuing the dairy's contract with ten farms because their production is below his expectations. Velvet's father organizes the other farmers whose contracts are renewed to refuse to supply the dairy unless it also renews all 20 contracts. The dairy relents.
News Radio (1995) - TV series Description "NewsRadio" is a sitcom that explores office politics, relationships, and crises through a group of co-workers at WNYX NewsRadio, New York's #2 newsradio station. Dave Foley stars as the haggled news director, Phil Hartman and Khandi Alexander portray sniping anchor people, Maura Tierney is the ambitious supervising producer, Stephen Root is the station's eccentric owner, Vicki Lewis does wacky secretary, and Joe Rogan is a tech-happy electrician. http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0112095/plotsummary
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source; Mordecai Lee (2002). Management history as told by popular culture: the screen image of the efficiency expert, Management Decision, 40(9) Title: of episodes with efficiency expert: "Planbee; The Public Domain; Super Karate Monkey Death Car; French Diplomacy" Plot relating to efficiency expert: The owner of the radio station hires efficiency expert Andrea (Lauren Graham) to cut costs. The staff tries to prevent her from firing the inept Mathew, but fails. Dave Nelson, the station manager, tries to rehire Mathew. Meanwhile, Andrea hires another person to share Dave's responsibilities. She then forces all newsroom employees to take he detector tests. The news room staff is anxious about the results, especially Lisa, who has a criminal past. Despite this, Andrea promotes her.
1984 (1956). Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984). Description In the year 1984, rocket bombs and rats prey on the inhabitants of the crumbling metropolis of London. Far away on the Malabar Front, a seemingly interminable war rages against Eastasia. The Ministry of Truth broadcasts ceaselessly to the population via its inescapable network of telescreens. These devices, which pervade all aspects of peoples' lives, are also capable of monitoring their every word and action. They form part of an elaborate surveillance system used by the Ministry of Love, and its dreaded agents the Thought Police, to serve their singular goal: the elimination of `thoughtcrime'. Winston Smith is a Party worker - part of the vast social caste known as the Outer Party, the rank and file of the sprawling apparatus of government. Winston works in the Records Department of the Ministry of Truth - the section charged with modifying historical news archives for consistency. When by chance Winston uncovers incontrovertible proof that the Party is lying, he embarks on a journey of self-questioning. In doing so, he becomes a thought-criminal. Winston begins to notice that a young Party member, Julia, is watching him. She wears the distinctive sash of the ultra-zealous Anti Sex League and Winston fears that she is an informant. However, to his surprise, she reveals herself as a subversive and they embark on an illicit and dangerous relationship. This prompts Winston to explore deeper the blur between propaganda and reality. Ultimately, it leads him to O'Brien - a member of the Inner Party who sets Winston on an irreversible course of discovery. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087803/plotsummary
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source: Mordecai Lee & Susan C. Paddock (2001). Strange But True Tales From Hollywood: The Bureaucrat As Movie Hero, Public Administration & Management, 6(4) Bureaucrat Winston Smith (Edmond O’Brien in the 1956 release, John Hurt in the 1984 version) works for a state agency that rewrites newspaper archives to alter history. This is to assure that the regime is never put in a bad light, such as not attaining a production quota or erasing the hateful characterization of another country that had been a war-time enemy and is now, suddenly, a war-time ally. “Lie becomes truth and then becomes a lie again,” he says (in the 1984 version). The regime maintains ‘thought police’ to capture citizens who engage in ‘thought crimes,’ such as remembering and repeating the now-banned old news. When he can no longer stomach the lies that he routinely prepares, he also begins thinking ‘criminal’ thoughts, such as “There is truth and there is untruth. Freedom is the freedom to say 2+2=4. If that is granted, all else follows.” After falling in love with a like-minded woman, he decides to risk all by engaging in personal behavior that violates the laws of the regime and is considered traitorous. However, he is discovered and arrested. Like others who have been caught, he is unable to resist the torture he is subjected to and in the end is brainwashed back into passive submission. In this case, the bureaucrat is not a hero for overt actions he takes in his working capacity, but rather for daring to think and articulate thoughts that have been criminalized by the bureaucracy and willing to face the consequences of doing this. Hence, the two versions of this movie and Brazil (1985) belong not only on a list of bureaucratic heroes, but also on a list of tyrannical bureaucracy movies as well. In these cases, the bad bureaucracy wins out in the end over the hero. Movie Analysis in Newspaper Source; The New York Times, January 18, 1985, By VINCENT CANBY THE time is a mythical 1984 and the place London, the capital of that part of Oceania known as Airstrip One. Winston Smith (John Hurt) is 39, but he has the skinny, wizened look of a perpetually chilled, undernourished child, whose face is that of an old man. He lives alone in a drab one- room flat furnished with a cot, a table and a chair, all dominated by a giant television screen, which monitors him even as he is monitoring it. When he goes to work, dressed in the dark blue overalls that are the standard uniform for Oceania's women as well as men, he walks through rubble-filled streets, past huge posters filled with the enigmatic likeness of Oceania's beloved leader, Big Brother, who is always watching. Winston's life is not much different from that of any other citizen of this particular London. As a member of what is called the Outer Party, he works for the Government - run by the members of the Inner Party - in the Ministry of Truth, which, in the Newspeak vocabulary of Oceania, means lies. The ministry is devoted to the adjustment of history to conform to the party's latest policies. When someone falls out of Government favor and is ''vaporized,'' Winston must go through the newspapers and official records and erase the person's name, creating an unperson. When Oceania makes peace with Eurasia and joins Eurasia in a war against Eastasia, Winston must bring the war chronicles up to date, unwriting history, which itself is a full-time job since Oceania is alternately at war with one or the other. The party knows that the present controls the future by controlling the past. One day, in that part of London inhabited by the Proles, the dregs of society held to be beneath contempt by the party, Winston buys an old- fashioned diary whose blank pages bewitch him. In a corner of his room that cannot be monitored by the television screen, he begins to write. All his fury and frustrations come out. This is the beginning of Winston Smith's rebellion, which eventually leads to his downfall and then to his salvation in the custody of the Thought Police. Before that, however, he becomes involved in a brief, ecstatic love affair with Julia (Suzanna Hamilton), a reckless, similarly disenchanted young woman, who also works at the Ministry of Truth, and is befriended by O'Brien (Richard Burton), an urbane member of the Inner Party, someone who may know the truth about the existence of a political underground. That time has overtaken only the title of George Orwell's ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' is vividly apparent in Michael Radford's admirable, bleakly beautiful new screen adaptation, which opens today at the Cinema 3 and the Beekman theaters. This ''1984'' is not an easy film to watch, but it exerts a fascination that demands attention even as you want to turn away from it. That the Orwell tale still works so well - and this version works far better than the 1956 film adaptation - also makes it apparent that the novel was always more cautionary in its intentions than prophetic. Orwell's ''Nineteen Eighty-Four'' is not science-fiction, and his 1984 is not a particular time but a vision of the future projected from a very specific present, 1949, the date of the book's publication. In the years immediately after World War II, when Orwell was writing ''Nineteen Eighty-Four,'' the victorious former Allies were dividing Europe into Eastern and Western blocs, separated by what Winston Churchill, at Fulton, Mo., in 1946, called the Iron Curtain. The Soviet Union was absorbing Hungary and Czechoslovakia into its sphere of influence. It was the time of the Berlin airlift, the Marshall Plan, of waiting for the Russians to build their own atomic bomb, of calls to rearm in the name of peace, of spies and defections and economic and spiritual exhaustion. Even as the Cold War was starting, Orwell's London was still dealing with the physical debris of the 1940 blitz and the later buzz bombs. As both the writer and director of this ''1984,'' Mr. Radford, represented here last year by ''Another Time, Another Place,'' has probably made as fine an adaptation as possible of a work that is far more effective as a passionate, witty political essay than as narrative fiction. Though Orwell tells his story in clean, uncluttered prose, and though the downfall of Winston Smith is compelling, the real subject is language, which can be abused as relentlessly by a kind of tyrannical capitalism as by totalitarian Communism. The story's immediate references are to the Russia of Stalin. Oceania's legendary traitor, Emmanuel Goldstein, is Leon Trotsky. ''Doublethink,'' the ability to hold two contradictory ideas in the mind at the same time, is not, however, an exclusively Communist talent. There are conditions under which all of us - Orwell is saying - might be persuaded to affirm the fact that two and two add up to five. Mr. Burton is fine as the suave, avuncular O'Brien - his last film role - and Miss Hamilton, with her little-girl prettiness combined with a steely self-assurance, would seem to be a major find as Julia. Mr. Hurt's performance, however, is the film's center of gravity. He is splendid, and if his Winston Smith never seems truly tragic, that's in the nature of the Orwell work, which has a journalistic dryness to it that denies tragic possibilities. Most stunning of all are the film's production design, by Allan Cameron, and Roger Deakins's photography, from which all the colors of sunlight have been drained. Except in Winston's occasional dreams or memories, when everything is bathed in an eerie golden glow, the world of this ''1984'' is uniformly blue-gray and beige. It's as if the state, which has declared that ''War Is Peace,'' ''Freedom Is Slavery'' and ''Ignorance Is Strength,'' had vaporized the primary colors.
Norby (1955) - TV series Description The story evolved around officials at the Pearl River First National Bank in Pearl River, New York. Pearson Norby is the vice-president in charge of small loans, Maud Enels is president, Mr. Rudge, vice president and efficiency expert, and Wahleen Johnson, the switchboard operator. The episodes featured these characters and Norby's wife Helen and two children Diane and Hank and the Norby's neighbors Bobo and Maureen. http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0047761/plotsummary
Movie Analysis in Academic Journals Source; Mordecai Lee (2002). Management history as told by popular culture: the screen image of the efficiency expert, Management Decision, 40(9) Plot relating to efficiency expert: Mr Rudge (Ralph Dunn) is vice president and the efficiency expert at the Pearl River First National Bank in Pearl River, New York.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
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