Jerry Maguire

Jerry Maguire is about a successful sports agent who seems to have the perfect life with a career that provides him with a wealthy living and an attractive fiancee. He goes through the motions of his job and is very charismatic, never seeming to slow down or snap out of the routine of handshakes and promoting athletes. He almost operates as a machine in an assembly line. There are other sports agents in the same company that do exactly what he does, the trick is to be the best. He soon realizes how repetitive and soulless the job is and begins to wonder if he is actually happy. He suffers a breakdown and writes a mission statement about a new way to run the company. All of the employees love it, but the big bosses do not like that one of their machines have thought outside of the assembly line and system of production. It is a bit of a look at the idea of Fordism and the level of importance placed on the product being made, rather than the worker as a human being. Jerry was seen as a means to make money for the company by promoting professional athletes. When there was a fear that Jerry wanted to change that and he was thinking in a different way, he had to be let go. 


Jerry struggles to maintain his job and clients but loses almost all of them to his now competitor Bob Sugar. Rod Tidwell remains Jerry's one athlete and becomes his focus. In leaving the company, Jerry also gained Dorothy Boyd, a single mother to Ray, her bubbly son with a big personality. He begins a relationship with Dorothy, already becoming close to Ray, eventually marrying Dorothy. However, it appears that he is going through the motions like he did at the sports agent company, doing it because he thinks it is the right thing to do instead of because he wants to. His job promoting Rod goes through a rough patch and it looks like Jerry still does not know what he is doing with his life. During a big game, Rod suffers an injury, throwing uncertainty into his future playing career, but also showing Jerry that he cares about his client more than just as a business relationship, comforting Rod's wife on the phone about his condition. Jerry fulfills the dream mentioned in his mission statement about building closer bonds with the athletes, as well as realizing what he needs to do for his marriage to Dorothy. He is finally happy with his life.


What Jerry had to learn was how to not treat everything like a career move or a business practice. Treat people with respect and actually enjoy their company, and love will happen. Willingness to put yourself aside for a moment and show compassion makes love possible. Stop doing what you think everyone else wants you to do and do what feels good. Once Jerry took himself out of the assembly line and actually lived his life, he found what he was searching for all along. It is about treating people like human beings and not as a product to sell.

Movie Reboots

I have been noticing a trend in the movie industry that's becoming more and more common and seems to not be slowing down in any way. Apparently there has not been many new ideas for movies and so the industry has resorted to simply redoing old movies and sticking the newest and hottest stars in it in order to appeal to a younger and younger audience. It has become this never ending cycle reboots and do overs of famous franchises. I cannot help but feel like it is cheapening the entire process of legitimate screen writers coming up with great new ideas and movies that will entertain and enchant the population. I am getting tired of seeing commercials and ads again and again for the same movie but with different actors and actresses. I can barely tell them apart anymore. Then everyone gets confused about which film they are talking about because they are even named similarly. It is also funny because they end up being released within like five years of each other. I can barely keep up anymore.

It is very obvious that the movie industry does this in order to make more money by bringing the franchises to young audiences so they can get their parents to buy tickets to the movie and then buy all the merchandise for the movie. It is as if they cannot imagine a parent could possibly just show their child the original, or even the redone version. No, they have to create an all new version to put in theaters and charge ungodly prices for 3D, and put all new figurines, t-shirts, backpacks, and Halloween costumes in stores for equally ungodly prices. I have seen it happen with the Hulk movie franchise, the Terminator franchise, and the Superman franchise. They just keep coming out with both sequels and complete redoes of the original movies. There is also talk of Michael Bay possibly making a full-length feature film of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, http://movies.ign.com/articles/109/1093471p1.html. The last feature film of the franchise was a computer animated film made in 2007, before that there was the first movie of the series, a live action released in 1990. I have no doubts that this will lead to a brand new line of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles stuffed animals, action figures, and hoodies. I am also sure that future sequels will follow. Movie industry moguls know that reboots are a huge money-maker for them, so I really do not see an end to this trend anytime soon, but that does not mean I will be happy with it. It has just become so predictable that it takes the fun out of being excited to see a favorite movie of yours being redone, because it is possibly just for the money so it may not even be any good. People are going to pay to see it no matter what, so quality is not really seen as important.

The Amazing Spider-man is an upcoming reboot of the 2002 Spiderman franchise starring Tobey Maguire. The third sequel of which only came out in 2007. Yet another example of the cycle of money making in the movie industry. Here is the trailer: 

The Cat Has Nine Lives

I enjoyed reading Bernard F. Dukore's analysis of Tennessee William's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. The themes of life and death, alcohol and sex are ever prevalent in the play and Dukore does a great job of bringing them to life and explaining their significance in the story. The animalistic personalities of the characters are present in how they fight with each other and communicate in certain situations. Homosexuality is also brought up in the character Brick's fear of being gay and thus cowering from the topic and acts of sex altogether in order to never have to face the truth. Most of the characters being labeled the same as their roles in the play, such as, Big Mama, Big Daddy, Brother Man, and Sister Woman helps aid the understanding of the characters themselves. The more complex characters are referred to by their given names, Brick and Maggie, so that they are not stunted by any labels whatsoever. The dynamic of life and death is an interesting one in the story, with the older man wishing for youth and a longer time on Earth, and the younger man actively seeking an early grave. The entire life cycle is being played out in the text, and all the bumps and obstacles that could be along the way. Big Mama and Big Daddy have raised Brick in order for him to fulfill the next generation of life cycle by getting married and having his own kids, to begin the cycle over again.


Brick is obviously hesitant and uncooperative in his role of the pro-creator and refuses to accept that he is getting older and must face responsibility. He puts it off by not bedding Maggie and thus diving into adulthood. The process of life must continue whether Brick wants it to or not. And apparently he is going to be a participant in it whether he likes it or not. Big Mama and Big Daddy even state that they want " a grandson as much like his son as his son is like Big Daddy!" further pushing the never-ending generational cycle onto him. It is also interesting that Brick is the one hesitating to have sex and instead chooses the bottle, and Maggie is the more sexually aggressive and excited. There is a bit of sexual role reversal in regards to gender views of sex. Brick is even rather grossed out by sex and cringes whenever the subject comes up, especially involving Maggie. Anything that could further his inevitable responsibility as a father and husband is met with his disdain. Brick has no appreciation for the life he has been given and is taking it for granted for no reason. Big Daddy is dying of cancer and is trying to live as best he can while he has time left. He pleads with Brick to live his life better before he regrets it. He tells him to fight back and live the best life he can while he is still young and has so much still ahead of him. Big Daddy regrets not doing more and it may be too late for him now. He does not want Brick to go through the same thing. 

Simone de Beauvoir "The Second Sex"

For my blog post this week, we had to choose one of three readings and compare the theme to a Youtube clip. I became very interested in the reading by Simone de Beauvoir titled "The Second Sex: Woman as Other." I chose it because it made the most sense to me and I was able to understand it the best out of all the texts. I was intrigued by how in-depth she went in describing the different views society has for men and women. She claims that men and the male gender are seen as the default in all instances of social interaction and situations. In many circumstances, especially on the internet, everyone is assumed to be male unless told differently. She says that, "In actuality the relation of the two sexes is not quite like that of two electrical poles, for man represents both the positive and the neutral, as is indicated by the common use of man to designate human beings in general; whereas woman represents only the negative, defined by limiting criteria, without reciprocity." Everyone is assumed to be a man unless someone reveals that they are in fact a woman. It is then seen as a "game changer," unknowingly viewed as a surprise and thus causes a shift in how the situation is handled. It should not be such a difference if someone is a man or a woman, but society has their pre-conceived notions of the genders and so must view them through the appropriate eyes if faced with one or the other. 




This can be seen in the Youtube clip I found that embodies this concept of gender in a male-dominated world. The gaming industry has always been seen as a medium discovered by men, created by men, and inhabited by men. This clip goes through the history of gaming and how women have since risen up in the community and showed that they can play alongside the men with no problem. The issue I have with the points made in the clip is that it is apparent that games almost "had" to be made specifically for women in order for them to be played by women. According to the clip, the first games created solely for women had softer colors instead of harsh tones, and had no shooting or blood because obviously women cannot handle any kind of violence in a video game. They had to create easy and childish games like Pacman and The Sims because women are better at home-making and playing tag than shooting and killing people. It was also seen as shocking and out of the ordinary for a woman to beat a man at a violent video game, because it was seen as impossible for that to happen. It is only viewed as a man versus woman thing, instead of human being versus human being. It is the default that guys are the best at video games, and it is the responsibility of the woman to prove that she is just as good at video games as men.