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MOVIE ANALYSIS PAPERTABITHA THURMANMGT 355, Section 01Instructor: Dr. Noel PalmerUniversity of Nebraska at KearneyKearney, NE 68845 Email: thurmantj@lopers.unk.edu PossibleFinalKnowledge & Application of O.B. concepts30%Problem Identification10%Argument development & Supporting evidence10%Logical Organization & Conclusions15%Visual Appearance & Mechanics15%Writing10%Disciplinary Characteristics10%100%MOVIE ANALYSIS PAPERIntroductionThe movie Captain Phillips is a highly intense and stressful movie. This movie chronicles a real life story of a cargo ship that is taken over by Somali Pirates. In this paper, I will show how organizational behavior concepts can connect to different scenes in the movie. The remainder of this paper will be covering the different dimensions and use of power and politics and they how play an important role in the film. The organizational behavior concepts that I will be covering include power and politics. Power is defined as the ability to get an individual or group to do something. (Luthans, 2011) French and Raven have developed five dimensions of power and I will list and describe how these can connect to the movie. These dimensions of power are the following. Reward power is the ability to give out rewards. Coercive power is the ability to punish others or at least make them believe you can. Legitimate power is actually having that position of power and being in a higher position. Referent power is when someone else looks up to that person who possesses the referent power. Expert power is when a person has authority and they have the skills needed to be an expert at something. (Luthans, 2011) DiscussionAs stated earlier, I will be discussing the different dimensions of power and how they relate back to the movie Captain Phillips. There are a few different sets of people in this movie. There is the captain of the cargo ship, the crew of the cargo ship and the pirates. These are the main characters that one would see if they watched the film. There are obviously other people that come and go in the movie but these are the characters that show connections to organizational behavior concepts. I will go through examples from the movie and demonstrate how they connect to different dimensions of power. Shortly after the movie starts, Captain Phillip and his crew are introduced. There is a little bit of conflict because they do a drill that seems to annoy some crew members. The Captain informs the crew that they are sailing out onto open waters that are dangerous because of pirates. They do this drill to make sure that everyone knows the correct procedures in an emergency. The crew is already frustrated that they are in dangerous waters without an armed guard on board. Everyone knows this is a possibility, yet everyone still signs up for the job and takes that risk. What seems like a short amount of time after the ship sets out, there are two boats approaching it. Captain Phillips informs the crew that this is not a drill and to prepare themselves because armed boats are approaching. The Captain calls the coast guard and increases the ships speed to throw these two boats off. Eventually, one ship turns around because of The Captain faking a conversation with the coast guard. He talks back and forth to himself making it seem like he phoned for help and in another voice he says that help will be there shortly. This tactic works and one boat quickly turns away. The second boat keeps approaching and when The Captain increases the ships speed even more it creates such a big wake that it damages the boat and they are forced to turn around. The crew has escaped a dangerous situation and everyone is uneasy but feeling better about the close call. Throughout this scenario, The Captain shows an incredible amount of expert and legitimate power. He completely controls the situation and handles everything in the best way possible. Up to this point, the crew doesn’t show a whole lot of respect for him and he doesn’t seem to fit in like everyone else in the crew. He is definitely seen as an authority figure and the other guys look to him as a captain but probably not a leader. When he throws off these two boats they cut him some slack but they do not give him full credit quite yet. The Captain demonstrates expert and legitimate power because he is The Captain and has all of the qualifications needed to be in He has the power and the position, and the crew will eventually become so loyal they are willing to do whatever it takes to keep each other safe. After the first pirate scare things calm down for a bit. It is only a matter of time however that there is more drama. The pirates have a lot to lose if they do not succeed on a mission and the pirate in charge of this heist is ambitious. He gets his boat fixed in what seems like a very short amount of time and is at it again the next morning. Once again, The Captain notices a boat gaining on his ship and calls for help. No one can really help since they are out in the middle of the ocean and no one seems to grasp the seriousness of the situation. The Captain and the crew do all of the standard precautions that they are to do in this particular situation. They speed up the boat to create a big enough wake to throw the small boat off their tail. They call for help. They get hoses ready to spray at the small boat so they cannot get close enough to climb aboard. Finally, the last resort is to lock down the boat, get taken over by pirates, and wait for help. This is what happens when all of their other options fail. The pirates board the ship and quickly shoot down the barriers that are supposed to protect the crew. In reality, the gates to protect the crew are a joke because in this movie, the pirates bust them down in a matter of seconds. The Captain and one other man are in the main area where you steer the boat. The rest of the crew has locked themselves and are hidden in the lower level of the boat. The Captain is demonstrating his expert and legitimate power by taking all responsibility for the ship and trying to save his crew members lives. He is as calm and collected as one could be in this type of situation. The Captain even talks into his radio while negotiating with the pirates. He does this so the other crew members know what is going on so they do not come on deck and put themselves in danger. The pirates are a relatively small group that boards the ship. There is one main character that really stands out. His is a tall gangly man with very yellow teeth. This makes him seem scary and desperate and that means he will do anything to get what he wants. This particular pirate, Muse, the leader of them shows coercive power. He has convinced the crew of the cargo ship that he can and will inflict punishment if anyone lies to him or disobeys. His crew, however, are not convinced he is the man for the job. They argue with him and undermine him throughout the whole movie making things much messier and tense then they need to be. Some of the ways this head pirate, Muse, displays his coercive power is by declaring that he is the captain of the ship now. (Greengrass, 2013) This is the most popular line in the movie as it was a powerful revelation that the cargo ship was in a lot of trouble. The pirates threaten to kill the crew members and eventually find all of them and put them all in danger. It is apparent that everyone is in trouble and the pirates hold the power since they are the only armed men on the ship. The crew is helpless for the most part and they know it. I mentioned earlier that I would connect the movie to power and politics. I have touched on power and now I will briefly discuss how politics plays a role. Luthans discusses political tactics that can be used in different situations. He specifically speaks of pressure tactics and this stood out the most because it is very relatable to the movie. Pressure tactics can include demanding, threatening, and intimidating in order to make a person or group do what you want them to. (Luthans, 2011) The pirates demand an amount of money that is impossible for the crew to access. Muse and his men realize they are stuck in a really bad situation in the end and they feel that the only possible way to win in this situation is to take The Captain hostage in hopes of getting a ransom. They do take him hostage in a life boat and then even more drama follows. The Navy Seals can take all of the credit at the end of the movie because they are the ones who ultimately save The Captain and get him home safely. They take out the pirates in the middle of the night by executing them through the windows of the life vessel. There are a lot of politics behind the scenes with this because it takes a lot of work to go into what is okay and not okay when you are trying to safely retrieve one person and possibly kill others. Not actually shown in the movie, but in real life the seal team was told to drug the pirates and The Captain and safely remove all of them. They received a negative on that so they went ahead and killed the pirates. (Webb, 2014) Politics can come in a lot of different varieties and even when a group is in the middle of the ocean, there are still politics that come into play. Conclusion In this paper I showed how the movie Captain Phillips demonstrates concepts from Organizational Behavior. Power and politics were connected in many different ways to the movie Captain Phillips. This should help the reader connect course concepts with scenes from this movie. These connections should help to better understand all of these concepts and make connections to the main ideas. REFERENCESGreengrass, P. (Director) (2013). Captain phillips [DVD]. Available from , F. (2011). Organizational behavior: An evidence-based approach. (12 ed.) New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.Webb, B. (2014). A navy seal’s review of “captain phillips” the movie and some left out secrets. Retrieved from phillips-no-easy-day-matt-bissonette/ ................
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