Movie: The Firm :: essays research papers

Movie: The Firm   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Sydney Pollack's film The Firm is a drama based on an desire to escape from the law firm (Berndini, Lambert, and Lock) from which he was hired. The relatively small but wealthy firm wines and dines the ambitious Harvard Law Graduate's (played by Tom Cruise) with money and gifts in order to make him part of their team. Overwhelmed by the gracious treatment and substantial offer Mitch McDeere takes the offer to be part of the Firm. The firm gets them caught up in a affluent lifestyle that they never thought they could live. Once involved n the day to day workings of the firm McDeere began to get subtle hints of a corruption with a Mafia mob client. McDeere gets a hold of some information that he shouldn't have had access to that supports his suspicions. When an FBI agent confronts him with evidence of corruption and murder within the firm, Mitch forms a plan to indite the partners of the firm by gathering information on overbilling of the firms clients. The firms clients files contained information that could destroy both the firm and most of their mob clients. Berndini, Lambert, and Lock had a past history of spending large sums of money on their new lawyers then once they got used to the good life the firm would let them in on the corruption that when on. The firm had a tight control over their partners. They knew everything about their personal life as well as their work life. All their homes were wired and their phones tapped. They also had access to information on their partners family and friends. With such tight controls over their lives they had a power to control their every move. Temptations of escape were smothered by threats of harm. In two cases the threats of harm led to murder.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A reoccurring theme of politics and power emerged throughout the film. For this reason it seems most logical to analyze The Firm based on chapter twelve of Stephen Robbins' book Organizational Behavior. Power is defined as A capacity that A has to influence the behavior of B so that B does things he or she would not otherwise do. The focus of this paper is going to based on the power that the firm had over its employees. In order to better understand the concept of power and where it comes from two published researchers named J.R.P. French Jr. and B. Raven came up with a five-category classification. The five categories are as follows; coercive power, reward power, legitimate power,

America Decline Essay

â€Å"America’s present need is not heroics but healing; not nostrums but normalcy; not revolution but restoration.† This famous sentence pronounced by Warren G. Harding, the 29th President of the United States, at the beginning of his office in 1921, could be, from certain points of view, perfectly adapted today. In fact, America’s situation and future for four decades, has been largly debated. Is she in decline? Is she stil an empire, a power, a hyperpower? Two English professors : Michael Cox and Michael John Williams, both experts in this question, looked into this problem. Professor Cox, first, drew a pessimistic view of America in his essay Is the United States in decline-again? In response to this essay, M.J.Williams wrote The empire writes back where he explains how much Cox’s argument about America’s decline are false. Professor Cox, in his essay Is the United States in decline-again explains his theory about America’s decline. As we can see in the title America would be in decline â€Å"again†. In fact, until 1968 and during two decades the debate about America’s decline was in the air. People were talking about it, people were feeling it, people were reading it. They particularly read the work of Kennedy, an english historian who wrote The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers. In his famous book, Kennedy had two major propositions to explain United States’s decline. The first one was based in a realist notion : the fact that all empires has a finite lifepan. The second was empiric : America’s century was simply coming to his end, faster than anyone expected. This decline had differents causes : the defeat in Vietnam, the rising of the national debt, and above all, the â€Å"emergence of a more complex interdependant world† (Cox, 2007, 645), and this new worl d would completely change USA’s place in the world. Yet, in the nineties, things took a totally different turn. In fact, with the Gulf war of 91, the failure of Europe to resolve Yougolslavie’s issue, the economic crisis in Japan and then the Asian economic crisis, USA refound its place of first Power and everybody forgot the decline’s question during one decade. The major point wich changed everything for the USA was the end of the cold war, wich caused the  dissolution of the USSR and consequently the collapse of only one alternative for the world : capitalism. At this moment started a new era, for the USA and for the world : â€Å"The world system had finally been united† (Cox, 2007, 648) The nature of the USA changed with this new era : the USA became a modern empire, a hegemon, a hyperpower. They changed a lot in their forein policy : they set up a massive military lead, an extensive system of global alliances, a massive intelligence gathering and a global culture and economy. Under Clinton’s administration they also started to change the bases of their policy which became more unilateralist : â€Å"always more unilaterally inclined than their multilateral rethoric seemed to imply† (Cox, 2007, 648). The symbol of this unilateralism has been the invasion of Irak and Afghanistan after the events of the nine of eleven. In fact, they decided, against other coutry’s view to start a war, to fulfill their duty in fighting â€Å"the rogues sates† and declaring one each against Irak Afghanistan,Iran, North corea.. They found a new doctrine and it led them to their loss : â€Å"The US comitted one of the most basic of great power errorss : getting stuck into a quagmire in a country it would have been better to leave be† (Cox, 2007, 650). This events had serious consequences, the Third world changed totally his point of view about USA and many of them started to be be hostile towards them. Further, USA ignored the international laws and made huge dammages to the liberal order and to trust between countries. In the same time the other powers in the world are rising : Europe and china are playing more effetively wich â€Å"altere the way international relations are now conducted†. In fact USA are now constently challenged from the euro, from the other competitors as Toyota, even from the other towns as London wich is now the first stock exchange in the world. American start to feel that USA is changing : the majority of the middle and working class are in a sombre mood, the inequalities and the insecurity are increasing and so are their personal debt. To Cox’s point of view, even if USA is stile a refence point, challenging times are now arrived.

The Expression And Parental Responsibility - 1443 Words

The expression â€Å"Parental Responsibility† (PR) marks a revolution in the Children Act 1989, aspiring to alter the parent-child relationship from rights to duties and responsibilities. This terminology justified the House of Lords’ decision in Gillick v West Norfolk and Wisbech AHA where Lord Fraser commented: â€Å"[Parental rights†¦ do not exist for the benefit of the parent†¦ rather to enable the parent to perform his duties towards the child†¦] . In accordance, s3 Children Act 1989 (CA 1989) defined having PR as being a legal parent in practice and this shows uniformity with the Hague Convention on Child Abduction which allows a right to guardianship. The current law [s2(2) CA 1989 ] states that an unmarried father does not automatically have PR. This reflects the State’s concern that it might be harmful to some unmarried mothers and children. Lord Denning’s judgment in Re M (An Infant) : â€Å"The father is too uncertain a figure for the law to take any cognizance of him†¦Ã¢â‚¬  and further elaborated by Balcombe LJ in Re H (Illegitimate Child: Father: Parental Rights) (No.2) where at 218: â€Å"The position of the natural father can be infinitely variable†¦ Considerable social evils might have resulted if the father at the bottom of the spectrum had been automatically granted full parental rights and duties† appears to support such an intention. Taking to heart the state’s intention of PR and how the courts view the spirit of PR, there has been two schools of thoughts towardsShow MoreRelated First Amendment And Music Censorship Essay1284 Words   |  6 Pagesimportance of free expression. The First Amendment states Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press . . . (Commission on the Bicentennial of the United States Constitution 17). 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