Weekly Film Blog (#11)

Chariots of Fire. The film focuses on two characters, Liddell and Abrahams. This film emphasises on the themes of winning versus losing and search for meaning in life. Eric is a Scottish Christian that runs for the glory of God whereas Harold, an English Jew who runs to overcome the prejudice of being a Jewish man. The two have two different sets of motivations for their running as mentioned previously, but both are intrinsically and extrinsically motivated. For Eric Liddell and Harold Abrahams, intrinsically they both have the passion and desire to compete and to win running events. Abrahams especially, found that he wants to be the best in running and accept the help offered by Coach Sam to master the art of running and place at number 1 in the Olympics as a personal achievement and success. Extrinsically, Eric Liddell found that it would pleasure God to use the abilities gifted to him and to be able to be close to God when he runs. For Harold Abrahams, it is being able to prove his talent is worth being acknowledged by society despite his Jewish background. I think that his self-esteem is influenced by the respects (rewarding to Abrahams) he gets from others (Englishmen that spouts anti semitism) even if it meant neglecting his love to train and practice for the Olympics.


The peak of Abraham's pre-Olympic struggle is his loss to Liddell in a running challenge. Struggling with the fact that he has done everything that he could have done, feeling weakened and worthless. "I run to win. If I can't win, I don't run", this explains that his motivation is greatly influenced by winning (external motivation). However, he starts to realise that he could reach his true potential with the guidance of Coach Sam. In a way, he found a true meaning to running and that is to prove to himself rather than to prove to others. To further elaborate, we observe from Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

There is a difference between Abraham and Liddell in their hierarchy of needs. For Abrahams, his need is on the 4th level. That his self-esteem, his confidence, need for individuality is based on winning the gold medal. Abraham's running is driven by self-esteem needs, that is why it is difficult for him to go to self-actualisation because all he saw at the end goal was only the gold medals. Especially when he lost to Liddell and starts to ponder about the meaning of running. While Liddell, on the other hand, sees his running as a journey to reach the highest potential an reach a sense of fulfilment by reaching self-actualization when running for God. When he finally did win, he went back to China to continue his family's missionary life, which means that he has reached self-actualization by experiencing purpose and meaning in his inner potential.


From a personal observation, modern prejudice also displays subtle negative attitudes that are directed toward stigmatized groups such as gay men and lesbian women. Also, we can observe that because of the rising gender equality that negative attitudes towards women are being scrutinised. Women struggle to rise when people's preconceived notions of traditional gender roles are imposed on women and limits them to do things that are deemed not feminine enough in the menfolks's eyes. To compare with the film, men today are still being given the priority are deem more important in society. We observe this is true in the film industry where men are given leading roles and have a higher pay check than their women counterparts. A recent article came out on Forbes about the Hollywood Gender Pay Gap, how women are not only grossly underrepresented but are underpaid. Men are extrinsically rewarded by the fame and monetary reward that they receive. Some men do it for the sake of others that they think see them on a superior level. While women, do it for a more intrinsic motivation to surpass the prejudice and discrimination that was imposed on them, which is similar to Harold Abraham's situation. Influential Black women in the entertainment industry, especially, Kerry Washington, Viola Davis and Beyonce preach about finding meaning when standing up against the discrimination and believing in what you are doing is to prove to yourself that you and your dreams are worth it.


Reference:


http://www.forbes.com/sites/maddieberg/2015/11/12/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-hollywood-pay-gap/#2c6ad7251fe5

Weekly Film Blog (#10)

Schindler's List. "Jews shovelling snow has its significance", mentioned in the film by the commander of the Nazi. It's meant to signify the position of the Jews in their country. This film is a powerful and influential film directed by Steven Spielberg. It is a mission of the director to showcase the darkest timeline of the human history. Based on a true story, Schindler, the greedy German businessman who came to Poland to sought a business opportunity in the dying economy, came out as the saviour to more than a thousand Poland Jews. These survivors are then called as the Schindlerjuden (Schindler Jews).


Oskar Schindler's character was ambitious and financially driven. He came to Poland with a goal set in mind that is building a company from bankruptcy for his desire for wealth and success. He knew how to take advantage of the situation. He addressed Itzhak Stern as his accountant and the man who would take care of the company. He and Stern has qualities of a man with an honourable leadership. They displayed power not through coercive power, believing that others can be punished for noncompliance, but more of a legitimate power and expert power, the belief that a person has the formal right to make demands and based on a person's superior skill and knowledge (French and Raven, 1959). Schindler and Stern had legitimate power through their official business venture of enamelware. Countless times Stern approached the Nazis with an 'official' letter of many of the Jews saying that they were an expert in steel and machinery. The Nazis did not question Stern because of his legitimate and expert power in the matter of this business, much similar that they did not question the acts of discrimination of their leader. Schindler was able to acquire the Jews as hard labor because of this reason. In many occasions throughout the entire film, he was seen giving bribes to the Nazi soldiers and official members. You can say that from this Schindler also posses a significant amount of reward power. In the times of war, many resources are scarce, which meant that any money, jewels and food are perceived as highly valuable, and with Schindler's wealth and expensive possessions, he was able to reward these men into compliance. From here, we observe that there maybe a difference in the compliance of the soldiers and officials to Schindler than to the Reich or Hitler himself. The cruel obedience of these men towards their proud country and leader was not through materialistic rewards but more of an intrinsic reward. It is a relatively sustainable source of motivation for the Nazi's to continue serving their charismatic leader by exerting the dominating and cruel behaviour onto the Jews that were considered the disease to the country.

"It's not old fashion Jew talk, its policy now". People have come to accept that it is not only a norm but there is also a duty and responsibility to it. Referencing Zimbardo's prisoner experiment, as the guards became more and more into their role, they become more aggressive and abusive. Similar to the phenomenon of the cruel acts of Nazi's. The more they embody their role as the superior race, the more heartless they become. It started out from discrimination to segregation, to dividing and separating them completely from society and to exterminating them completely. It's ironic that decades later, after learning from History class and the whole world acknowledging this dark part of history that in today's age and generation that the same thing is still happening. The conflicts between Pakistan and Israel has caused so much death and destruction, children are being shot and killed, women are raped and men are either being bombed or are the bombs themselves! The most shocking part of this are the child suicide bombers that sacrifice themselves thinking that they are doing the right thing by serving their leader and their cause. Obedience in war and conflict is a very alarming.

An aspect of the film that is interesting to me was the shower scene,

Thomas Keneally in the original book writes this (Chapter 33)

Feet sticking in the mud, they were marched to the delousing plant and stripped by order of hefty young SS women with truncheons in their hands. Mila Pfefferberg was troubled by rumours of the type most prisoners of the Reich had by now heard - that some shower nozzles gave out a killing gas. These, she was delighted to find, merely produced icy water.

The fact that this comes from an original source that it is very reliving. Maybe that was the intentions of the director? That the Jews had a night time story telling the others that gas chambers exist, and when the time came that they were in a chamber, it was surprisingly water streaming out of the shower heads and not deadly poisonous gas made to exterminate the Jews. However, it would have been more realistic if the director actually gave us the experience of the Auschwitz death chamber and not painting it as a hopeful happier alternative. In conclusion, it has been a chilling experience and I appreciate Steven Spielberg's attempt at recreating this and honouring the memory of all the people that were affected by the war.



Reference

French, John R. P., Jr.; Raven, Bertram 

Cartwright, Dorwin (Ed), (1959). Studies in social power. , (pp. 150-167). Oxford, England: Univer. Michigan, ix, 225 pp.