My fourth and final graded blog post of the class involved selecting how a type of person is portrayed in the media. For my analysis, I chose a 1996 film directed by Cameron Crowe called “Jerry Maguire.” In my analysis I refer to scenes and concepts spread out over the entire film.
It should be mentioned that I have positioned my critique as my own interpretation of the meanings that are produced by the text. I am qualifying my analysis in the way Bonnie Dow (1996) qualified her arguments in the book “Prime-Time Feminism: Television, Media Culture, and the Women’s Movement Since 1970.”
Let me point out that I am not asserting that my view is the only way to interpret the text or even the best way to interpret it. I am not making a claim about how others will interpret the text, but I am inviting you to reconsider your own views of the text in light of my arguments about it.
In my opinion, the film “Jerry Maguire” is a story that critiques materialism at the expense of personal relationships. The protagonist, super-sports agent Jerry Maguire, critiques this concept of materialism by flushing out a perceived sense of dishonesty in sports management and ultimately proves that the pursuit of financial success should never come before the value of personal relationships.
Who would of thought some bad pizza would help Jerry grow a conscious? (Photo courtesy of dvd.net).
The way Jerry Maguire critiques materialism at the expense of personal relationships is by realizing and proving a perceived sense of dishonesty in the sports management business. One night Jerry has two pieces of bad pizza, goes to bed and “grows a conscious.” From that point on Jerry is haunted with guilt and realizes a change in him.
Jerry writes a mission statement titled “The Things We Think and Do Not Say,” a 45 page memo given to all the members of his sports agency that points out the wrong path sports agents are heading. “Let us start a revolution. I am prepared to die for something. I am prepared to live for our cause. The cause is caring about each other. The secret to this job is personal relationships.” Here, Jerry points out the way in which athletes are becoming simple numbers among their agents and have no personal value or worth.
These examples are relevant today because of the way sports agencies are becoming large conglomerates where money and success become the focus over the athlete’s personal needs and relationships. This simple fact leads to the idea of dishonesty and a lack of integrity among sports agencies to win over each other’s clients.
One might argue that money has always been the focus in sports, so why change now? The fact that money has become such a huge factor in professional sports today and teams have to overpay for supersize athletes of conglomerate agencies such as that of Scott Boras is the reason for a sense of negativity and lack of integrity in the sporting world.
Ultimately, Jerry proves that the pursuit of financial success should never come before personal relationships. He shows this in the way he hangs onto his one and only client, Rod Tidwell. Through high and low times, it is evident that by the end of the film Jerry’s relationship with Tidwell shifts from strictly business to a close, personal friendship.
The close relationship between this agent and athlete is relevant to my argument because it goes to show that reaching out to people in life is the key to both professional and personal success. Can you still be successful without the personal relationships? Maybe, but you will never earn personal value and integrity with the people around you. You simply become a number.
Certainly, the film “Jerry Maguire” is a story that epitomizes the key to personal and professional success. In the end, this is the story of a super-sport agent who eats some pizza, grows a conscious, and questions the dangerous path that professional sports are heading down today.
Jerry, left, and his client Rod represent the belief that reaching out to people is the key to professional and personal success. (Photo courtesy of dreamagic.com).
References:
Dow, B (1996). Prime-time feminism: Television, media culture, and the women’s movement since 1970. Philadelphia: University Press.
Lawrence, Mark (Producer), & Crowe, Cameron (Director). (1996). Jerry Maguire [Motion Picture]. United States: TriStar Pictures.
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