Jackie Brown: One Worth Betting on

Isaac Rexford ENG 1102M Spenser Simrill Jackie Brown: One Worth Betting On The film Jackie Brown begins with a predominant focus on Jackie herself, one of the film's main characters by a panning shot following Jackie in the first scene. Jackie's initial focus is very much related to the film's plot. As the plot develops, Jackie finds herself in the center of a situation where a guns sells man (Ordell) refuses to let Jackie run her mouth to the authorities, while the authorities already know all about Ordell's business and simply want a name from Jackie due to the fact they have been unable to arrest Ordell due to his unknown identity.But getting just a name is not that simple; and, Jackie's no fool. She hatches an intricate plot of her own not only to protect herself from the authorities and prevent future incarceration, but in order to steal Ordell's $500 thousand fortune. In a surprising turn of events, Jackie's ability to negotiate and get what is in her favor really demonstrates the power Jackie has invested in herself to get what she wants. Jackie's Trouble From The Start From the start the audience is made aware that Jackie had it in with Ordell the first time she is confronted by two detectives, Nicolet and Dargus.They take her in for questioning like normal, already having some knowledge of Ordell, but all they want from Jackie is a name. The camera itself emphasizes the scene with an array of close-ups of Jackie and the two detectives as they carry on this conversation in this first scene. The two parties, Jackie and the detectives, are battling back and forth; Jackie resisting their every attempt to seize information from her. This unfortunate meeting leads Jackie to meet a fellow named Max, who assists her in her real goal: getting Ordell's fortune.But for now she is happy to get the detectives off her back and on to her next problem: Ordell. The time finally arrives and one evening after a meeting with Max Jackie comes into a confrontation with Orde ll. Like stated earlier, Jackie is no fool and picked up a pistol from Max, if my suspicion’s correct, in case the conversation between her and Ordell became a little heated. In the confrontation the lights are off and the audience is not able to see a single thing; but the conversation between the two continues loud and clear. Jackie's Power Jackie's first show of power is shown in the scene where Ordell comes to â€Å"visit. Jackie had caught on that Ordell was the one who murdered Beaumont so she steals a pistol from Max. Above, a closeup is shown of Max just realizing his pistol had been taken. It is confirmed he knew it was Jackie at the time as he shows up knocking on her door the next day. This screen shot shows the true power of Jackie, that she is willing to do anything to get what she wants. In the split image, Jackie is seen in the darkness with Ordell's hand around her throat. At that moment she presses a gun steadily against Ordell's penis, as he says â€Å"It feels like a gun pressed against my dick. Later in the scene Jackie essentially interrogates Ordell, with a gun pointed to his face the entire time. The image above displays the transition of power between Jackie and Ordell, in this case Jackie stripping Ordell of his. Jackie continues to keep the gun pointed to Ordell as she, by change of plan, questions him instead. As it plays out, Ordell is now the one with a gun pointed to his dome and his hands up high in defense. Jackie astonishingly creates a turn of events from this scene alone; she essentially takes the authority from Ordell and places it in her own hands to aid in her own plot: getting Ordell's money.Jackie's methods of achieving this, however were the most cunning and sneaky among the best. Jackie really lures Ordell into a trap and uses the element of surprise to sneak the gun on him; at the time speaking with a soft voice, alleviating Ordell of all his suspicion so that he would come close to Jackie thinking she wasn't a threat; as it is shown he was terribly mistaken! As shown in the image above, Jackie sits with her feet facing away from Ordell and closed, with the gun in her hand, resting on her knees and the gun pointed straight ahead at Ordell.In conclusion, Jackie's persona is demonstrated very well in the character. Jackie really does serve as an example of a hard working black woman who's just trying to live comfortably in society. Furthermore, the film itself really helps the audience notice these facts, with its use of closeups and panning during eventful scenes in the film. Regarding this one select scene as the most important, the movie itself shows a transition of power and authority from the main characters who first held the authority like Ordell and Lewis for example, to characters like Jackie who hold the power up towards the end.

Morality and Utilitarianism Essay

Utilitarianism is an ethical theory that holds that an action is right if it produces, or if it tends to produce, the greatest amount of good for the greatest number of people affected by the action. Otherwise the action is wrong. This cost-benefit analysis is a form of utility calculation. People in business theory use utility curves to plot the results of various actions, choosing those that maximize whatever it is that they wish to achieve. This utility approach is not foreign to most people. It is widely used in many forms of general decision making and can be applied to moral issues as well as to strictly business issues. A defense of utilitarianism as an ethical theory is that it describes what rational people actually do in making moral decisions. It explicitly formulates for them the procedures they intuitively and spontaneously use in moral reasoning. The theory renders explicit what is implicit in the ordinary moral reasoning and argumentation that we ourselves use Utilitarianism adopts a teleological approach to ethics and claims that actions are to be judged by their consequences. According to this view, actions are not good or bad in themselves. Actions take on moral value only when considered in conjunction with the effects that follow upon them. ACT AND RULE UTILITARIANISM Act utilitarianism holds that each individual action, in all its concreteness and in all its detail, is what should be subjected to the utilitarian test. Rule utilitarians hold that utility applies appropriately to classes of actions rather than to given individual actions. Thus, by looking at the general consequences of breaking contracts in the past, we can determine that breaking contracts is immoral. OBJECTIONS TO UTILITARIANISM One objection claims that utilitarianism is ungodly because it proposes utility, rather than the Bible or God, as a basis for moral judgments. A second objection frequently brought against utilitarianism is that no one has the time to calculate all the consequences of an action beforehand. A third objection to utilitarianism is that we cannot know the full results of any action, nor can we accurately weigh the different kinds of good and evil that result. The calculation is artificial and not practical. APPLYING UTILITARIANISM 1. Accurately state the action to be evaluated. 2. Identify all those who are directly and indirectly affected by the action. 3. Consider whether there is some dominant, obvious consideration that carries such importance as to outweigh other considerations. 4. Specify all the pertinent good and bad consequences of the action for those directly affected, as far into the future as appears appropriate, and imaginatively consider various possible outcomes and the likelihood of their occurring. 5. Weigh the total good results against the total bad results, considering quantity, duration, propinquity or remoteness, fecundity, and purity for each value (kind of good and kind of bad), and the relative importance of these values. 6. Carry out a similar analysis, if necessary, for those indirectly affected, as well as for society as a whole. 7. Sum up all the good and bad consequences. If the action produces more good than bad, the action is morally right; if it produces more bad than good, it is morally wrong. 8. Consider, imaginatively, whether there are various alternatives other than simply doing or not doing the action, and carry out a similar analysis for each of the other alternative actions. 9. Compare the results of the various actions. The action that produces the most good (or the least bad, if none produces more good than bad) among those available is the morally proper action to perform UTILITARIANISM AND BRIBERY Bribery in business is an interesting kind of action to examine from a utilitarian point of view, because those who engage in bribery frequently justify their actions based on something similar to utilitarian grounds. Utilitarianism, far from being a self-serving approach to moral issues, demands careful, objective, and impartial evaluation of consequences. It is a widely used—but often misused—approach to moral evaluation. A powerful tool of moral reasoning, it is a technique well worth mastering. CASE SUMMARIES An Airplane Manufacturing Case An airplane manufacturer has spent a great deal of money developing a new airplane. The company badly needs cash because it is financially overextended. If it does not get some large orders soon, it will have to close down part of its operation. Doing that will put several thousand workers out of jobs. The president of the company bribes a foreign minister to insure the purchase of the planes, arguing that the good done overall justifies the use of bribery.

Discuss the financing hierarchy view of corporate liquidity Essay

Discuss the financing hierarchy view of corporate liquidity - Essay Example Considering this relationship predicted by the hierarchy view, it is different from the trade-off view which argues that the relationship between the level of cash and investment maintained by an entity is direct. The hierarchy view also holds that firms raise their levels of cash reserves when they are confident about their future profitability and the fact that new opportunities will require excessive cash reserves (Tirole 2006). The empirical evidence in relation to the corporate policies on liquidity, based on the survey conducted by Deutsche Bank (2006), suggests that a significantly high level of companies surveyed, i.e. 18 percent, maintained liquid cash reserves which were more than 20 percent of their assets, whereas 38 percent survey participants had established credit lines over and above 20 percent of their assets’ value. On the other hand, one interesting finding from the survey revealed that about 50 percent of the participants signified their indifference towards changing liquidity position, had there been no new opportunities in the market (Servaes and Tufano 2006). Thus, holding of cash cannot be deemed for availing new investment opportunities and this is where empirical evidence departs from hierarchy view of corporate liquidity

Organizational Behavior & Leadership Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Organizational Behavior & Leadership - Essay Example Coercive power is the power of a manager to exact fear as a form of punishment or penalty for subordinates or rank and file employees who commit some forms of misdemeanors against company rules and regulations. Referent power is a particular leader’s ability to influence subordinates through charisma or certain personal attributes that the rank and file can identify with, making them quite devoted to that leader. Referent power usually makes the manager practice more affinity with his or her subordinates that would make them more of a mentor, rather than the exacting leader or manager. While this may embolden employees to emulate their heads’ or supervisors’ mild managerial approaches, it affects the way the leader is able to apply leverage in cases where disciplinary action must be enforced. And last, but not the least, is expert power which shows the manager’s cognitive ability or knowledge in a particular field making the manager the expert from whom th e employees can gain information, so they can do their particular jobs successfully (Turner, n.d. b). The marketing manager of Employee 1 uses both the legitimate power and the reward power, because Employee 1’s manager is able to require him to work forty hours and beyond a week within the legal bounds of his authority as a manager in the organization. Likewise, Employee 1’s manager utilizes his ability in motivating employees to work hard beyond their normal office hours by reminding them of the yearly bonus, which will be given to them accordingly, should they pass and get an outstanding rating on their next evaluation. And this is what propels Employee 1 to work very hard, so he can get the bonus in order to avail of his dream vacation. Aside from utilizing the legitimate power and reward power, Employee 1’s manager also employs coercive power since all the employees in the marketing department are being constantly reminded that if they want to get the hefty bonus then they must spend more working time for the company. Although punishment for not working beyond the regular hours was not mentioned in the given scenario – the employees assigned in the marketing department are not only motivated by wanting to get the bonus but also of the fact that if they did not perform well as per the pending evaluation, they silently dread any fine or penalty that may be imposed for substandard work performance. The accounting manager of Employee 2 uses the expert power because he recognizes the ability of Employee 2 who is the only certified public accountant in the accounting department of Corporation A. And since Employee 2 is the only person who can prepare the financial statements of the company, he agreed to allow him to work in a compressed work week schedule of four days a week; so long as the expected work output is realized within the given time frame allowed by the organization. Employee 3, on the other hand, has a very positive and charismatic personality that often makes people like him. Employee 3 was made a team leader because he also has the innate ability to influence others with his ideas; they, at first, seemed sceptical to his way of thinking but at the end totally agreed with him. Employee 3 has the knack of referent power, which can inspire others to think like he does, despite the fact that he has been employed within Corporation A for only a short period of time

Religious Systems Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Religious Systems - Essay Example The authors explore how religious landscape of America has altered over time and also dig deep into the causes of these alterations in the present American society. It is undisputed that the United States’ peaceful coexistence between individuals of different religions is built on the harmony among individuals of different faiths who do not question the role of any particular religion in America (Putnam & Campbell, 2012). In recent periods, many Christians have questioned the morality and the role of Islamic religion, not only in America, but in other Christian dominated countries around the world in the wake of series of terrorist attacks. These attacks have been majorly associated with the Islamic religion shaking the peaceful coexistence between religions that has long defined happiness and peaceful living. Putnam and Campbell focus on the past fifty years in examining how religion can divide and unite people. As the authors explain, in early centuries, intermarriages betwe en individuals of different denomination were nothing more than a fairy tale. The practice was unwelcome, particularly in Protestant and Catholic denominations. However, in recent periods, the Catholics and Protestants in the United States feel like they all belong to one camp. Putnam and Campbell argue that by 2000s, the denomination in which an individual belonged bore no significance, but how religious a person is had gained great importance as a diving line in politics (Putnam & Campbell, 2012). However, this argument evokes one big question that underlies the present disharmony in peaceful religious coexistence. Everyone would ask why Muslims do not form part of the claimed unified religious family that fits Putnam and Campbell’s description. According to Putnam and Campbell, America’s religious diversity has never entailed extensive religious intolerance. As they explain, coexistence has been ensured through willingness of believers to bend fundamental doctrines so as to foster interfaith amity (Putnam & Campbell, 2012). Most Christians have a conviction that everybody, including non-Christians, can find their way into heaven. In this manner, it is apparent that Christians are bending a crucial doctrine that underlies their religion that no one can ever go to heaven without going through God’s son, Jesus Christ. Putnam and Campbell explain the Americans have become more tolerant because they have on average two friends with different religious backgrounds. In their survey in 2007, Putnam and Campbell ascertained that similar to the evangelicals, the mainstream Protestants, perceived Muslims to be worse than Buddhists. On the other hand, black Protestants perceived Muslims in a more positive way than they did with Buddhists (Putnam & Campbell, 2012). In the latter observation, the result could be attributed to the fact that black Christians are more familiar with their black Muslims counterparts. The authors proceed to explain this sc enario by exploring social theory in which they point out factors such as mutual goals as possible causes of familiarity resulting into strong cohesion among individuals of different faiths. Assessing Michael Emerson and Christian Smith's Divided by Faith: Evangelical

Two Myths of Globalization Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Two Myths of Globalization - Assignment Example Globalization refers to the increasingly close economic ties among countries. These ties include trade, travel, immigration, shared information sent over the Internet, increased investment in foreign countries, cross-cultural exchanges of students and knowledge, availability to quality education, and an advanced pace of technological advance. Globalization is also closely tied to corporations that operate in many countries at once, as well as to international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank that enable to help finance the process of globalization and to result in an increased financial outcome. I am here to show my support for the phenomenon that is globalization. The phenomenon that has changed the world, possibly and positively forever. As Gottesman puts it "If we want to make sense of globalization, we should stop comparing apples (the mature industrial country economies) with oranges (the economies of what used to be called the underdeveloped countries, which are now variously called developing countries or newly industrializing countries- NICs for short).(Gottesman) There are those who oppose globalization. ... to quote Persson who appropriately says "Globalization is a powerful force but we need to learn to live with the increased global competition." (Persson pg 4). I understand why people fear that globalization causes social ills but when weighed against the benefits it becomes clear that globalization is the clear winner. Fears of the negative impact of globalization can be aptly called false alarms. What about the global satellite TV channels which are beamed across the world. Thanks to globalization these channels have helped increase the empathy of the young in rich countries for the effects of poverty, famines, and civil wars in poorer areas of the world. It is because of globalization that we are more aware of what is going on in the world around us. To be honest, without globalization most of the NGO's that rally against it would fail to gather and organize themselves across the world!! Why would an individual sitting in Pakistan help an NGO called Greenpeace if they didn't know what Greenpeace stood for How this individual is aware of Greenpeace is a result of what can most simply be called Globalization? The people who stand up against globalization benefit from it just as much as everyone else. The adverse social effects of globalization are mistaken. Globalization, in fact, has helped reduce poverty and the use of child labor, fosters women's rights, promote respect for democratic norms, enriches culture, and even sustains the environment. Multinational corporations are not wreaking havoc by leveling wages and labor standards across the globe. In fact, they raise them.  

Fact-Finding Techniques for Requirements Discovery of Business Systems Essay

Fact-Finding Techniques for Requirements Discovery of Business Systems Analysis and Design - Essay Example Denscombe (2007) observes that for success to be registered in any project there is a need for an accurate data collection through specific methods that are to be used. The methods used in finding this information are referred to as fact finding techniques. There are various fact finding techniques including use of interviews, observation, and use of questionnaires among other techniques. Using interviews The interview is one of the fact finding techniques whereby the analysis is done through the collection of information from different persons in an interactive way. In an interview, the research always needs to find the desired facts through talking with the respondents. The facts found are supposed to be verified and clarified. In conduction interviews, enthusiasm should always be generated and the end user is always involved in the process. The identification of the requirements has been often very important before the conduction of interviews. Interviews do involve soliciting of ideas and opinions from the respondents. In interviews as a fact finding technique, there can be the use of unstructured interview. The interviewee id depended on in the provision of a framework and the direction of the discussion. It is generally not done for a specific goal. Structured interviews are done with an aim of getting answers to specific questions that are put down by the interviewer. In interviewing, open and closed ended queries are often used. The open ended questions do allow the interviewee to offer answers as he or she deems while the closed ended questions do have restrictions. Reasons for selecting interviews By using interviews to find the facts, the analyst is always presented with an opportunity of motivating the interviewee to be able to respond to the questions openly and freely. This is because the interviewer and the analyst are always in touch on a one on one basis. The analyst can probe the interviewee for more answers that are thought to be relevant and useful. Due to the physical contact between the analyst and the interviewee, there can always be a re-wording of the questions suppose the interviewee does not understand or get the required concepts. This is an advantage that all the other fact finding techniques does lack. Throughout the interview process, the analyst is in a position to analyze the interviewee’s non verbal communication and body language. This is a vital aspect in the whole analysis of the facts obtained from the interview. (Shelly, Cashman & Rosenblatt, 2009). Implementation of the method In order to carry out a successful interview and obtain the needed data, it is important to have a systematic and a well organized interview. This involves a lot of processes. For instance, selection of interviewees is an important aspect. Those going to be interviewed need to be selected carefully to ensure that the one chosen will offer the desired responses and data. It is important to have end users that are reliabl e. The analyst should have prior knowledge about the interviewees to avoid a lot of conflicts and inconveniences during the actual interviewing process. Preparation for the interview is a major aspect. This can be done through an interview guide. During the actual interview process, the problem that has mooted the interview process should be summarized. The interviewee is also offered some incentive for participating in the interview process. This is to encourage honest response. The analyst’