Analysis of Jerry Macguire from the Perspective of Communication Theory - Movie Review Example

This paper analyses Jerry Macguire (1997) movie from the perspective of communication theory. In general, this Oscar-winning film is the story of sport agent played by Tom Cruise, who lived through several failures in his life but managed to fix all of them. Over the course of the movie, he was the author of successful book proclaiming responsible and ethical management over the clients, was fired from the company he worked in (SMI), was left with his only client and the secretary, but succeeded. Thus, the given paper analyses the key relationships in this movie from the position of their components, identity and perception issues, verbal and non-verbal communication, and media influence. To start with, the movie reflects various kinds of relationships. In Jerry’s personal life, the development of his relationship with his secretary, Dorothy Boyd, appears to be the most important one. In the movie, Jerry proved this significance by marring and loving this woman. In fact, they were attracted to each other, because their relations demonstrated all three forces in attraction theory (proximity, interpersonal attractiveness, and similarity) (Alberts et al., 2012, p. 219). As for proximity, they worked with each other both in SMI and in Jerry’s independent firm. Moreover, Jerry and Dorothy showed different dimensions of attractiveness – they laughed a lot together (social attractiveness), managed business together (task attractiveness), and had a shared admiring of Dorothy’s son Ray. Finally, Jerry sharply felt similarity with her, because Dorothy always supported him in all of his successes and crises. Notwithstanding this, after the marriage these two lived through the divorce. However, this break-up did not follow Knapp and Vangelisti’s (1992) model of relationship dissolution. In fact, they did not demonstrate differentiating or stagnating, and simply jumped into the third stage of avoiding to terminating their relations (Alberts et al., 2012, p. 225; Knapp and Vangelisti, 1992). In other words, even in that situation they shared same interests and love to Ray, and still supported each other. Thus, they managed to renew their romantic relationship soon. In the aspect of Jerry’s professional relations, his friendship with his only client Rod Tidwell turned to be the most important among all his professional ties. In order to explain this case, social penetration theory works. According to it, the fact that they were left to work together was a turning point in their relationship by meaning “increased closeness… participating in activities together… hanging out with mutual friends, and sharing common interests” (Alberts et al., 2012, p. 226). In general, the story of their friendship is also the way Jerry learned of “self-disclosure” (Alberts et al., 2012, p. 221). The more Jerry knew of Rod’s family and talked about his own troubles, the closer he became with Rod himself. In this context, breadth as “the number of different topics dyads willingly discuss” (Alberts et al., 2012, p. 211) also grew in their conversations. For instance, Jerry told sincere truth to Rod that his game is soulless, but only after they had discussed their family lives. As a result, depth and frequency of their communication also increased (Alberts et al., 2012, p. 211). Hence, they inevitably became friends. Furthermore, the movie shows how identity is created and the way it changes with time. In general, it is hard for people to identify themselves only with one word (p. 58), but for Jerry it was not a problem. In fact, he dedicated all the spheres of his life to sports. In this context, he had even built his family life and made friends with people he worked with, meaning his secretary Dorothy and the only client Rod. However, his identity was sensitive to the social forces that surrounded him. In fact, identities appear in the process of communication, because “you cannot understand yourself or others without understanding how society constructs or defines characteristics” (Alberts et al., 2012, p. 66). In the movie, Jerry’s work was based on constant communication with his clients and potential buyers. In addition, love story between Jerry and his secretary Dorothy started because she had interpreted his memorandum in the same frame he did (Alberts et al., 2012, p. 88). Although, he found himself in crises for the several times, because his caring professional style did not fit the overall cynic social environment he had chosen. In this context, aggressive manner of reaction (Alberts et al., 2012, p. 66) is illustrative, since his business rival, Bob Sugar, stole all Jerry’s clients and laughed at his failures in an open manner. In addition, the movie represents the idea that social perception plays the key role for identity. Throughout the movie, Jerry’s mentor Dicky Fox appeared and explained the best way of behavior in his casual wise manner. In fact, this man played a key role for Jerry’s identification, as after the first big failure he relied on his wisdom in becoming successful. Furthermore, the profession of sports agent required from Jerry to look confident and respectful, because without these traits his clients would not believe they should work with him. In other words, they would not perceive him in the way Jerry wanted to appear. Finally, Dorothy’s perception of Jerry was crucial for his own success. In fact, this trait made her attractive for him, and he treated her better in contrast to all the other women (Alberts et al., 2012, p. 84). Therefore, Jerry finally gained success, because he had found certain individuals who perceived him as a winner in the overall environment that considered him as a loser. Then, the movie reveals both verbal and non-verbal cues to interpret Jerry’s behavior. On the one hand, Jerry for the most part of the movie failed to distinguish his personal and professional life. In this context, his drunk speech at Dorothy’s house was illustrative. In this scene, the tone of voice and the manner of speaking was the same he used in order to persuade his clients. Actually, his behavior revealed that his occupation affected his communication style (Alberts et al., 2012, p. 122). On another hand, nonverbal communication is also crucial for the interpreting Jerry’s behavior. In general, it can be even more illustrative than verbal cues (Alberts et al., 2012, p. 139). For instance, the violence of business world revealed itself in nonverbal communication on the football field, especially in the last game where Rod almost died. In romantic story between Dorothy and Jerry, the first kiss had “the meaning… more complex and potentially confusing or troubling” (Alberts et al., 2012, p. 142), since they were the boss and the subordinate then. In combination, Jerry’s casual words and gestures constantly affected his life. In a wedding day, Jerry met Dorothy’s sincere happiness with small phrases like “That’s true.” Moreover, his facial expressions represented despair and unhappiness. Thus, Rod immediately realized that Jerry was not honest to his wife. Correspondingly, Dorothy could not support Jerry in their marriage in the same manner she did before it. As Alberts et al. (2012) explain this phenomenon, “the language used in a given society influences its members’ perceptions of social reality” (p. 133-134). All together, these cases had certain importance in Jerry’s life. After he had formed Dorothy and Rod’s perceptions in such a manner, he almost lost the only people who believed in him. Finally, the publicity of Jerry’s occupation inevitably forced him to meet media in his everyday life. In general, all of us live in the circumstanced of “mediated communication,” since we use transmitted through exact channels messages (Alberts et al., 2012, p. 376). In the movie, Jerry’s willingness to look attractive and confident corresponded with creating a successful media image of his successful clients. In its turn, media constantly ignored Rod in the same manner it did with Jerry. In addition, even the wide usage of new media (meaning phone communication) did not solve the lack of lasting relationship between Jerry, his clients, and the public. In this context, Alberts et al. (2012) defend a statement that “an understanding of new media and good technological skills can ensure personal and professional success” (p. 381). In other words, only the closer work with media could help Jerry to fix his personal and professional problems. However, the overall story of Jerry Maguire illustratively proves that face-to-face communication was much more effective than media augmentation approach supposes. In other words, only when Jerry disclosed his personality to Rod and Dorothy and found courage to invite them in his personal life, he became really happy and successful. In order to sum up, it is evident that failures of the main character in Jerry Maguire (1997) movie were closely tied to his inability to distinguish personal and professional life. By developing lasting relationships only with his secretary and the client, he had constantly led them down by his career ambitions. In particular, he did not disclose in front of people who did not share his professional aims. Moreover, he relied solely on media in communication with people whose perceptions he wanted to influence. In fact, caring people felt this ambiguity through both his verbal and nonverbal conversation style, and it forced them to abandon Jerry. Thus, if Jerry saw the world beyond his profession from the very beginning, he would be sincerely happy on his own wedding and his clients and previous friends would never leave him. However, the course of movie demonstrated that all these failures helped Jerry to understand all the above-mentioned mistakes be himself and cope with them. References: Alberts, J., Nakayama, T., and Martin, J. (2012). Human Communication in Society. Third edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education. Knapp, M. and Vangelisti, A. (1992). Interpersonal communication and human relationships. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Read More