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Movie: The Firm

Movie: The Firm


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 indict
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.
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...