Is the great man perspective of leadership still alive today? Discuss popular movies that think of 1 person as a hero, as well as business men.
I believe that the great man approach is still alive especially in the film industry. Multiple movies show heroes who are born with leadership skills or through inheritance. Movies like Schindler’s List, Serpico, and Lincoln. Businessmen (dead and alive) who I believe showed a massive reign of power through leadership was the late John D. Rockefeller, J.P.Morgan, Warren Buffet, and Bill Gates.
The movie “Serpico” is another movie which portrays Frank Serpico, a policeman who just wants to do the right thing at all times. Frank is forced to see the bad side of the police force, filled with corruption and violence. He plans to expose everyone in the force to show the world who they really are, and even though trouble arose when problems with family and friends came into his life, he stuck to his morals and principles and sought to fight corruption as a one man army. Frank Serpico lived to his purpose, and stayed courageous in the face of adversity.
“Schindler’s List” talks about Oskar Schindler, a man regarded as a historical hero who saved 1,200 Jewish people in the Auschwitz Camp during the time of Nazi Germany. Even though he was considered as a “greedy money maker,” seeing the Jewish people of Auschwitz being tortured, he felt deep sympathy and did everything in his power to save them; from bribing policemen with diamonds, to negotiating with other massive bribes. He even felt deeply ashamed that he was only able to save 1,200 refuges.
The move “Lincoln” based on the life of the late president Abraham Lincoln, talks about his mission to pass the 13th amendment of the USA which would abolish slavery. Abraham Lincoln had to do everything he can to show the world that blacks and whites have equal rights, which would seem much easier now than when he had power. It shows how little time there was to pass the Emancipation Proclamation and his struggle to hold his life together after his son dies in war, while his wife is grieving over her dead son and pre occupied husband. Even though the law was eventually passed after a struggle to convince the House of Representatives, Lincoln was assassinated the next few days.
The businessmen who showed great strength and either completely or somehow had their own significance in history showed traits of the Great Man Approach. A perfect example is John D. Rockefeller, an oil tycoon who basically restructured the oil industry by his Standard Oil Company. What makes Rockefeller a perfect leader is the fact that so many people during his time were scared to even enter the
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