CONFLICT OF INTERESTS IN SPORT AGENCIES AS REFLECTED IN CAMERON CROWE'S JERRY MAGUIRE MOVIE: A SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

AHMASIYAH, Nurul (2009)
SUMMARY
The object of the study is Jerry Maguire movie, written by Cameron Crowe.
This study describes about a popular sport agent who use the fair competition in
his business after fired from the office because of mission statement that he wrote.
With only a client he tries to build his own office with fair competition. The
objective of the study is to analyze the movie based on its structural elements and
on the sociological analysis.
In analyzing Jerry Maguire, the researcher uses sociological approach. The
data sources are primary and secondary data. The primary data and the object of
this study is the movie of Jerry Maguire itself. Produced in 1996 by Columbia Tri-
Star Pictures and the secondary data are the other references related to the analysis
such as the other biography and virtual references. The method of the data
collection is literary research. The technique of data analysis is descriptive.
The outcome of the study shows the following conclusion. First, literary
works may reflect the social reality. Second, Cameron Crowe wants to say that
people must try as hard as possible with fair competition and care with other
people in order to get the best result.

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Cameron Crowe's Jerry Maguire is the drama, comedy, romance and
sport movie produced in United States of America. It was released on
December, 13th, 1996 by Columbia Tri-Star Pictures in two discs which
contained one hundred-thirty nine minutes of duration. It uses English and
American Sign Language. In Jerry Maguire, there are some locations in some
cities in United States of America, such as Arizona, Atlanta, Dallas,
Manhattan, Odessa, Phoenix and also Texas. Thos movie (as an explanation of
the author) is just a fictitious story. Before writing the story, the author made a
kind of research by talking to businessmen, visiting big office and
interviewing the hard workers. After that, a friend of him showed the picture
from The Los Angeles Time, it was an old photo of a sport agent and a client,
two stern-looking men in shirt and sunglasses. During the next view years
with the help of sport attorney, Leigh Steinberg, he met and traveled with
athletes and sport agents of all kind, and he began to develop the character of
Jerry Maguire.
Jerry Maguire is the sport agent working for Sport Management
International (SMI) with seventy-two clients in his arm. He is a well-known
agent, everybody knows and loves him bef ore the company management
orders him to get fired for his mission statement that is about perceived
dishonesty in the sports management business and because he believes that it
should be operated. At the day his mission statement is released, all of the
employees are touched by his honesty and greet him with applause, but the
management sends Bob Sugar, one of the agents in Sport Management
International (SMI), to fire him. Since that day, Maguire becomes Sugar's
rival in getting all of their existing clients. Unfortunately, only a client stays
with Maguire, he is Rod Tidwell (an American football player), because Bob
Sugar takes almost of Jerry's entire client. So, Sugar secures most of Maguire's
clients as his own.
Leaving the office, Maguire announces he will start his own sport
management agency and asks if anyone is willing to join him besides Flipper,
the fish in the aquarium. Only Dorothy Boyd, an accounting in his office and
also a single parent, agrees and follow him because she knows that Jerry does
the best. Over the next several months, they succeed with Maguire's new
enterprise. They show that a key of the job is personal relationship and loving
well is the best revenge, which one of the points that Maguire made in his
mission statement. Finally, Jerry realized that he loves his wife Dorothy Boyd,
who has a son (Ray Boyd), and he does not want to lose her. He goes back to
Dorothy's house and asks her to give him a second chance and she gives it by
saying that she loves him too.
Jerry Maguire is the popular sport movie in 1997. But out of its
popularity, there are some communities like to watch it and some do not.
Tfrizzell, community from United States do not like this movie. He said that
this is just a sport, sex and money movie. He said that it's only money movie
because of the motto "Show Me the Money!" of Rod Tidwell family. Without
much money, Tidwell would not do what Jerry wants, which is to be his
client. There are a little story in drama, comedy and sport. A good thing is
only when the characters change. Here, Maguire starts off completely cynical,
abruptly changes to ridiculously idealistic. Keith Miller, from Murrieta also
gave comment that Jerry Maguire showed the business world of America as
its worst, especially in the sports industry because it did not want to give the
best for the client, it just gave the best for them (the agents and the company).
Jerry Maguire was not a perfect film, he said. In fact it was flawed in many
ways and was not very accurate in some areas. Debra Barton, a model from
Georgia-United States, gave comment that this was the boring movie she had
ever watch, she did not get anything at that time, it was just empty. She was
disappointed and felt asleep in watching it and she was suggested to not watch
it without insomnia. She preferred being in a dentist than to watching it.
The people who like this movie comment in different views. Jodie
Catherine, from United Kingdom said that it was fun to watch because the
characters, though flawed, were sympathetic. She enjoyed watching them
succeed and fail because this movie gave the way to discover what they really
cared about. It was complicated, thoughtful and surprisingly and made her cry,
laugh and pray when watching it. Camraman, from Oak Park said that this was
the excellent from the direction to the production. He liked to watch because
Maguire struggled with his separation from the sport corporation although he
was losing his fiancé. However, he survived and learned that living well and
loving well were the keys to happiness. He said that this movie was great in
scenes, sequences and editing. Liam, from United States thought that this
movie made with a purpose, which was to teach the community about real
feelings, real relationship that made us feel better because it was more
important than money.
There are some communities said that Jerry Maguire is only a cheap
movie and does not fun to watch. They refuse to watch it for several years
after this movie has been released, but when finally they watch on television,
they are blown away when Jerry Maguire, a sport agent, realized that quality is
more important than quantity. This movie, they say, is about hope, struggle,
love and finding out the meaning of life. Jerry Maguire is someone with
nothing to loose, and the role of Rod Tidwell brings tears to their eyes.
Dorothy gives the best performance by having great chemistry with Maguire.
This film works because it's so real and easy to understand. This is about
personal relationship between the sport agent and client. They show that they
can succeed from it (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt00116695/#comment).
This movie is almost excellent because it gets 7,2/10 in rating in 1997
and one compared three of the 58,730 IMDB (Internet Movie Data Base)
community like to watch it and give the weighted average to this movie. Jerry
Maguire won the Oscar in a very competitive year in Best Actor in a Leading,
Best Film Editing and Best Supporting Actor category played by Cuba
Gooding, Jr. as Rod Tidwell, because he was giving the best perfor mance in it.
Besides that, this movie won some other awards, such as ASCAP Awards for
Top Box Office Film, American Comedy Awards for Funniest Supporting
Actor, Blockbuster Entertainment Awards for Favorite Actor, Favorite
Supporting Actor and Favorite Supporting Actress, Golden Globes Awards for
Best Performance in a Motion Picture, Broadcast Film Critics Association
Awards for Best Child Performance, Best Supporting Actor and Breakthrough
Artist, etc. It's also nominated as Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay and
Best Actor in Oscar 1997.
Jerry Maguire is interesting to watch dealing with social relationship.
The power of attraction on this movie is the actor (Tom Cruise) who's
handsome and also famous. He often stars in action movie like; Top Gun,
Mission Impossible, Minority Report and Vanilla Sky. He is very deepening
and understanding his characters and there is no doubt for his play in every
movie. Tom cruise is a perfect choice to play Jerry; he has the look, the energy
and the talent to get inside this guy's skin and make him tick, and tempering
his performance just enough to make it really works. Cruise's fans or not will
like this movie. An Oscar is not bad given to him because he gives his best
performance here.
Beside the actor, the plot, conflict and climax of this movie are also
interesting. This story is so real with our life. It begins when the famous agent
behind the scene is fired because of his mission statement. He has to build his
own enterprise with only a client and a staff, and also his business journey
until he succeeds in his new enterprise with his personal relationship. The
conflict in this movie is so real in social life. Conflict is not understood as an
uncompromising fight between two individual or collective actors, each one
committed to a specific goal and each trying to realize this goal against the
resistance of the opposing party without any willingness to give up even a part
of his or her intent (Munch, 1994:111).
In this life, conflict will always happen and comes close to everyone
and cannot be avoided because people have to interact, communicate and
socialize with others. People cannot live alone in the world, they need other
people to share full of or some problems they face. Furthermore, they must
face the problems when there is no similarity in viewing problems. There are
so many kinds of problem can cause the conflict, and it can come from every
relationship such as friendship, family, society or even in business. For
example, there are two people working at the same enterprise and have
different goal in business, so they are trying to defend or stand at their position
until one of them is defeated.
In this movie, the conflict begins when the company management
orders Jerry to get fired for his mission statement and everything changes.
Jerry has to build his own business without any staff except Dorothy Boyd and
only a client, Rod Tidwell, who always wants Jerry to show him the money
before he becomes Jerry's client. He also has to compete with Bob Sugar;
someone discharges him from SMI (Sport Management International), to get
the clients with their own way. The climax is in a restaurant at lunch when
Jerry has to face the true that he is fired from his job.
There are so many other points that make the movie interesting to
watch, such as lighting, editing and properties. There are the important things
in making the movie. It is using the soft qualities of lighting because it makes
the audience see the object in the good view and also good looking for them.
Editing is used to get the best image in the movie. Properties that the actress
uses make the audience attracted to watch.
The theme in this movie is emphasized on financial and professional
success at the expense of personal relationships. Actually, from personal
relationship, an agent and clients can develop good relationship like a new
family and it makes the relation better than just business relationship.
Cameron Crowe suggests that "reaching out to the people around us is the key
to professional as well as personal success" (http://www.imdb.com/title/
tt00116695/theme). Sometimes, people or group has differences in viewing
this. For example, one thinks that personal relationship is better than just
business relationship because personal relationship, based on this movie, can
bring someone to his personal success; other thinks that business relationship
is better than personal relationship because it can give them much money; it is
a quarrel condition which causes the conflict of interest.
Conflict of interest cannot be denied from human being's life in social
community. Actually, interest not only brings conflict, but also gives support
when each other feel comfort. In fact, different interest more often brings
conflict than support. Because of it, conflict and interes t cannot be separated
from society.
Based on the explanation above, the writer is interested in analyzing
Cameron Crowe's Jerry Maguire based on the sociological perspective. The
writer uses this perspective in holding the research because this movie tells the
social life in business which personal relationship is better than business
relationship itself. To achieve these objectives, the writer chooses a title
"CONFLICT OF INTEREST IN SPORT AGENCIES AS REFLECTED IN
CAMERON CROWE'S JERRY MAGUIRE MOVIE: A SOCIOLOGICAL
PERSPECTIVE".
B. Literature Review
After holding the research in Muhammadiyah University of Surakarta,
Sebelas Maret University and the State University of Semarang, the researcher
found that there were no literary researches releva nt with Cameron Crowe's
Jerry Maguire.
Based on this statement, the researcher is interested in analyzing
Cameron Crowe's Jerry Maguire by using sociological perspective.
C. Problem Statement
Based on the title and the background of the research classified above,
there is a single problem statement. The main problem in this research is how
the conflict of interest is reflected in Cameron Crowe's Jerry Maguire.
D. Limitation of the Study
The researcher focuses her discussion on the conflict of interest
reflected in Jerry Maguire by using sociological perspective.
E. Objective of the Study
The objective of the study can be formulated as follows:
1. To analyze the movie based on its structural element.
2. To analyze the movie based on its sociological perspective.
F. Benefit of the Study
The result of this research is expected to provide some benefit as
follows:
1. Theoretical Benefit
This study is expected to give a contribution to other literary researchers
especially in study of Cameron Crowe's Jerry Maguire.
2. Practical Benefit
This study is expected to give benefit to the writer in comprehending
Cameron Crowe's Jerry Maguire that consists of structural elements
viewed from sociological perspective.
G. Research Method
Dealing with the research, there are five points that need to be involved
as follows:
1. Type of Research
In analyzing the conflict of interests in Jerry Maguire, the researcher uses
qualitative research that expresses sociological perspective. It is a research
that does not need a statistic to collect the data.
2. The Object of the Study
The researcher takes Jerry Maguire film as the object of the study. The
movie is directed by Cameron Crowe and released on December 13th,1996.
3. Type of the Data and the Data Source
The data of this research is the form of disc and text. While the data
sources are divided into two kinds, there are:
a. Primary Data Source
The primary data source is the film Jerry Maguire by Cameron Crowe.
The data are taken from the dialogue, scene, setting, and all of the
statement related to the problem.
b. Secondary Data Source
The secondary data sources are taken from other sources rela ted to the
primary data source such as website about the film, internet, books of
sociological theories and another, related to this research.
4. Technique of the Data Collection
The researcher takes the data by doing some observation:
a. Watching the movie to understand about it.
b. Combining the movie and the dialogue of the movie.
c. Writing down the data related to the research.
d. Identifying the conflict of interests reflected in Cameron Crowe's Jerry
Maguire.
5. Technique of the Data Analysis
In this case, the researcher tries to describe the structural elements of the
movie and to analyze the sociological aspect in it using descriptive
analysis based on the underlying theories.
H. Research Paper Organization
To make it easy to understand, the researcher arranges the research
paper into six chapters. The first chapter is introduction that consists of
background of the study, literature review, problem statement, objective of the
study, limitation of the study, benefit of the study, research method,
theoretical approach and research paper organization. The second chapter
deals with underlying theory covering the sociology of literature, the principle
of sociology of literature, the structural elements of the movie, and the
theoretical application. The third chapter is the historical background of
America in the latest twentieth century. The fourth chapter is structural
analysis. The fifth chapter is sociological analysis. The sixth chapter is the
conclusion and suggestion.