A Class Assignment For Business Law
Extra Credit Class Assignments
James Pilant’s Business Law Class
All these are voluntary for extra credit. If you do one, it has to be turned in both in hard copy and as an attachment to an e-mail.
Each of these assignments is worth 10 points. Watch the film and then answer the questions attached to the link.
I want you to watch the entire film
Each link is to an online video of the film which is totally free. If you have a service like Netlfix or Hulu and you can get the film there that will be fine.
The question I want you to answer is listed beneath the film.
How much should you write? Okay, look, you’re not twelve. A yes or no response followed by a single sentence will get you nothing. Write it so that if you were another person reading it, you would realize that the author has seen the whole movie and had given serious thought to the questions.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYKijBENJ78
Love Affair
Charles Boyar has two choices in the film, he can marry a rich socialite and live a life of ease or he can pursue a relationship with a woman without independent means and spend the rest of his life trying to make a precarious living as a painter. Which does he choose and why? Now, explain what decision you would make (choose whichever character you wish). How does his decision and your decision stack up against modern economic thought as expressed in the media?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpOtNRGfYzc
Persuasion
Once upon a time, a well placed woman of wealth and breeding is persuaded by her friends and family to not marry a handsome captain from the navy. Ten years later he is wealthy and her family’s fortune has dissipated.
The captain can now choose younger, prettier women with better social status. Who does he choose? Why do you think he made that choice? Once again, tell me whether or not under current popular romantic ideas, who should he marry and why?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dG1QmTpGTrs
Jane Eyre
Does beauty allow women to change social class, to move up in the world, so to speak? And if so, what if the woman is plain? Does that make a difference? Can a woman marry up in social class based on ability? Why or why not? Does the story strike you as realistic? Could that really happen? Would you do what they did?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cf0-GsXDzI
Rebecca
Rebecca is given a place in high society. How does she adapt? Would you have made the same decisions that she made? Do you believe her husband’s story? Why or why not?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmdPj_XbF30
Pygmalion
Watch the film and answer this question, would it have been better if Higgins had left her in the gutter?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OY1U-a2lWH4
Cyborg She
Our hero uses time travel to solve his problems in the past. What is more important to him, love or money? But what of his cyborg love interest, what is most important to her? And remember she isn’t always what you think she is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Q6WxPnDLGA&list=PL853F7DF3A248A315
Japan Sinks
(This one is in parts.)
In the film, the Japanese react as a people (as a whole) to the upcoming disaster but are saved by an individual’s sacrifice. Is there a conflict between solidarity of the population and the importance of the individual? Also what if he had acted with the morals of a Wall Street Banker, shouldn’t he happily abandon his country and his friends while cashing in on the underwater salvage of Japanese treasures?
Ninotchka
At the time the film was made, there was little really known about the Soviet Union, but you know a lot about capitalism from having lived in the United States. Is capitalism portrayed accurately in the film? Why or why not?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gqwXeHI85A
Father Brown, the Detective (1954)
Why isn’t Father Brown exclusively focused on stopping the theft? What are his motives in this movie? Please explain.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJKWguqabUU
Young Mr. Lincoln
What is Lincoln after? Where does his ambition take him? Watch the film and from what Henry Fonda playing Lincoln says about himself and what he wants to do, describe his ethical motivations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLVh5o-k2v0
The Mark of Zorro
(This one is silent.)
Why doesn’t our hero remain in Spain? After all, there are many women there and he has plenty of money.
Watch the film and discover from what he says, what his motives are.
Why would anyone want to be a hero? Wouldn’t it be better to be rich? Why or why not?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKpA0dWyTyo&index=2&list=PLJJ7npDpPJ_OWOfitlWNjdBnKgpRWJmH-
Windstruck
Take a look at Korean culture through the lens of this film, and tell me the differences between America and Korea when it comes to capitalism?
Pilant's Business Ethics Blog 
What a list. I’ve seen many of these, but not Windstruck, Father Brown, Japan Sinks or Cyborg She.
I think I’ll be spending the weekend on youtube.
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I think you’ll really like Father Brown, a very different kind of film. jp
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Turns out I had seen Father Brown, and not that long ago. I somehow never connected it with the recent BBC series, which is just OK. I watched about half of Japan Sinks, which seems analogous to the California’s Shakin’ Away fear. Japan Sink’s film characters behave a lot like anime characters, but don’t have the colorful hair. BTW, I saw a Romanian film last weekend – Tuesday After Christmas – which has nothing to do with Xmas, but certainly presents a moral dilemma.
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Yes, Father Brown has been around for a while. Japan Sinks, I thought was a laugh riot because they’re taking seriously a bizzare sci-fi situation not to mention taking a museum piece sub below its crash depth by force of will. So a few years ago I put it on the list as a kind of joke. To my shock, my students have loved it ever since, and they take it completely seriously – all of it – that all geographical Japan is going to sink at the same time, that the Prime Minister’s plane is brought down by high flying lava, and that a tiny amount of explosives at just the right place will save everyone. Oh well, don’t argue with success – as long as they are writing essays – who am I to complain?
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