Movie City Hall Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

City Hall - Movie Review ExamplePerhaps the well-nigh famed political leader, when it comes to predilectionlism of purpose, was Cincinnatus. Long before the days when Rome was a far-flung empire, it was a republic clinging to the underbelly of what would be Western Europe. When the Aequi and Volscian tribes began to be Rome from the east in 458 B.C., the citizens begged Cincinnatus to take over dictatorial powers and vanquish the threat. He did so, in a mere sixteen days, and then immediately resigned his patch of power, returning to his farm. This example of knowing when to yield power was cited by George Washington, after he stepped down after two terms as the first chair of the United States (Cincinnatus).City Hall, directed by Harold Becker, is just one of a long line of works in American literature and cinema that read the slow erosion of an idealistic leaders credibility. One of the first works on this theme was Robert Penn Warrens All the Kings Men, a scantily fictionali zed look at the life of Louisianas Huey Long. Willie Stark, who is Penn Warrens jolly larger-than-life Huey Long figure, and John Pappas, New Yorks mayor in City Hall, are two men who bemuse risen to their current power development a similar dichotomy of private and public positioning proscribedwardly, twain men have ridden a populist wave of sentiment to their current posts inwardly, both men have incurred debts to the corrupt powers that control much of politics, and both ultimately have a price to pay. Both men are closely followed by idealistic staffers - Willie Stark is followed by the aptly named Jack Burden, while John Pappas is followed by Kevin Calhoun. Both of these men have bought into the message that their respective leaders have broadcast to the masses, and both men fervently believe in the men for whom they work. By the end of both stories, both men are disillusioned as to the true nature, and the true source, of political power.The contradictions that revolve ar ound political power primarily have to do with the definition and application of obligation. The existence of a duty triangle has been asserted, in that, over time, three major approaches to classifying honourable thought have arisen, and these approaches are based on virtue, principle, or consequences. In other words, stack make their ethical decisions based on one (or more) of these three ideas. When one considers political leaders, it would be difficult to leave both virtue and principle out of the equation after all, the lower rungs of political service are not sufficiently lucrative for a purely utilitarian individual to find the speckle attractive. There has to be some idealistic motive behind entry into public service, even if, after time, that idealism is worn away and replaced by a jaded faade. The idea of virtue finds definitions for ethical conduct in the behaviors and qualities of the good individual. The idea of principle suggests that universal principles can be us ed to make ethical decisions. These two are very similar however, the key difference is that the virtue-based definition uses individuals as its orientation, while the principle-based definition uses a broader base of precedent as its orientation. The idea of consequences looks at the outcomes of actions and uses those outcomes to determine whether or not an action is right or wrong - this is often called a utilitarian