Old Scholl Analysis

Movie Analysis

Old School

The movie that my group and I presented was Old School. Old School, unlike most, is a comedy that shows values, ethics, and teamwork. Many would not think that a slapstick comedy would illustrate so many concepts of what a group or team is.

In this movie the first concept that caught my attention was groupthink. In the

early part of the movie Mitch (a man in his mid 30's) lands a house in the middle of this

college campus and informs his friends. Groupthink is presented here because after Mitch's friends receive the word they immediately think that Mitch should have a huge party. Mitch, of course is against the whole idea, but is persuaded into having this party because of the constant encouragement of his peers. This example shows how negative of an affect that groupthink could be, because it caused a man (who quit drinking for a year or so) to get extremely intoxicated and run in the streets of town naked, not to mention lose his wife. Another concept found was interdependency. In this movie a fraternity was formed of the most unusual people, but through it all they showed a lot of interdependency. Interdependency was shown by the strong commitment towards the one goal that all of these men shared. This fraternity had both relational and task interdependency because of the fact that they all of the members had an emotional connection with each other as a person and because the work of each group member was related to and affected the works of the other members. This interdependency is shown

2

during the tests that the fraternity had to pass in order to receive a charter and be allowed on campus.

Undoubtedly if you see interdependency within a group a certain level of cohesion should become apparent. The fraternity had a very high level of cohesion I believe. They went through the best of times together and they pulled it together when things began to go downhill for them. That proves a statement made by Jones, "Cohesiveness is the only force which promotes group survival" (1980, pg.34). Another example of cohesion is that the guys in the fraternity began to give each other nicknames. Not only does that show cohesion but it displays a fantasy theme as well.

In Old School, the stages of group development play a very big part in the movie. The forming stage was displayed in the movie when the original members cruised through the town in their van collecting all of the pledges that they knew of.

The stage of storming really came into play when the pledges were asked to complete a

ridiculous test of faith. In the movie, the frat experienced both primary and secondary tensions. Without a doubt primary tension would emerge because the frat was a zero history group, considering that when you first congregate in a group you usually