Articles Tagged: analysis

In the last decade large organisations have realised the increasing impact of new and cutting edge technology. Clark (1989) emphasized on the importance of technology to gain competitive advantage but at the same time he warned that building and maintaining such advantage will always be a challenge.

Abstract:

The AOL and Time Warner merger ties the knot to the infrastructure of the old economy with the content and candidness of the new-fangled economy. In the months from the time when the merger was declared we have seen our telecommunications industry altered. Global consolidation and entry of foreign competitors into U.S. markets is forcing American companies to develop and compete in a global market. Vivendi and Terra Networks are by now vigorously involved in American telecommunications and Deutsche Telecom and Nippon Telephone and Telegraph on their way; we require being certain that our authoritarian polices do not put American companies at a viable inconvenience in the global marketplace.
As the telecommunications marketplace becomes more and more global, apprehensions over monopolistic power over the industry should weaken. About a year back the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) created the term no-opoly to illustrate the broadband marketplace, as the market was in such an untimely stage that monopolistic policies were not the appropriate structure for the industry. At present the astuteness of their hands-off approach is stand out in the broadband numbers.

The capital of both England and the United Kingdom, throughout the previous two millennia London has proven to be an internationally significant political, cultural and commercial epicentre, particularly with regard to the recent phenomenon of globalisation. The population of London totals approximately seven million residents, the metropolitan area of which includes in excess of twelve million people.

This dissertation investigates in depth the issue of whether Milton’s Satan from the poem Paradise Lost can be considered a classical epic hero. The research makes a major emphasis on the classical world context, uncovering the poet’s vision and comparing Satan with Achilles from Homer’s epic Iliad. The received results show that, despite the fact that Milton utilises some classical allusions in regard to the figure of Satan, he changes these conventions by implementing his own historical vision and religious beliefs. Some findings of the dissertation are consistent with the previous researches on Milton’s Paradise Lost, but other findings provide opposite results with certain valid data.  

Management Report For Major computer software company.

The media coverage pertaining to the proposed bill to ban fox hunting in the UK at the start of the twenty first century was one of the more perplexing and curious incidents of recent times in British political debates. The sheer level of exposure that the bill attained as well as the depth of emotion concerning both supporters and opponents of fox hunting made the debate stand out as a discernibly ‘British’ affair, fought along the familiar historical battle ground of class and town versus country.

Rembetika is the Greek urban song that emerged during the 20th century. The aim of this dissertation will be to approach, explore, evaluate, and compare rembetika as cultural art expression and as heritage art expression. It will explore the roots of rembetika, the historical and political forces that influenced its development, and the changes that have transformed it into what it has become today.

Language acquisition is a complex and gradual process for children. The process works on two levels. Part of it is innate, and part is learned. As they advance developmentally, children absorb what they hear in their interactions with others, especially in their home environments. Phonological development is a gradual process during which speech patterns are first reproduced, and then eventually acquired. It is normal for mistakes, or phonological deviations, to be made during this process.

Gary Oldman’s directorial debut, Nil by Mouth (1997) symbolised a watershed in the career of one of the finest post war British actors as well as throwing down the gauntlet to other film makers across the western world who wished to create a movie of equally uncompromising, autobiographical honesty. In a decade marked by stylised depictions of a cross section of British men, from Danny Boyle’s urban cool composition, Renton in Trainspotting (1995) to the less sophisticated but equally alluring Gary of The Full Monty (1997), Oldman’s film and his anti hero, Ray, stand out from contemporaries for an exquisite use of social realism that is located firmly in the context of the historical period of the decade, as Nelmes (2003:269) explains.

“The 1980’s action hero is superficially a sign of masculine power, but on closer examination an anxiety about masculine identity is revealed, an anxiety which has been addressed in many films of the 1990’s although in rather different forms.”

  

Nil by Mouth falls into the more extreme category of 1990’s anxiety about the disillusioned British, white, working class male. It is a uniquely bleak depiction of inner city mayhem, addiction and depression, matched only by Once were Warriors (1994) in terms of portraying violence that transcends the screen and rests firmly in the hearts and minds of the viewing audience. In the final analysis, all art is subjective and few forms of art are as subjective as film; yet one of the greatest compliments that can be paid to Nil by Mouth is the fact that the audience is gripped in one man’s family history, involving an almost completely repulsive list of characters. That we never walked out of the cinemas or turned our video players off is testimony in itself to the power, honesty and realism of Nil by Mouth.

Tom Shone (2000:596), reviewing the movie in the Sunday Times Review, captured the essence of this landmark film when he declared that he thought Nil by Mouth to be, “a film of hard, unyielding brilliance that, given the choice, I would quite happily unwatch.”  People went to watch the movie in their droves. The film won two BAFTA awards, in addition to Gary Oldman’s prize as Best Director at the Edinburgh Film Festival in 1997 and Kathy Burke’s nomination as Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival in the same year. It is a rare occurrence in the film making industry that a movie as difficult to watch as Nil by Mouth should be so acclaimed by its peers. Again, this fact only serves to underscore the cultural significance of the movie.

While discussing and analysing the movie it will be necessary to place Nil by Mouth in its correct context, specifically within the post industrial urban expanse of London and the British movie making industry, to which reference will be made throughout the duration of the study. As already detailed, the undercurrent of autobiographical detail will likewise never be far from the surface of this analysis of Nil by Mouth; its driving force and determining factor are central to the manifestation of post modern masculinity which permeates throughout the film.

Samantha Lay (2002:111) attempts to explain the significance of the personal emotion and experience behind the movie and how this adds to the socially realist effect that Nil by Mouth ultimately transmits to great effect; how only Gary Oldman could have written and directed this particular piece of urban cinema.

“The fact that this film is acknowledged by Oldman to be ‘about’ his own relationship with his alcoholic father also bears out the point that, increasingly, social realist texts are moving from a concern with the public to a preoccupation with private worlds. In the case of Nil by Mouth this is again doubly important because not only does it focus tightly on the screen family and its problems, but by its nod to the director’s own background, could almost be considered therapy for Oldman.”  

The opening scene of the movie sets the tone for the remainder of the narrative. We meet, first of all, Ray (Ray Winstone), the central character of the movie and the location of much of the emotional impact of the film. Ray is at the bar of a typically dour East End pub buying a large round of drinks. He is ordering two rounds: one for his male mates with whom he drinks each and every day and another for his wife Val (Kathy Burke), her mother and her friends, sat at a different table, disconnected entirely from Ray – they are in the same building but there the similarity between these two distinct worlds ends.

The significance of this opening scene is lost at first viewing; only after watching the remainder of the movie is it apparent that the separation between Ray’s male centric, alcohol influenced life and that of his wife and family, who he feels no obligation towards whatsoever, is in fact the central theme of the movie. The split between home and pub, family and mates, female and male is a key feature that courses throughout the entire film. It is immediately obvious that Ray prefers the company of his male peers and is wholly uncomfortable in his family and in law surroundings and the tension between the two is detectable from the outset.

The opening scene also highlights to the audience the wasteful manner of Ray’s existence. He spends much time discoursing with his friends, as they do at the start of the film, without making very much sense or improving their perspective on anything at all. They talk about sex, drugs and petty crime without ever offering a definitive, logical conclusion on the subject matter. They use child like language, such as “bluey” when describing a blue movie and repeat tales from their childhood over and over again, laughing at their distorted memories and trying to impress each other with stories of debauchery and decadence. And herein we discover the essence of the movie’s title: despite all of their words, Ray and his contemporaries offer no opinion or insight. They are, in essence, all talk and no action. Their views are simple and are mimicked throughout the pubs in which they drink. They speak in tongues; they speak nil by mouth.

It becomes apparent that there is a definitive, ordered hierarchy to the male characters in the film. Within this social pyramid, Ray sits unchallenged at the top of his close knit circle of pals, his best friend Mark (Jamie Forman) acts like a minder and muse to him; at the bottom lies Billy (Charlie Creed Mills), Val’s younger brother who looks up to Ray and Mark though in truth his life is set on an altogether different course (the viewer learns early on that Billy has a serious problem with intravenous drugs). Ray rarely exists beyond this structured circle of friends because he is comfortable with the knowledge that he is the most feared member of the group. There is, therefore, a cowardice that resides within Ray, a cowardice that will manifest itself upon his long suffering wife and her family. 

Throughout these openings sequences there is a feeling of homogeneity among the male characters and even a degree of warmth and affection. There are moments of genuine humour (such as Mark’s tale about an orgy and his heart attack) interspersed with scenes of a comedian operating in the East End pub. Nil by Mouth is, thus, not merely a one dimensional movie, concerned only with a socially realist depiction of violence. Gary Oldman, here, is keen to stress that though these men may appear monstrous, they are in fact only men, just like the shocked members of the audience, and just like the director himself. Oldman therefore creates a sense of empathy during the early stages of the film that is essential in the construction of a relationship between the audience and the family on cinematic trial, as Mayne (1993:1) attests.

“Spectatorship is not only the act of watching a film, but also the ways one takes pleasure in the experience, or not; the means by which watching movies becomes a passion, or a leisure time activity like any other.” 

Despite the charisma of the cast and the characters they portray, there is, throughout, an undercurrent of violence that appears to brim just beneath the surface the film. That this is a male chauvinistic household is obvious but we do not see the true level of ferocity that dwells deep inside Ray until a scene set in the centre of London, in Soho. After traversing the city’s seediest nightspots, the three main male characters, Ray, Billy and Mark stop to purchase drugs. They pull up in Ray’s car and make the exchange.

“Stewart’s with me,” the dealer tells Ray.

“Tell him I want to see him,” Ray responds.

He gets out of the car, hides just out of view of Stewart who is emerging from a fast food restaurant, and hits him hard as soon as he gets the chance, knocking the victim face down in the street.

The scene is important for two reasons. Firstly, it highlights Ray’s violent character, a side that the audience was already aware of but had yet to actually see. This facilitates the following scene which documents Ray’s savage attack on Billy in his home, prompting Val to declare; “you’re an animal, you are”.

Secondly, the assault in the street is never explained. We never discover who Stewart is or how he has come to upset Ray. We are merely left with the sadistic Mark’s view that, “what goes around comes around.” This scene underscores the indiscriminate manner of the central character, which is a necessary building block in the de construction of his psyche that the film becomes increasingly obsessed with, in addition to establishing the film maker’s belief in a warped kind of karma that will eventually come back to haunt Ray.

It is important to understand that Gary Oldman is not in this instance, or indeed throughout the movie, portraying violence for violence’s sake. Oliver Stone (1996:237) highlights the role that film plays in modern society’s comprehension of dark and wicked characters, and why movies of uncompromising brutality are often misinterpreted as the glorification of violence.

“Artists do not invent nature but merely hold it up to a mirror. That the mirror now is electronic, widescreen or cyberspace is all the more intimidating to the unschooled.”

Oldman’s movie, though starkly brutal, is indeed a mirror of late 1990’s South East London, or at least the part of the city that he knew and grew up with. With admirable subtlety, Oldman manages to create a vision of London that is his own, just like the image of the dysfunctional family is likewise his alone. His background on the other side of the camera bequeathed him this insight. As a highly successful realist actor himself, Gary Oldman was in a position to create a semi autobiographical movie within the context of his pre determined vision, as Delia Salvi (2003:2) underlines.

“Directors who have never pursued acting as a career or been close to an actor have no way of knowing what an actor’s life is all about… such an awareness goes a long way towards understanding what and whom you’re dealing with.” 

Yet, just as the plot is beginning to show Ray in his true, terrifying light the script changes course. An interlude is injected which becomes, essentially, a sub plot and character study pertaining to Billy and his heroin addiction. At first the audience is left unawares as to the disappearance of the malevolent Ray from the screen (we only see him to the backdrop of the film’s haunting soundtrack, showing him staring blankly into the distance at the breakfast table and, inevitably, on his own in the pub).

Perhaps the reason for the change of pace is because Oldman believed that Ray’s overtly antagonistic attitude was simply unbearable for the duration of a movie whose running time extends beyond two hours? But that is not the case. The reason is because Nil by Mouth is a detailed examination of contemporary dysfunctional, working class, white males per se and not simply a film about Ray and his myriad of psychological problems. The film looks long at Billy because he is so similar to Ray: like Ray he is the product of a distant, abusive father, just like Ray and just like the director. Here we can visibly and emotionally detect the personal influence of Gary Oldman’s life. He was inspired to make the film as a tribute to his own abusive father and the desire to learn what makes such men into social monsters is clearly something that is close to the writer and director’s heart.

As the film meanders through its middle section, the immensely powerful presence of the lead actor is superseded by imaginative shots of London. The innovative use of cinematography and camera angles in the film only serves to increase the sensation of claustrophobia and inescapability which pervades the movie, as Claire Monk (2000:164) explains.

“What is especially significant vis-à-vis Nil by Mouth’s stance on the dysfunctional masculinity it portrays, is the constant tension between intimate involvement and critical distance achieved by the film’s director of photography Ron Fortunato… The camera places us among the characters, yet its constant, rapid mobility and the vérité framing militate against the identification expected of a conventional close up. Our sense of separation from the characters is intensified by the fact that our view of them is almost always mediated by other objects. We are placed in the position of being squashed up against the characters, of having them invade our space, yet of constantly having to work to make sense of what is going on.”     

The scenes on the underground, in the factories and across the sprawling, dour architecture of the inner city ensure that London becomes like a character of its own. The city appears to trap the cast, mirroring the snare of the abusive father, which acts as the film’s catalyst. London had never appeared quite as bleak and intimidating as at certain points during Nil by Mouth (when, for instance, Billy is begging outside of the underground) and the depiction of post industrial urban decay as portrayed by Oldman in this movie remains a benchmark by which all contemporary British film makers interested in creating a story set in the English capital judge their work. In this context, Nil by Mouth, can be viewed as part of a broader phenomenon that had taken place pertaining to British movie making where, as Jeremy Richards (1997:25) points out, “between 1960 and the year 2000 the British ceased to be one of the most inhibited, polite, orderly, tender minded, prudish and hypocritical nations in the world and became once again one of the most aggressive, brutal, rowdy, outspoken, cruel and bloodthirsty.”

When Ray returns to the screen he has descended further into his cyclical lifestyle of alcoholic madness. In one highly important scene we see him menacingly toying with the great grandmother and maternal head of Val’s family, Cathy (Ray therefore disrespects all four generations of females within the one family). When Cathy disappears upstairs Ray spends time talking to himself, ranging from cuddling himself on the verge of tears to sparring with the air in a mock punch up. He swigs from a bottle of vodka and departs the scene, the camera remaining upon the desolate flat which is increasingly seen as a prison from which both Val and Ray wish to escape.

Following a brief interlude, where the viewer learns of the abuse inflicted upon Billy by his father, the film moves inexorably towards its defining moment. Of all Ray’s mental problems, jealousy had yet to rear its head, but when he sees Val playing pool with another man he cannot control the paranoid thoughts in his mind, exacerbated, no doubt by enormous quantities of alcohol. Though the audience has seen him attack other men, this is the first occasion that he hits Val – the assault is so brutal that the scene has attained a degree of infamy, although the audience does not see the extent of the physical damage by Ray until the following act. What makes this scene so powerful is the acting ability of Winstone and Burke, who delve deep into their characters to create a moment of cinematic brilliance. Indeed, regardless of the undoubted force of the Oldman’s script the performances are what make Nil by Mouth so compelling, a point adopted by Mark Travis (2002:9).

 “No matter how brilliant the script may be, no matter how beautiful the production design, the lighting, the cinematography, the editing and the music, if the events that (the director) and the actors have created are lacking then the entire film will suffer.”   

Yet there is a greater symbolic significance to Ray’s latest example of deep seated violence. The consequences of his actions, on this occasion, are incalculably more severe than usual. His unborn baby son is killed in the assault when Val inevitably suffers a miscarriage as a result of the blows to her stomach. Oldman deals with a very difficult and sad topic with consummate compassion and grace. The scene is shot from behind a pane of glass that separates the viewer from the brutal action, a subtle but key device explained in more detail by Martin Stollery (2001:257).

“This could imply a child’s view; unavoidably close to and furtively glancing at, yet not fully comprehending, horrendous events. Ray’s insular arrogance allows him to regret, after beating Val, his own father’s denial of affection.”

Val’s miscarriage and her subsequently brave decision to leave Ray act as a watershed in the movie. For Val the loss represents her first tentative moves into the realm of independence, albeit independence that rests heavily upon her relationship with her mother, Janet (Leila Morse), the film’s true heroine. 

Ray, on the other hand falls apart with alarming haste. After he is humiliated in front of Val and her family by the Scottish character, Angus (Jon Morrison), Oldman cuts to a brilliant scene in which Ray descends into alcoholic madness in front of a broken mirror. The picture of Ray’s distorted and bruised face is the enduring image of the movie, his pain and torment visible and highly graphic. Over and again he claims to love Val; and the viewer believes him. It is clear, however, that Ray has no love for his own self and is, at that moment, completely incapable of loving anyone or anything.

Left in the flat on his own, Ray destroys almost everything within it. When Billy and Val return to the building (only after checking first that Ray is out) they are greeted by a scene of utter mayhem. As well as vandalising their worldly possessions he has scrawled graffiti into their bedroom wall, written with a knife in child like capital letters. The camera hones in on two words: “my baby.” The audience is unsure as to the aim of his note – the baby that he killed or Val. Either way, the fact that the unborn child was a male is highly symbolic. The death of the foetus can be viewed as a blessing: permitted to live the child would certainly have received severe abuse from his father, which would perpetuate the cycle that Oldman wishes to cease. As long as he remains without a son, there can be no more repetition of the torment which created both Ray and Billy. The miscarriage is therefore the physical manifestation of the mental U turn that Gary Oldman has performed with regards to his own personal life.

Ray next displays a familiar cycle of an abusive, regretful husband. He reminisces about the lack of love between himself and his father and has the arrogance to plead to Val to come back to him, claiming to love her and vowing to change his behaviour. The fact that she refuses is significant but the effects upon Ray are wholly unexpected, leading to one of the most ambiguous conclusion to a movie witnessed throughout the entire decade.
 
The audience demands a sense of retribution as far as Ray Winstone’s character is concerned. That he is administered a beating by Angus is the beginning of what the viewer expects to be a drawn out affair that will see all of his horrific deeds reversed and set back upon himself in a form of karma alluded to in the scene that takes place in inner city London. However, the final scene offers no such judgement.

All of the main characters in Ray’s extended family are present in the kitchen of his flat for the conclusion to the movie. Ray appears transformed, as does his friend Mark, who clearly copies every emotion he expresses. It is a beautiful, light hearted scene that is as much an indication of Gary Oldman’s forgiveness of his father’s callousness as it as a closing scene to the drama faced by Ray and his family, whose surname remains anonymous beyond the rolling of the movie’s credits.

Ray appears close, for the first time, to his daughter Michelle and is once again (as he appears briefly at the beginning of the film) portrayed as a charismatic, humorous and respected man. He cracks a joke for the assembled cast (where only Billy is conspicuous by his absence, a small jail term viewed as a positive by product of the plot for that particular character); the atmosphere within the room appears inviting – the audience wishes to be a part of such a social circle, in spite of all that has been witnessed hitherto. Then, as all but Mark and Ray prepare to leave the flat we are left with a lingering question: has Ray changed? Is the seemingly hopelessly dysfunctional family capable of repair? Oldman deliberately leaves this an open ended query. His work as a director and as a man seeking to exorcise his own personal demons is over. He merely uses the closing of the door to pay a tribute to his own father and leave the legacy of all that we have seen to our imagination. To his unending tribute, Oldman manages to create a feeling of optimism at the end of one of the bleakest socially realist British films of all time.

An analysis of Nil by Mouth cannot be considered complete without reference to the female characters that constitute an alternative viewpoint within the movie. As Mary Ann Doane (2000:248 9) relays, the artistic experience is incomplete if taken from the perspective of only one gender viewpoint.

“The cinematic apparatus inherits a theory of the image which is not conceived outside of sexual specifications. And historically, there have always been certain imbrications of the cinematic image and the representation of the woman. The woman’s relation to the camera is quite different from that of the male.” 

This analysis mirrors the film’s obsession with the male characters’ point of view and cinematic experience. But to see the movie from one dimension would be to do a great disservice to the ode that Oldman so clearly pens to the women in his life; it is, for instance, inescapable to recognise the fact that all of the male aggressors of the movie appear to adore their mothers – from Billy’s imprisoned father to Ray, who is apoplectic at the theft of his mother’s photograph.

Through the forgiveness and compassion of the female presence in the film, multiplied in perpetuation via the vehicle of the character of Janet, who is so much more durable than any of the hard drinking, fast living male characters, the audience is able to find a counter balance to the self hatred and loathing that constitute Ray and his ilk. Despite its initial appearance, therefore, Nil by Mouth is a complex, layered movie of checks and balances that manages to portray an essentially hateful tale with taste, humour and humanity, made all the more believable in the knowledge that the director had the courage to lay his family roots bare for all to see.

 

Change Management

Resistance to Change

Employees can face increased levels of anxiety or fear from changes or proposed changes in the work environment. These changes are then resisted, caused by fear of the unknown, this is not normally malicious, just an innate reaction.  A major risk of implementation of organisational change is the suspicion of some employees to the proposed changes. With uncertainty and fear for their future, employees can slow down the change process. Individuals can resist by withholding information and hindering the process wherever possible. Resistance can become overt i.e. in industrial action, including working to rule and strikes (Coram, R, and Burnes, B. 2001).

Executive Summary

This report has been prepared to analyze the varied financial as well as business considerations and variables comprising the expansion into new markets through an association with Farhorizons SA. The proposed business arrangement requires Highflyers PLC to make a considerable capital investment in order to meet the projected manufacturing volumes that are estimated to accrue as a result of this liaison.