INLS385-001 Fall 2019

SESSION 21 | ORGANIZATIONAL LEADERSHIP - AN EXAMPLE


We will watch the movie Twelve O'Clock High together over the next two class periods

Today, we will watch together half of a movie about leadership and organizational challenges.

In the movie we will see today, there is a scene early in it that portrays a dramatic story that sounds almost unbelievable. This is a movie, but it depicts an actual event and actual people.  The movie itself is a very real depiction of real events.

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Why this movie?

Twelve O'Clock High is a 1949 American film about aircrews in the United States Army's Eighth Air Force who flew daylight bombing missions against Nazi Germany and occupied France during the early days of American involvement in World War II, including a thinly disguised version of the notorious Black Thursday strike against Schweinfurt. The film was adapted by Sy Bartlett, Henry King, and Beirne Lay, Jr. from the 1948 novel 12 O'Clock High, also by Bartlett and Lay.

Elmer Bendiner's Fall of Fortresses

You might find Elmer Bendiner's The Fall of Fortresses a different view of the context of the movie. Bendiner was a navigator who flew in the planes in the movie and survived the missions to Schweinfurt.

The film was nominated for four Academy Awards and won two. In 1998, Twelve O'Clock High was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".

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Things to think about

While the movie is about leadership, a subtle story about organizations is being played out in the background. Think about what the characters are thinking about in terms of their particular situations, as well as in the evolution of the organization itself.

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after a short introduction, the majority of our time will be taken up with the first half of the movie

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something to take away

The March

Robert Randolph and the Family Band is a multicultural American funk and soul band led by pedal steel guitarist Robert Randolph. The following quote came from a WNYC Gig Alert.

The New Jersey funk and soul jam band Robert Randolph and the Family Band draws on secular and African-American musical traditions from the past century in its eclectic fusion of gospel, blues, and funk. Robert Randolph is an ideal frontman for the band: He is a virtuoso on the upright steel pedal guitar - which is the primary element in the African-American religious music known as "sacred steel".

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