The Key Themes of the Film Outsourced by John Jeffcoat - Movie Review Example

ANALYSIS OF THE FILM "OUTSOURCED" Supervisor: ANALYSIS OF THE FILM "OUTSOURCED" Introduction Over the weeks, there have been a number of concepts learned that focus very directly on the issue of culture and cultural differences. Particularly, in week 4, class 7 focused on the topic of “Ways of understanding cultural differences”, where the dynamism and uniqueness associated with different cultures was explored. Leading up from that lesson and coupled with the key themes of the film “Outsourced”, a better understanding has been gained about the impact of cross-cultural living and the need to understanding other people’s cultures. This is because the “Outsourced” was seen to be discussing the theme of cultural integration from the perspective of two forms of cultures that can be described as contrasting in a number of ways. Based on this theme and the plot of the film, two key scenes of misunderstanding that borders directly on some concepts studied in the course about ways of understanding cultural differences are analysed. The analysis relates the scenes to very specific concepts of cultural differences, whereby the impact of the scenes on the concepts are discussed. In some cases, the scenes throw more light on the concepts, whiles in other cases the scenes expose the weaknesses associated with the scenes. The two concepts that will be used in relation to the scenes are the concepts of promoting the discussion about cultural stereotype and the concept of exploring alternative cultural constructs. Promoting discussion about cultural stereotype Stereotype can generally be seen as a thought or idea that is developed about a person or a group of persons, and the way that things are done (Mee & Dowling, 2003). As culture is made up of a group of people sharing common ways of doing things, stereotype is commonly translated into a cultural sense in what has become known as cultural stereotype. In cultural stereotype, there is a conception developed about a particular culture on how limited that culture is in terms of the production of specific cultural construct. Mallinger & Rossy (2003) lamented that cultural stereotype is often characterised with the belief that the way a particular does its things are not the best when compared to some other forms of culture. This form of cultural stereotype was clearly manifested in the scene of “Outsourced” when after arriving in India Todd attempted teaching the people at the sales centre on ways to adapt to the American accent. Clearly, Todd put a limitation on the Indian culture through the production of its accents when speaking English. This is because in the scene and others leading up to it, the India workers continuously made it clear to Todd that they were native English speakers. Even though Todd could admit to the fact that the people spoke grammatically correct English, he could not appreciate the fact that they were unique with their accent. In the scene that Todd was teaching the sales centre workers to speak in American accent, there is a clear exhibition of cultural stereotype by undermining the impulse of the Indian English accent. Certainly, if Todd had accepted the Indian’s accent when speaking English as appropriate, he would not have wished that they adapt another accent that he considered appropriate and right. The film was therefore very useful in promoting the discussion about cultural stereotype and how unacceptable the practice is. The position is taken that the cultural stereotype exhibited by Todd was not appropriate due to the fallout of the scene of trying to teach the people to speak in American accent. In the film, it was seen that the customer base of the company had their own cultural stereotype, which was against talking to people in an overseas location who had taken an American job. Because of this form of cultural stereotype that the customers had, the approach of Todd only created a conflict of cultural outcomes, which affected the company negatively. By trying to achieve his personal cultural preferences therefore, Todd became faced with the risk of losing out on protecting the interest and preferences of the larger company. This teaches the lesson that the sovereignty of given cultures must always be protected and respected if there is anything good that are expected to be achieved from these cultures. Exploring alternative cultural constructs One elementary feature or characteristic of culture is that culture is very dynamic. The dynamic nature of culture makes it subject to changes when the need arises. The decision as to what should constitute the need to change what is involved in a particular culture must however be something that should arise through the natural course of time and as influenced by the very people involved in the culture. A scene of misunderstanding in the film that was used to exemplify this position is the scene where Todd went to the office to find a cow tied in the office in broad day light. This was something that was totally strange to Todd and way out of his imagination. As expected, he questions what was going on and the impulse of what was happening was explained to him. Even though such cultural practices may not be condemned as outmoded and holding no social significance in today’s modernised world, it is very important to discuss the issue of cultural constructs by putting particular cultural practices into specific contexts. In the scene referred to, the context in which the practice could be put into is the context of work, whereby it was expected that organisational culture would be made to take the better part of social culture. Based on the need to putting some cultural practices into the right context of exhibition, Kopnina (2007) proposed the exploration of alternative cultural constructs as part of the overall discussion on cultural differences. In the film, it was seen that leading up from that scene, there became the clear but conscious need to gradually attempting to find alternative to some of the cultural constructs on the part of both the American and the Indians. This was done for the ultimate reason and purpose of bringing unity and cohesion among people from different cultures. As the topic of understanding cultural differences is being explored, it will be reiterated that where necessary, the inputs of specific cultural practices should be brought together in a manner that rightly connects or links up with that of other people’s culture without changing what each of the cultures stand for. This call can be seen as particularly important as globalisation takes a central stage in social discourse today. Together, people want to have the liberty of travelling around and work and interacting with people from different cultural backgrounds. In order that this can be done easily, it will be important that whiles holding up to the integral provisions of culture, aspects of cultural constructs where alternatives can be found to fit specific contexts such as work should be pursued. Conclusion From the analysis of the film so far, it can be seen that the uniqueness of culture will always remain supreme to the promotion of personal interests associated with people’s cultures. What this means is that even though individuals may want to continuously experience a taste of their inherent cultures, this cannot be a reason why the cultures of other people must be looked down on, or be forced to change to suit personal interest. This is because each person’s culture appears unique and special to them. From this, a better understanding has been developed about cultural differences whereby the need to promote inter-cultural learning and adaptation can be said to be the best choice in getting people from different cultures together. This will be seen as a better choice to cultural stereotype as was seen in some scenes of the film. This is because “Outsourced” was a major campaign platform that showed that it is not possible for one person to use his or her influence to change the culture of a group of people. With this said, the important place of the dynamism of culture will also be stressed. This can be done through the exploration of alternative cultural constructs. But in promoting cultural dynamism, it will be very important not to approach it from a perspective that looks down on the sacredness of the culture of other people. References Jeffcoat, J. (Director). (2006). Outsourced [Motion picture]. United States: ShadowCatcher Entertainment. Kopnina, H. (2007). The world according to Vogue: The role of culture(s) in international fashion magazines. Dialectical Anthropology, 31, 363-381. Mallinger, M., & Rossy, G. (2003). Film as lens for teaching culture: Balancing concepts, ambiguity, and paradox. Journal of Management Education, 27, 608-624. Mee, K., & Dowling, R. (2003). Reading idiot box: Film reviews intertwining the social and cultural. Social & Cultural Geography, 4, 185-199. Read More