TOPIC: An Education Movie Review

Submitted to SHARIFAH KHADIJAH BINTI SYED AGIL Faculty of Accountancy Universiti Teknologi Mara Kampus Shah Alam

Prepared by CHE KU MOHAMAD HAKIM BIN CHE KU ABDULLAH (2011864554)

An Education

The story took place in England, in post war time and before the time of The Beatles, A bright schoolgirl Jenny Miller, the only child of conventional, lower middle-class parent is the main character of this story. Just like other daughters in the era, she is greatly anticipated to get a place in Oxford. This plots starts when she met a man, David around 30s on his way back to her house and offered her a ride back to home. The story expands around the idea of Jenny and David gets close together for a series of outings. David proposed to Jenny and she accepted it. So, she had to abandon her ambition to read English in Oxford as she did not take the Oxbridge exam. A few days before the wedding start, she found out that David is already has a wife. Now, she has to cancel her marriage and having a great depression over that matter. After that, she have private coaching and retake the Oxbridge exam. Finally she is accepted to the Oxford. The first stakeholder of this movies is the main character itself, Jenny. She is affected by the villain, where she had to ditch his ambition to enter oxford. The second stakeholder is the parents of Jenny, which they wants Jenny to enter Oxford to make sure her life will be guaranteed in the future. Lastly, David, he affected Jenny to marry him and make him leave her ambition to read English at oxford. The main Villain in this story is David Goldman, a Jew in his 30s. His first appearance is when Jenny is walking back home with his cello, he invited her to ride with him in his car. The heroine is this movie is Jenny Mulligan. A 16 years old school girl, she listen to French songs and smokes when her parents is not around. David ethical dilemma is whether he want to tell the truth about his marriage to Jenny or just keep it as secret. In the end, Jenny get to know the truth in which she canceled the wedding. Jenny Mellor had to choose whether she want to go to oxford or marry with David. She finally decides to marry David in which she did not marry him in the end of the movie.

There are several ethical issue that been put up in this story. The story took places in the 60s in England where educations are very essential to the teenagers back then as portrayed by Jennys father in his stance for Jenny going to Oxford. His father, Jack Mellor did not give any freedom to his daughter. This egoism is expressed when he told Jenny what hobby she should has and what activities she should do in order to look good in application to oxford. He also give remarks a wandering Jew to Jennys friend, Graham when he asked him what he would do after the final exam. He also stated this remark when Jenny said that David want to meet him. Although being a strict father in the early part of the movie, he lets his daughter to go to Paris with David, ignoring all his effort on getting Jenny to oxford in the first place.

The anti-semantic is also shown when the headmaster of the school question about Jewish and making religious statement toward the Jews. It is clearly unacceptable as any type of racism would be considered as unethical behavior. David Goldman in this movie is a liar. He lies a lot and very good at it. He lies when he told Jennys parent that he once a Oxford student and he know personally CS Lewis. He did that to convince her parents to let him to bring their daughter with him to oxford. He also being untruthful when he did not tell Jenny that he is already married. David and his friend, Danny are thieves. They steals valuable paintings from house that are for sale, then sell it for good money. They also make use of old English woman who afraid of black people. They will find property and moves black people to the building. They did it for self interest. When the scared old ladies put their properties for sale, they will buy it below the market value. This is perfectly legal but completely unethical for them to do.

Davids action on scaring off the old ladies is perfectly legal. There is no act or rule that prevent him to accommodate black people to any building. But the consequences after that is not good because the old ladies had to leave from their home because they afraid of the black peoples, thus benefiting David. So for this action, from a point of view, it is considered as immoral. Other than that, Davids action on not telling Jenny on the fact that he had married was completely unethical. The consequences of the action is Jenny had to cancel the marriage and she did not take Oxbridge exam for the year. Jenny also having a great depression over the matter and it turn the family upside down.

In the early part of the movie, David invited Jenny for a ride back to her home. The outcome of the action is Jenny can get home without having to walk in the rain. So the outcome is good, therefore his action is ethical from consequentiality point of view. If he had done something bad to Jenny such as kidnap her, the act will be considered as immoral. In the deontology point of view, Jennys action on to agree with David and Danny stealing valuable things is unethical. Jenny should not remain silent on this matter. She should report their wrong doings to the authority.

The Golden Rule told that one should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself. So, if I given the chance to be the villain in this movie, I would like to change some action that David made. David is good in appearance. He is very polite to the elders especially to Jenny's parents. So I'll keep it that way. David lies in this story, so as lying is unethical to the hyper norm, Ill will not lie to the Jenny an her parent. I will tell Jenny that I already married and I will divorce my wife to marry her. As for the trading of valuable paintings, i will not steals it from house like David and Danny did, instead Ill collect valuable item in a more ethical way, such as bargaining from a pawn shop, or buys directly from the owner. Apart from that, Ill continue to accommodate black people to buildings because in 60's the racism toward colored people are thick, so Ill continue what David did but in the sense of humanity and not for taking benefit out of it.

If I had to do what the villain do in this movie, there will be guilt surrounding me. If I lied to Jenny's parent like what David did, I will be uneasy because I know that by hook or by crook that her parent will know that I'm not a ex-oxford student. That will always be awkward whenever I meet Jenny's parent because I`ll afraid that they already know that I'm cheating. If I had steal the

frames maps like what David did in the movie, I will be kept in the fear that the authorities will catch me. I'll have troubles to sleep wondering all the possibilities that would occur to me after get caught. The fact that David already has a wife and son doesnt stop him to go flirting with a much more younger girl, to go to Paris together and even sleeps together. If I was him, I would have been the cruelest person to my wife and my son. Such action is not fair to his family. And lastly, I would feel guilty if I did not tell Jenny that I already married. In contrary, if I had I tell her that I already married and she agree to marry with me, then I would feel so much better knowing that she is willing to marry me and I'll be marrying her full hearted.

The lessons that I learnt from this movies are that education is the upmost important matter in life. Anyone especially girls should have an acceptable level of education before entering in marriage. This is to ensure the financial security when something bad happened to our spouse. Another lesson that I learn from this movie is that parents should not over control their child's life and not to give total freedom to them also. Jenny's parent are very strict in the early part of the movie, makes her wanted to rebel on every things that her dad said. This makes her to smoke whenever her parent is not around. But after the David comes to the scene, her parents give total freedom to Jenny after seeing Davids benevolence to help her get into Oxford. Letting him do what she want without any restrictions by her parent. She end up in a very depressing mode in after she canceled her marriage. So parents must give guidelines to their children so that they are shaped beautifully and happy. The most crucial lesson that I learn from this movie is to have a certain amount level of deceptive toward the people you are dealing with. This is important that we must investigate all the actions with other people we are dealing. Jenny being unsuspicious on weather David is already married, makes her suffer in the end. She should ask people about him or at least pay a visit to his parents to get confirmations. This lesson applies to accountants and other profession, because as an accountant or auditor we must have a certain level of believe toward the data and the transaction. It is our right to have deceptive behavior in order to avoid problems.