Images of Influence

Whereas films are widely used as instructional tools, applications tend to be under-theorized, limited to illustrating ideas and motivating students. Our perspective draws on narrative theory, organizational representation, and processual theory, to develop an approach to the critical interrogation of film as thesis. Film selection criteria are identified, and two films are considered: 12 Angry Men and Thirteen Days. These films advance a thesis concerning interpersonal influence and decision making. Research-based accounts of influence are decontextualized, dyadic, episodic, apolitical, and practical. These films depict interpersonal influence as a multi-layered phenomenon, shaped by contextual, temporal, processual, social, political and emotional factors. Rather than presenting a trivialized, sensationalized, glamorous account, these films demonstrate the complex integration of issues typically covered discretely by mainstream texts.