The Last Castle, Movie Review Example

The Last Castle is a drama film that portrays a power struggle between the inmates and warden of a military prison. A rebellion is started by U.S. Army Lieutenant General Eugene Irwin due to the acts of cruelty that Colonel Winter, the penitentiary’s commandant against the prisoners. As a consequence, Irwin leads the prisoners in building a “castle wall” out of brick and mortar as a symbol of unity amongst them. This act precedes many conflicts between the commandant and the Lieutenant General, which ultimately results in the commandant’s arrest. Although the movie appears to be about a conflict between people, it is important to emphasize that these conflictions both arise and resolve due to the qualities of leadership that both Lieutenant General Eugene Irwin and Commandant Colonel Winter put forth. Ultimately, Lieutenant General Eugene Irwin demonstrates that he is the better leader, which contributes to his success in the fight against Commandant Colonel Winter.

Throughout the film, Lieutenant General Eugene Irwin exhibits exceptional leadership abilities. In the beginning of the film, Irwin is showed to be a strong willed individual because he violates a presidential order when he decides to send U.S. military troops to Burundi. Although all of the details regarding this decision are unclear, Irwin likely decided to violate the presidential command because he believed that U.S. presence in Burundi would save lives. This shows that Irwin isn’t afraid to act against authority to do what he believes to be correct. While this situation demonstrates Irwin’s goal for making these kinds of decisions, we are able to interpret the specific leadership style that he uses throughout the movie in an attempt to unite the prisoners.

The first situation in which we have a glimpse of Irwin’s leadership skills occurs when Irwin attempts to stop a prison guard from clubbing a fellow inmate. This allowed him to recognize the kind of treatment that the prisoners regularly receive, and concluded that this was unfair. Since Irwin is a good leader, he made the decision to put a stop to this cruel behavior. As a result, he encouraged the prison inmates to build a castle wall in order to promote unity and a sense of community as a way to get through their ordeal. Since Irwin encourages the others to work together, he is exhibiting an example of transformational leadership which by definition enhances the motivation, moral, and performance of followers. In addition, this leadership style agrees with the leadership teachings of Confucius. Confucius states that leaders should “above all be virtuous”, “rule wisely and fairly”, and “think then act decisively” (Rein, 2009). Irwin follows these principles by protecting his fellow inmates in addition to uniting them to achieve a common goal, which fosters their camaraderie.

In contrast to Lieutenant General Eugene Irwin’s leadership style, Commandant Colonel Winter attempts to rule others using elements of fear. Examples of Winter’s style of leadership are seen when Winter allows Irwin’s punishment for protecting a prisoner from being clubbed, orders a sharpshooter to kill Corporal Ramon Aguilar for his involvement in building the “castle wall”, and command his men to open fire on Irwin to stop his plan to turn the flag upside down. These principles of leadership are similar to the guidelines that Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli laid out in his satirical guidebook “The Prince”, which was meant to provide princes advice about how they should treat their civilians and neighboring kingdoms. Although the book was a satire and really commented on how tyrannical rulers behave, Machiavelli would have been hanged if the intents of his book were made obvious. As a consequence, many rulers actually used his book as advice, even though many had acted this way before reading it, and we can compare many rulers to these principles today.

The typical Machiavellian ruler is one who is willing to act immoral to achieve power with the understanding that he is doing so for the greater good. Commandant Colonel Winterfalls under this definition because he is willing to give up basic concepts of morality to ensure that his prison remains in order. While it was likely illegal to beat prisoners who are not acting out or to provide them with punishment outside the decision of the courts, Winter took his post to mean that he should be able to do these things because it was his job to monitor the criminals. While these actions may serve a good purpose, such as carrying out the sentences that the government accused these military criminals of in addition to ensuring order in the prison, many of his acts are not justified.

A brief list of the characteristics of a leader that is considered to be Machiavellian include duplicity, cunningness, narcissism, the belief that the ends justify the means, the belief that their power is all a part of the game, that it is better to be feared than loved, and they typically keep the reasons behind their actions secret unless it confers some advantage to them (Mojo Company, n.d.). This is characteristic of Commandant Winter because he attempts to control his inmates by causing them to fear him. As a consequence, he is a big user of punishment to try and correct behavior. However, this style of leadership has proven to be ineffective. Rather than change the behavior of the inmates, it motivates them to rebel against him, which ultimately leads to his arrest.

In conclusion, Lieutenant General Eugene Irwin is a better leader than Commandant Colonel Winter because his leadership principles are based on morality. In addition, he uses positive reinforcement and teamwork to encourage others to achieve the goals of the group. In contrast, Commandant Winter uses the principles of fear and punishment to direct the actions of his staff and the inmates. This is shown to be a less effective method because both the staff and inmates ignore his commands at various points in the movie. It is therefore better to lead kindly and with understanding than commands issued with threats.

References

Lurie R. (2001). The Last Castle.Film.

Mojo Company. (n.d.).8 Characteristics of a Machiavellian Leader. Retrieved from http://themojocompany.com/2013/08/8-characteristics-of-a-machiavellian-leader/

Rein S. (2009). Confucius’ Three Keys to Successful Leadership. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/2009/05/21/confucius-tips-wisdom-leadership-managing-philosophy.html