Monday, January 9, 2012
Counting Crimes in Michael Clayton
One of the core economic principles students learn about in microeconomics is the notion of opportunity costs--the inherent trade-offs in every decision. We will watch the film "Michael Clayton" over the next two weeks. Your first mission: to count the crimes (hidden and revealed) in the movie. Your second mission: to track as many trade-offs as you can from start to finish. We'll post the results here in the comments.
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One trade-off is Michael Clayton could have had $10 million, but instead he wanted the people that killed his friend Arther to go to jail.
ReplyDeleteassassination
ReplyDeleteattempted murder
illegal gambling
trespassing
hit and run
public exposure/indecency
conspiracy
illegal pollution
evidence tampering/obstruction of justice
invasion of privacy
substance abuse (implied through Clayton's brother)
illegal damage to property
speeding (implied)
Trade-offs
Clayton gives up the bar business in pursuit of mitigated losses
UNorth giving up the health of a mass consumer market for the profits of a business
Arthur giving up a career as an attorney to protect consumers from harm
Clayton gives up a shot at 10 million to bring Karen to justice
Clayton gives up staying at the party to go to work
Marty gives up 80 grand to essentially get Clayton out of a bind and keep him safe from lenders
Karen gives up the lives of Arthur and Clayton to place UNorth in a better position
Hit & Run guy gives up facing smaller punitive damages to facing larger criminal charges for the chance of covering it all up completely
Annie gives up her peaceful life in the rural area of a more or less thrilling goose chase with Arthur
Clayton gives a career as a courtroom litigator to become a cleanup attorney
Arthur gives up the stabilizing effects of his bi-polar medication for the "mental clarity" he gains when off of his meds
Clayton gives up extra time with his son for his work
The crimes in the movie include:
ReplyDeleteHit-and-Run (vehicular manslaughter)
Attempted Murder (car bomb)
Murder (Arthur's)
Unauthorized Telephone Tapping and Bugs Installing (violation of privacy)
Illegal Gambling
Damaging Environment by U-North (Eco-Terrorism)
Obstruction of Justice and Bribery (Corruption)
Property Vandalism
Stalking (criminal harassment)
Public Indecent Exposure (public lewdness, sexual misconduct)
The trade-offs in the movie include:
Everyone gave up their time in order to pursue what they think is beneficial to themselves.
Michael Clayton gave up his money and time to involve in illegal gambling in order to make a fortune.
Michael gave up 10 million dollars of bribery in order to turn in Karen and U-North.
Michael involved in this affair (took risk) in order to earn $80,000 to cover his debt.
The surveillance team (murderers) committed murder and assassination for money.
U-North (Karen in particular) gave up lives of thousands of people, including Arthur to earn economic profit as well as reputation for U-North and herself.
Arthur tried to do the right thing by giving up his position in defending U-North for saving lives of innocent people.
Hit-and-Run wealthy guy gave up his confession and money for Michael, hoping in return he would be able to cover up his crime.
At the end of the movie, Michael gave up $50 to buy some "peaceful" time riding in the cab.
Binh Pham.
The crimes committed in the movie include murder, attempted murder, hit-and-run, illegal gambling, wiretapping, use of illegal drugs, stalking, bribery, blackmail, trespassing, and breaking and entering.
ReplyDeleteHere’s some of the trade-offs I observed:
--Instead of staying at the scene of the accident and facing a less severe penalty, the man who committed the hit and run risks facing a much more severe penalty (by leaving the scene of the crime) for the chance of not getting caught.
--Michael Clayton’s opportunity cost associated with choosing to be a legal “janitor” that cleans up after people’s messes to help pay off his debts is spending more time with his son, having a cleaner conscience, but facing a mound of debt.
--Arthur gives up a lucrative career as an attorney (but has blood on his hands) to do what is morally right.
--U-North tries to hide incriminating documents for economic gain, rather than stopping use of the deadly pesticide and saving lives while losing a lot of money in a lawsuit or possibly having to shut down altogether.
--Karen orders the deaths of Arthur and Michael for financial gain, risking the possibility of facing severe penalties like prison time. The cost to her is the extreme psychological stress and guilt she feels (as shown by the scenes where she is practically sick, sweating profusely in the bathroom) - she could have instead refused to work for U-North and have a clean conscience.
--Instead of deciding to stop taking his bipolar meds and being able to see things how they really are, Arthur could have continued to take them and be numb to the guilt he feels and the blood that is on his hands by supporting U-North.
--The two assassins that kill Arthur and attempt to kill Michael for economic gain could have instead pursued some other work that involves no risk of getting put in prison.
--Anna’s opportunity cost of traveling to see Arthur is the emotional distress she could have saved her mother, who didn’t want her to go see Arthur.
The crimes committed in the movie, “Michael Clayton” include; Murder, attempted murder, espionage, indecent exposure, hit & run, illegal gambling, loan sharking/blackmail, and corruption
ReplyDeleteThe trade-offs in the movie include;
• Michael Clayton turning to the police at the end, and reporting U-North’s corrupt behavior, instead of blackmailing the company himself.
• Arthur deciding he wanted to help the girl win her case against U-North instead of just continuing to complete his job
• Arthur deciding to not take his medication or listen to Michael Clayton and branch out upon his “epiphany” and continue to try to destroy U-North, which ultimately cost him his life
• The Hit & Run driver decided to flee from the scene of the accident and instead wanted to cover it up.
• Karen Crowder decided to have Arthur and Michael Clayton murdered instead of finding a more judicial way of solving her problems, in which if found out, she will face serious criminal punishment.
• Michael’s brother decides to help Michael break into Arthur’s murder scene apartment, and in turn when Michael is caught, he looks like a sleazy cop.
• Michael decides to have Arthur released into his custody when Arthur was first arrested for his exposure, because he believes Arthur is just having an episode and because he is his friend. Had Michael not had him released, almost none of the movie would have happened.
the crimes i observe in the movie are hit and run, gambling, stalking,attempted murder and murder.
ReplyDeletetrade off:
- Karen made a lot of crimes in order to save her company.
- Arthur is trying to help the people even though he is get into trouble.
-micheal went to arthor's house without permission and police caught him right away.
-- karen are trying to give a micheal a 10 million to hide her crime.
-- Micheal give up the money from what karen's offer and put karen into trouble.
Crimes:
ReplyDelete•Illegal Gambling/Betting (Michael Clayton)
•Damaging Hotel Property (Michael Clayton knocks door off of its hinges)
•Indecent Exposure (Arthur)
•Conspiracy to Murder (Karen)
•Breaking and Enter (Multiple Chars)
•Illegal Wiretapping
•Car Bombing/Attempted Murder
•Speeding (Clayton/People chasing Clayton)
•Hit & Run (Guy in the beginning)
Trade-offs:
•Michael Clayton - Taking the $80,000 (?) from Marty and forget about Arthur / Trying to expose U-North.
•Michael Clayton - Borrowing money from loan sharks / Letting go of his bar business.
•Arthur - Exposing U-North / Continuing to defend U-North.
•U-North - Chose to sell a flawed product / Trying to go back and fix the problem with chemicals.
•Karen - Conspiracy to many crimes / Paying a huge settlement to plaintiffs.
Some of the crimes in the film “Michael Clayton” were:
ReplyDelete- Attempted murder
- Invasion of privacy
- Bribery
- Murder
- Hit and run
- Organized Crime
Trade offs in the film:
- Michael Clayton gives up an offer by Karen (of $10 million) to bring her to justice.
Illegal Activities observed in the movie:
ReplyDelete• Illegal gambling
• Speeding
• Reckless driving
• Car bomb
• Bribing officer
• Breaking and entering
• Tapping phone
• Disorderly conduct
• Indecent exposure
• Hit and run
• Contract killing
• Muder
• Disrupting a crime scene
• Insurance fraud
Michael Clayton
• Gives up time with family for job
• Takes time from schedule to go see horses which saves his life
• Gives up $10 million bribe/payout from Karen to have justice severed.
Arthur
• Giving up meds for perceived mental clarity risking insanity
• Merging company gives up sole ownership of company
• Helping prosecution out risking his career, business and life to do what he knows is right
Karen
• Giving up much of her personal time for work on the case
• Hiring a sketchy group to illegally watch Arthur risking jail time
• Putting a hit out on Arthur that gets carried out which leads to her arrest instead of doing things the legal way
Unorth
• Putting out a flawed product in hopes people didn’t die and they would make a profit risking lawsuits instead of spending money to make a safe product
Crimes:
ReplyDelete-Gambling
-Bribery
-Attempted Murder
-Murder
-Organized crime
-Car bomb
-Speeding/reckless driving
-Indecent exposure
-Wire tapping
Trade offs:
-Michael gives up a 10 million dollar bribe in order to bring justice to the case and get Karen in trouble.
-Karen indulges in contract killing over the risks involved
-U-North kills many with their product but risks getting caught in order to make profit
-Arthur decides to tell the truth about U-North instead of defending his company
Crimes:
ReplyDeleteHit-and-run
Gambling
Bribery
Phone Tapping
Murder
Indecent Exposure
Breaking and entering
Trade-offs:
-Arthur gives up his medication in order to have more mental “clarity”.
-Michael decides to side with the law and turn Karen in instead of taking the bribe money for his own profit.
Crimes-
ReplyDeleteIllegal gambling, Breaking and entering into Arthurs house by Karen hit men and Michael, murder, car bomb.
Trade Offs:
Michael
Gives up family for work
Risks his life to solve the murder
Arthur- Gave up his career in order to walk away from the case.
Karen- Could possibly give up her career and freedom if the case outcome does not go her way.
Crimes:
ReplyDeleteAttempted Murder
Bribery
Breaking and Entering
Gambling
Invasion of Privacy
Misconduct of Police Authority
Murder
Stalking
Trade off
Karen hired hit-men to rid of any obstacles to save U North
Michael trade off 10 million dollars to have Karen arrested
Crimes: Loan sharking, espionage, and Michael Clayton's brother stole 4 michelin radial tires out of the ex wife's garage.
ReplyDeletetrade-offs: Arthur could have stayed with the U-North lawsuit and made lots of money and be alive. U-North could not have released a chemical that poisoned water, but then not made profit off of the research and production of the chemical. Most important trade-off: Michael Clayton doesn't have to spend so much time with his son, instead he could be doing more work.
Crimes: Attempted murder,invasion of privacy,bribery, hit and run,indecent exposure, blackmail.
ReplyDeleteTrade off- Filled with guilt, Arthur decided not to pursue being the representative lawyer for U-North and so made erroneous acts and got off his medications to get out of it. With his actions he declined pursuing living his comfortable lifestyle, and ultimately endangered his life.
In Michael Clayton, I felt the most significant trade off that occurred and what I felt the move was centered around was the trade off that Michael Clayton faced. This was the decision between the benefits that he would receive from working for U-North or keeping silent about something unjust and harmful to society.
ReplyDeleteMichael was offered to keep quiet about the issues (work that had cost the life of a colleague of Michael's who had fought to expose the corruption of U-North which was producing a weed killer that caused cancer) against U-North for $10 million dollars. Michael could have received further payment in the future as well if Michael would have continued working for U-North not to mention regain a more stable public image. However if Michael was to remain silent about a product that was killing people there the effect would have been costlier to society than the benefit that he as an individual would receive.