Professor Elam

Wednesday Dec 18 2013

Spring 2014 is right around the corner which means I am mapping out the Accounting Ethics Class. In the past I have had a movie assigment in the syllabus. I provided a suggested list of movies with ethical themes. Students were asked to view a movie, write and present their review emphasizing ethical themes we study in class. This was less than successful in that

student tended to focus on plot rather thantheme

frankly most students were not in the category of Joe Morgenstern at the WSJ or Siskel and Ebert who used to do this on television and did it really well, these reviewers are pros, abe to sum things up so you decide whether you really want to see the movie yourself or not.

if the rest of the class had not seen the movie the menaing was lost

So two years back on the first day I give the class a choice of Casablanca or On the Waterfront, both classics and showed each in a seperate room. So half the class saw one or the other and shared a commonh experience. At this point I am reviewing movies with specific Wall Street Themes and deciding how to proceed.

The Wolf of Wall Street debuts Chirstmas Day.  Martin Scorcese directs and he is one of the very best so I suspect this will be on my list of must sees.  In the meantime Business Insider presents their favorite picks.

Here is another list of 30 movies for the Business Student.

What is your favorite business movie?