On Jerry Maguire and Love

            Upon viewing selections from the film Jerry Maguire a query was posed to my class. The question asked us what makes love possible in the context of the film. In what we have seen of Jerry Maguire, one could easily argue that what makes love possible is defined and contextualized in a very post-modern way.

            The point can be elucidated – post-modernism ushered in an end to period of man’s importance and belligerence of superiority. Man was no longer the Renaissance “David”, to is to say, a superhuman that could achieve anything without strife through only the means of belief in one’s self and idle determination. Nay, in post-modernism man’s achievement and affirmation of success, love, and positivity comes through the self-actualization of success and perhaps much of that is through other’s perceptions and conceptions of a person.

            What does this spell for Jerry Maguire’s involvement in a case as such? In the film, the character of Jerry Maguire is portrayed as a slick smooth-talking salesman, but ostensibly one with self-confidence issues due to his constant need to perform in the office and the boudoir. Even if Jerry Maguire scores A-list sports clients and seals the deal for riches and fame, his Freudian superego ceases to be receive sustenance if he does not meet the expectations and approval of his peers though monetary means or sexual means.

            What makes love possible through the lens of Jerry Maguire? Certainly it is predicated on other’s perception of the self to establish a base before the loving can begin. When one loves themselves-through whatever means it takes to establish that love- then they can truly love one another. In a roundabout way, love is achieved through the construction of the self in accordance with one’s peers’ self-conceptualization of the other.

            Though there may be much evidence of this very post-modern view in films, Jerry Maguire is nonetheless a fine example and a fine film at that. One may not think of Jerry Maguire as the prime example of such post-modern themes, but there is something to be said about post-modernism in art and the pieces that encapsulate such meanings – perhaps we needn’t always look to Federico Fellini or Andy Warhol when Jerry Maguire will do just fine.

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