Laura Urbin
Extra Credit Movie Questions
ALHE 4060
Dr. Masini
July 17, 2006
- What was the ethical dilemma faced by Ned’s friends? Explain, in
your opinion, the situational ethics displayed in the movie and give 5 scenes or situations that best illustrate ethical dilemmas
and define situational ethics in each of the 5 scenes.
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(1) The first time that I saw an unethical scene in
the movie was when Jackie, Annie, and Michael were all being nice to people whom
they thought might have won the lottery, such as cooking food, buying drinks, and giving gifts. If they had not thought that these people had won the money, such as Mrs. Kennedy, they would have never
been so nice to them in the first place. In this scene the situational ethics
would have been to act like a friend in order to obtain something for you.
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(2) The second time that I saw an unethical scene
in the movie was when Jackie, Annie, and Michael got a list of all of the people who played the lottery in the town and invited
them all over for a chicken dinner and drinks in order to try to find out who had won the lottery. This was another way of
causing the chance of the lottery to move in your favor by causing a meeting with the people who won by changing events that
would normally not have taken place.
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(3) Another unethical scene that I saw in the movie
was when Jackie first found Ned Devine dead in his house, holding the lottery ticket in his hand, and took the ticket and
went home without showing any regards for Ned’s death. I feel that even
though they may not have been great friends it still would have been very important and ethical to show respect for the dead
instead of having so much greed take him over.
-
(4) A fourth unethical dilemma emerged when Michael
had to lie to make the lottery man think that he was Ned in order to be able to claim the money. Michael was sort of thrown into this position but did not seem to have a problem with lying about who he
was in order to be able to claim the money, almost 7 million dollars. In this
situation a person, Michael, is forced to pretend he is someone else in order to obtain something that is not rightfully his.
-
(5) A fifth unethical dilemma that I saw in the movie
was when Jackie called a town meeting and asked the town to lie with him and Michael in order to get the money and that in
return the town would split the money equally. This is unethical in two ways. First, Jackie would have never thought to share the money with the town or even tell
them about it if it had not been for the fact that the lottery man was going to come back to town to inquire about Michael/Ned
Devine. Second, the town should have realized that this was wrong but instead
they were all taken over by the idea of the money like Michael and Jackie had been.
- I found myself booing or cheering for several of the cast…who were the good guys or bad guys in this movie for
you? State three good and three bad that emerge in this movie and tell me why
this is so.
-
Three good guys that I saw in this movie are:
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Pig Finn – Finn was very much in love and all
that he wanted to do was make a living, no matter how smelly it was, and care for his son, or the boy whom he thought was
his son. He never tried to hurt anyone throughout the movie and also never seemed
to be doing anything just for himself. Everything he did was centered on trying
to get the love of his life to say yes to marriage.
-
Annie O’Shea – Annie was the wife of Jackie
in the movie. At first notice of someone winning the lottery in the movie Annie
was part of trying to find out who it was in order to get part of the money. But,
as time went on, I feel that Annie’s conscience got to her and she began to realize how bad and wrong it was to be taking
Ned Devine’s ticket and lying to such a big extent. She still stood behind
her husband but was not quiet about how wrong she felt the situation had gotten.
-
The father - There was a pastor who was filling in
for another pastor in the town. The father at one point in time asked Maggie’s
son if the usual father would go along with the lies that the town was exhibiting in order to get the money, and Maggie’s
son stated that he would because anything that would fill the offering box would be seen as good in his eyes. The father seemed troubled by this and even though he did nothing to stop the lies he was still one of
the only people that I saw feel bad or wrong about what events were taking place in the town.
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Three bad guys that I saw in this movie are:
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Lizzy Quinn – aka “the witch”- Lizzy
Quinn was always trying to get items and jobs done for less by finding excuses, such as when she went to buy bread and told
her she wanted them half off because they were stale even though the bread had just been delivered. Also, Lizzy found a way to try and get more money out of the lottery find by reporting the fraud that was
taking place in the town. Lizzy wanted it to seem like she was doing this because
she wanted to be honest but in reality it was easy to see that she was doing it because she wanted more money.
-
Pat Mulligan – Pat was after Finn’s love,
Maggie, and used his money as a way to show Maggie that he would be able to take care of her and her son. Finn never actually put down Pat to Maggie, but Pat was always criticizing Finn in order to seem like the
better man to choose. I felt that he was very evil hearted.
-
Jackie O’Shea – I felt like Jackie was
the root cause of all of the lying being done in order to claim Ned Devine’s lottery ticket. He was the one who pushed Michael into acting like Ned, he was the one who tried to position Ned’s
body in a way that did not look like it did when he died in front of the television (no respect for the body), and he was
the one who forced the entire town into lying in order to be able to claim all of the money.
- Was the welfare of the community worth the ‘sin’ or illegal activity in the movie? Explain why.
I
do not feel that the welfare of the community was worth the illegal activity in the movie.
From the beginning of the movie I could tell that people in the town were not that well off but they were happy and
they had enough to get by and lead a simple life. Yes, money does seem like a
great and much needed thing to all people, but I do not see how the community would have suffered if they had not gone through
all of the illegal activities that they did. I think that it is the people who
cannot stand living such a simple life, such as Jackie, and feel that they are always yearning for something bigger and better
who succumb to illegal acts in order to fulfill that level of happiness that they are searching for. I do not think that the town should have helped in all of the illegal activity. There is not a moment in time when I felt that what the town’s people did was worth it.
