Video Analysis Of The Movie 'Goodfellas'

951 Words2 Pages

Communication is an important element in video analysis. Ideally, a careful analysis of the different parts of the video and their role in enhancing interpersonal communication is much more important. In consideration of this concept the underlying principles of communication, there is a need to assess its applicability in the movie; Goodfellas. The three-minute scene is a clear reflection of how verbal and non-verbal communication work together in the context of dyadic communication.
In 'Goodfellas' the movie scene starts with a man welcoming other people in the joint and calls drinks for them. He communicates loudly and appears to communicate with all the people in the scene. Therefore, the individual can be perceived to have a high self-esteem …show more content…

To better manage emotion, it is important to carry out perception checking. Jimmy, for instance, dismisses the 'main' speaker and dissuades the conversation between them (NotYourAverageJoe321, 2010). However, the speaker does not determine the reason why Jimmy did that and later together with Billy they physically attack the speaker. Had the speaker carried out perception checking the two would not have attacked him, therefore,he lacked empathy. Empathy is defined as the need to completely understand other people (Adler et. al., 2010 ). Through empathy, an individual is able to identify with other peoples' emotions commonly referred to as emotional contagion. This way, it is easy to understand other's sadness, joy, and fear among …show more content…

Individuals use these strategies which in turn change the perception people had about them. For instance, the 'main' speaker at first welcomed Billy and appeared to be pleased to see him. However, he infuriates Billy by the communication strategy he adopts regarding Billy. This is closely related to the self-disclosure theory. Self-disclosure is defined as the information about an individual that is communicated purposefully to another individual (Lewis, 2016). The 'main' speaker starts disclosing to the other people around that Billy used to clean shoes before. Billy tries to dissuade him from this talk but he does not. This shows that the two theories are related. Self-disclosure is a theory that people can adopt during communication as a communication strategy to change the way other people perceive the speaker which is referred to as Impression

Open Document