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Last Man on Earth = Value-based Leadership Par Excellence

Newspaper current event by willwaddell on 24 February 2008, tagged as will smith, i am legend, movies, and entertainment

Recently cadets at the U.S. Military Academy decided to honor Dr. Robert Neville, a fictional character played by Will Smith in the big-budget thriller I Am Legend. Cadets chose Dr. Neville as the character best representing "value-based leadership" in the first ever Cadet Choice Movie Award. Neville beat out such impressive runners-up as King Leonidas of 300 and the oft-wounded John McClane of Live Free or Die Hard. One must wonder, however, if the cadets have forgotten that leadership is a relational activity, i.e. a leader needs followers. Dr. Neville, by contrast, spends the the majority of the film alone (an early adaption of this story was entitled The Last Man on Earth), except for his faithful dog and of course the hordes of enraged vampiric zombies that emerge at night. In any event, does this selection presage an end to effective leadership from the hallowed halls of West Point or is this a shameless attempt to turn nothing into something?

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Some Thoughts by VnutZ :: NR8

Well, I suppose the only cause for concern would be if it had been a faculty devised event as opposed to an internal cadet initiative. I say that because if the faculty were pushing Neville as a leader - than there is clearly a problem. However, if it's just the cadets ... perhaps their little program needs external (ie faculty) feedback.

The matter is exceptionally invalid (Neville being a leader) if the book is taken into account. Whereas in the movie there are other survivors, in the book he is clearly the only one. Or maybe they thought he was a leader because in the movie he had been an LTC and assumed that his solo actions reflected his off-screen rise to rank. Poor assumptions if you ask me.

Perhaps if they'd valued him for the essence of survival it would be different. But a leader he is not.

Posted 25 February 2008, Hide, Reply