Anger Management (2003)

I would like to share my thoughts about the movie Anger Management which we have watched and tackled during our Communication subject last semester. We enjoyed watching this film because of its humor and the lessons that got from this movie.

Plot:

A business man named Dave Buznik experienced a lot of misunderstandings that led him to undergo Anger Management therapy under the specialist Dr. Buddy Rydell who was also his seatmate on the plane where he first got a misunderstanding with the flight attendant. After being misjudge for his aggressive behavior, he was sentenced to go on an anger management session that was filled with a bizarre mix of angry people. The class actually escalates Dave's anger, rather than managing it.Dave Buznik is a hardworking, mild-mannered person who holds his anger all the time. While his therapist, Buddy, has a psychopathic, unpredictable personality. Their relationship became tenser as Buddy completely takes control of his personal life. As they go on over every aspect of Dave’s life, he was forced to confront and deal with issues he didn’t know he had.

After they underwent so many circumstances of the whole anger management thing, and after Dave had proposed to Linda, she then explains how she first approached Buddy after reading his book and that everything that has happened was a setup for Dave's therapy; the judge, the female flight attendant and the man who stole his seat were all friends of Buddy's and were part of the setup.

Individualistic and Collectivistic Culture

For me, I think the one who practice the individualistic culture is Dr. Buddy Rydell.  As we all know, individualistic culture emphasize the individual, and members, who feel the need to make others lose face in order to save their own, often believe that avoiding conflict leads to losing face. In these cultures, the face of the group may be a secondary consideration, or may not be a consideration at all. Dr. Rydell, as a therapist, seems to be working on his patient’s individual self. He has indeed creativity and style in treating his patients. For me, his technique is more of the client centered approach because he focused on Dave in treating his anger. He promotes individual goals and achievement. And he applied this in his Anger Management treatments. And because of this, I consider him with the individualistic culture. In the movie, he appears to be an odd and crazy doctor but despite of this, he is still a professional and ethical therapist. In the end, Dr. Rydell is still an effective therapist because he was able to fix the behavioral problem of Dave.                 

                                          

On the other hand, the character who practices the collectivistic culture is Dr. Buddy Rydell. Collectivistic culture is one in which people tend to view themselves as members of groups, and usually consider the needs of the group to be more important than the needs of individuals. For me, I consider Dave as collectivistic because he let other people go on his way. And he doesn’t fight back when others are stepping on him, although he knows that he’s right. When he’s angry, he doesn’t show it and he rather keep it to himself. He has a behavioral problem that why his girlfriend, Linda contacted Dr. Buddy Rydell to treat him. I think his behavior was affected by the humiliation he experienced during his childhood, that’s why he grew up wanting to please other people. He thinks of what other people thinks of him that’s why he is afraid of fighting back. That’s why he thinks of others first before himself. And that makes him an collectivistic person.

                                                   

There are many conflicts that happened in the movie. The characters responded to these conflicts differently. And because they are in Anger Management Program, their behavior has something to do with anger. Anger is a most misunderstood emotion. People with aggressive personality are frequently operating in an aggressive mode long before they ever become angry. But Dave Buznik is the opposite. He represses his emotions especially his anger, which made him hard to deal with conflicting situations. When he’s under Dr. Buddy’s program, they experienced a lot of conflicts dealing with each other, especially with Buddy’s techniques in controlling anger. But Dave managed to follow Buddy’s instructions, and he was able to face those outrageous situations which made him learn to gain control over his anger. On the other hand, Dr. Buddy Rydell is also one aggressive person but he still managed to control it, making him easy to deal with conflicts. He must have applied his techniques to himself since he is an anger management therapist. When he feels angry, he let it out and after some time, his anger was already gone. This personality makes him a good therapist to his patients. These characters show how destructive anger can be and that we must have the right handling and control over it.