"The Emperor's Club"

Paper Summary:

The paper analyzes how Michael Hoffman's film, "The Emperor's Club" allows viewers to understand universal truths about leadership and ethics through the coming of age of a class full of boys under the leadership of their brilliant professor. The paper examines the leadership characteristics of Mr. Hundert and Sedgewick Bell and shows how Hundert's ability to embrace ethics and Sedgewick's unethical behavior allow Hundert to emerge as a strong leader making an impact on history, while Sedgewick is characterized as a power-hungry leader whose legacy is limited.

From the Paper:

"When viewing Michael Hoffman's The Emperor's Club, students of leadership and ethics are stunned with the implications of this film about high school students and their history teacher. During the last few scenes of the movie, character Sedgewick Bell, who is about to be revealed as unethical and immoral, remarks about the importance of things that happen "when you're fifteen," suggesting that most do not see adolescent events as significant, but implying that he was deeply scarred by his cheating during his boarding school's Julius Cesar competition when he was a teenager. While Sedgewick's second attempt to win the competition through cheating--this time during adulthood and by utilizing a graduate student and an ear piece--suggests that his immoral and unethical mistake was not as important to him as he had alluded, his words still hold truth."

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