Leadership concepts and applications

Leadership to most people in most contexts is a very general term, because it can apply to many situations and numerous kinds of leaders. One form of leadership occurs when a person sees a need to make a decision, or take a position, or help others decide the best way to do something. In his book Leadership: Theory and Practice, Peter Guy Northouse explains that leadership has been defined in terms of the "power relationship that exists between leaders and followers" (Northouse, 2007). But to some scholars leadership has also meant someone who is part of a transformation process that "moves followers to accomplish more than what is usually expected of them," Northouse continues.

For the purposes of using leadership in the review of the film "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time," this paper will use the following definition from Northouse: "Leadership is a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal."

"Prince of Persia" is certainly not considered an Academy Award-level movie -- none of the actors were nominated for any awards -- nor was it well received by film reviewers who specialize in critiquing with a sharp eye for flaws. In fact the movie is a spin-off from a video game of the same name, and it has scenes that are filled with gratuitous violence and cliched dialogue. Sword fighting, wild stunts that are slowed down to super-slow-motion speed, and other computer-generated special effects appear throughout the film.

Those weaknesses do not take away from the fact that the film has leadership as one of the themes. As Northouse explains, leadership is a process, leadership involves influence, leadership occurs in a group context, and leadership involves goal attainment.

The film has well-known actors playing significant roles; it stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Prince Dastan; Ben Kingsley as Nizam, Dastan's uncle; Gemma Arterton as Princess Tamina; and Alfred Molina as Sheik Amar. It is produced by well-known movie mogul Jerry Bruckheimer. While it is a spin-off from the video game franchise, it departs from the video in that the main point -- and the leadership element -- has to do with stopping the bad guy from releasing the Sands. The film is set in ancient Persia, and the basic plot goes like this: Prince Dastan and Princess Tamina team up -- a very unlikely team indeed -- to keep the mysterious and powerful dagger out of the hands of the very dark enemy forces. Whoever has possession of the dagger has the power to rule the world by releasing the sands of time.

Leadership comes into play early in the film, as a young orphan street boy -- an actor that is supposed to be a young Dastan -- makes a big impression on the King of Persia (Ronald Pickup). The young Dastan evades the King's men in a wild romp through the village, and when he is caught, after making the soldiers look very bad and embarrassing the King, he could be killed, but the King shows leadership rather than vengeance. He sees the skills the young boy shows, and respects the boy's fearlessness, and hence, he adopts the street boy. In time Dastan grows in stature, shows leadership among the Persians, and becomes the Prince of Persia.

When a rumor reaches the Persians that warriors from the city of Alamut are selling weapons to the enemies of Persia, Dastan's step brothers (who have royal blood, unlike Dastan) and Dastan's uncle (Ben Kingsley) Nizam plan to attack Alamut. Showing leadership in this wild world, Dastan leads a surprise attack on Alamut and opens the door for the rest of the Persians to come thundering into the walled city. A plot is soon devised to kill the king, and it involves giving the King a new robe to wear now that he has conquered a new city. Brother Tus gives the box with the gift to Dastan to in turn give it to the King, his stepfather. When Dastan gives the robe to the King, it kills the King and hence, Dastan is suspected of killing the King for his own power play.

As Dastan and the princess ride off to avoid being killed, it is obvious to Dastan that his stepbrother set up him. He believes that it was a power play, and so what matters now is keeping possession of the "time dagger" so the evil members of the movie cannot get their hands on it. True to the definition used at the beginning of the paper, leadership is a process; Dastan evades constant peril and is courageous enough to return to Alamut to tell his honest stepbrother Garsiv (Toby Kebbell) that he (Dastan) was set up to kill the King, and who the real murderer is. Through the process of investigation and strategizing, Dastan figures out that it wasn't his brother who killed the King, it was his uncle Nizam.

In fact, Dastan figures out that the whole original attack on the city of Alamut was a ruse by his uncle to obtain the dagger of time. And this is where it gets a little confusing; with the dagger, Nizam can turn back time (the dagger is like a time machine) and go back in time to the moment when Nizam saved the King from being killed by a lion. If he can get back to that moment in time, Nizam, the evil uncle, can let the lion kill the King and then Nizam can become King himself.