Group dynamics in organizations and teams

Group Dynamics: Analysis of the Canadian Video "The Company of Strangers"

Film the Company of Strangers

Group Dynamics Analysis

Canadian Video: "The Company of Strangers"

The objective of this work is to first (1) Watch the video by the national film board of Canada entitled: "The Company of Strangers," then to (2) Analyze the group dynamics in this film.

The film "The Company of Strangers" (1990) starred Alice Diabo, Beth Webber, Catherine Roche, Cissy Meddings, Constance Garneau, Mary Meigs, Michelle Sweeney, Winifred Holden. In this film the first event is that of the breakdown of a busload of women who are elderly. These women become stranded for two days in a region that is both remote and dangerous inclusive of life-threatening situations which must be overcome if they are not to die. McGreal (1991) states that:

"Trapped as they are in the middle of a beautiful but alien wilderness, full of strange noises and impervious to penetration, these women are literal emblems for that oh-so-Canadian syndrome that Northrop Frye called the garrison mentality."

The Plot

The women, upon the bus having broken down have to find their way out of the forest, which is incidentally foggy making it a difficult time for them. Constance, an 88-year-old woman in the film starts searching in the area for an old cottage where she visited often when a young child. The cottage is located at the edge of a lake and it is eventually found by the women who take shelter in it.

The Setting

The setting of this film is in Canada in the Laurentians North of Montreal.

The Actors

The role of leader as to survival in this film is Alice Diabo, who plays the role of a Mohawk woman who engineers a net for catching fish out of pair pantyhose.

The tragic figure is certainly Constance is a woman who is always shrouded in a self-imposed unhappiness. In one of the scenes Constance tells Alice that she knows she will die before very long and would much rather die in the country because she has found a bit of happiness there. Alice informs Constance that she certainly isn't thinking of dying but is heading off to go fishing leaving Constance to her crying along. Another leader exists in the form of Winnie Holden who is the group's initiator and leader in the fitness and dance class in the kitchen of the old cottage.

Sher (2005) states in the review of the film published in the Canadian Filmwriters Journal (2005):

'Cissy Meddings is an elf-like woman with an irresistible smile and disposition with no hint of the stroke that had left her bed-ridden. Beth Webber is all British reserve, better dressed for high tea than a hike." (Sher, 2005)

Summary