Jerry Maguire

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jerry Maguire

Directed by	Cameron Crowe
Produced by	James L. Brooks Cameron Crowe Laurence Mark Richard Sakai
Written by	Cameron Crowe
Starring	Tom Cruise Cuba Gooding, Jr. Renée Zellweger Kelly Preston Jerry O'Connell Jay Mohr Bonnie Hunt
Distributed by	TriStar Pictures
Release date(s)	December 13, 1996
Running time	139 min.
Language	English
Budget	$50,000,000
IMDb profile

Jerry Maguire is a 1996 film, starring Tom Cruise, that tells the story of professional sports agent, Jerry Maguire, whose crisis of faith leads him to write a mission statement that advocates better service, fewer clients, and less focus on the bottom line. After he distributes the mission statement to his fellow agents, it gets him fired from his high-profile job. He decides to form his own agency, but is only able to convince one of his clients (played by Cuba Gooding Jr.) to stay with him, and a single employee (played by Renée Zellweger) to join his new company.

Cuba Gooding Jr. won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Rod Tidwell, the Arizona Cardinals football player who sticks with Maguire; Cruise was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role. Though she won no awards for her part in Jerry Maguire, it was Zellweger's breakout role. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture; crew members on the film were nominated for Best Screenplay and Best Film Editing.

Jerry Maguire remains famous more than a decade on due to the memorable quotes, largely attributed to Cameron Crowe, director and screenwriter of the movie.

1 Themes
2 Famous quotations
3 Trivia
4 Soundtrack
5 External links

[edit] Themes

The film tackles a range of themes and attempts to critique the modern capitalist society and its emphasis on financial and professional success at the expense of personal relationships. The "voice of reason" throughout the film is that of Dickie Fox (Jared Jussim), Jerry Maguire's mentor, who comments at the very end of the film that, "I don't have all the answers. In life, to be honest, I've failed as much as I've succeeded. But I love my wife. I love my life. I wish you my kind of success." Cameron Crowe suggests reaching out to the people around us is the key to professional as well as personal success. The now infamous "show me the money!" scene, featuring Rod Tidwell demanding Jerry scream his "family motto" back to him over the phone, epitomises the empty values of those around Jerry, yet somewhat paradoxically it is Rod who serves as a role-model for the family values and personal attention that Jerry seeks. Crowe's point is that the pursuit of financial success need not be incompatible with family values or personal relationships, simply that it should take second place to them.

[edit] Famous quotations

Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr ) and Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise)

Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise) and Dorothy (Renée Zellweger)

Dicky Fox (Jared Jussim)

Jerry Maguire: "What can I do for YOU, Rod? "

Rod Tidwell: "It's a very personal, very important thing. Hell, it's a family motto. Now are you ready? Just checking to make sure you're ready (Rod turns his boom box real low) here it is -- show me the money. (He now blasts the boom box at full level) OHHH!!!! SHOW! ME! THE! MONEY! Doesn't it make you feel good just to say that, Jerry? Say it with me one time brother! "

Maguire: "Show you the money. "

Tidwell: "Oh, come on, you can do better than that! I want you to say it brother with meaning! Hey, I got Bob Sugar on the other line I better hear you say it! "

Maguire: "Yeah, yeah - no, show you the money! "

Tidwell: "AH! Not show YOU! Show ME the money! "

Maguire: "Show me the money! "

Tidwell: "Yeah, that's it brother but you got to yell! "

Maguire: "Show me the money! "

Tidwell: "Louder! "

Maguire: "Show me the money! "

Tidwell: "Jerry, you better yell! "

Maguire: "SHOW ME THE MONEY!"

Jerry Maguire: "I love you. You... complete me."

Dorothy: "Shut up. Just shut up. You had me at 'hello'."

Dicky Fox: "The key to this business is personal relationships."

Dicky Fox: "If this [points to heart] is empty, this [points to head] doesn't matter."

Dicky Fox: "Hey... I don't have all the answers. In life, to be honest, I have failed as much as I have succeeded. But I love my wife. I love my life. And I wish you my kind of success."

[edit] Trivia

Based on the success of the 1996 film The Truth About Cats and Dogs, director Cameron Crowe offered Janeane Garofalo the leading female role in Jerry Maguire if she could lose weight. However, after trimming down Garofalo learned that Renée Zellweger had won the part instead in what was to become Zellweger's career-launching role.
To date, the Jerry Maguire DVD was the only DVD to feature commentary by Tom Cruise himself. As of 2006, Cruise is featured on the commentary for Mission:Impossible III, with director J.J. Abrams
Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie is in the film as himself.
Actresses portraying ex-girlfriends of Maguire include Alison Armitage, Lucy Liu, Emily Procter, and Stacey Williams. Reagan Gomez-Preston also had a minor role in the movie.
Tom Hanks was originally offered the title role, but turned it down. The producers later approached John Travolta, but eventually cast Tom Cruise.
The movie features a character, "Bob Sugar," who is based in large part on Drew Rosenhaus, one of the National Football League's most aggressive sports agents. He is also named for musician Bob Mould and his band Sugar.
The Maguire character is based on Leigh Steinberg who had a cameo at the end of the movie. Cruise has also said he drew inspiration from Sidney Falco, the Tony Curtis-played publicity agent in Sweet Smell of Success.
The film featured then-New England Patriots quarterback Drew Bledsoe as himself.
Cuba Gooding Jr. reportedly said director Cameron Crowe requested recording the famous loud "SHOW ME THE MONEY" scene through the phone while Gooding was stuck in Los Angeles traffic, and he kept yelling all the way through onto the studio lot leaving a crowd of people confused.
In the bedroom scene when Jerry asks Dorothy (Renée Zellweger), "What is this music?" the music is "Haitian Fight Song" from the album The Clown by Charles Mingus.
The score for the film was composed by Nancy Wilson, Cameron Crowe's wife and guitarist in the band Heart.
The German ice skater Katarina Witt appears as herself in the film.
Country singer Kenny Chesney's hit song "You Had Me From Hello" is reportedly based on Zellweger's line "you had me at hello." Chesney later wed actress Zellweger in 2005. The couple filed for divorce four months later.
Alice In Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell makes a brief appearance in the film.
To "shoplift the pooty" means when a man sleeps with a single mother, where the mother has a small, cute child, or children. Also, it can mean when a man endears himself to the child, and thus gets close to or charms the mother and as a result gets sex.
In Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (released in 1999), Dr. Evil tells the US government "SHOW ME THE MONEY!" in a scene depicted as taking place in 1969 - 27 years before "Jerry Maguire" was released. This is possible because Dr. Evil used a "time machine" to get to that year. (Also, it's a comedy.)
One episode of The Simpsons showed Homer trying an answering machine recording - "This is Jerry Maguire - SHOW ME THE MESSAGE!"
The Simpsons episode "Deep Space Homer" shows a newspaper at the end of the episode proclaiming "In Rod We Trust" This message is displayed on the billboard towards the end of Jerry Maguire.
Cruise's future wife Katie Holmes refers to this film in her dialogue in Phone Booth (and casts herself in the Renée Zellweger part).
A reference to the film may be made in Entourage when Ari Gould leaves the agency and asks his assistant, Lloyd, to follow him.^{[citation needed]} After hesitating, Lloyd goes with him. Vince is his remaining client.

[edit] Soundtrack

As with all of Cameron Crowe's films, the soundtrack constitutes an important backdrop to the film (Crowe was a journalist with Rolling Stone in the 1970s). Highlights include Elvis Presley performing "Pocket Full of Rainbows", The Who's "Magic Bus", Nirvana's "Something in the Way", Tom Petty's Free Fallin' and the Oscar-nominated "Secret Garden" by Bruce Springsteen as well as a clip of Charles Mingus. Note that Miles Davis & John Coltrane concert referred to is available on Dragon Records.