Blog #4: The Wedding Singer

Blog #4: Conflict Styles in The Wedding Singer

By: Megan Wright

This week we wanted to use different “rom-com” movies to showcase the different conflict styles found in conflict. I chose to use the movie The Wedding Singer to show a variety of conflict styles that are used throughout the film. In this movie Robbie Hart, played by Adam Sandler, is a heartbroken wedding singer who was left at the altar by his ex-fiancé. Robbie represents the kind of nice guy that always finishes last, getting ditched at his wedding, making everyone happy but himself by offering free piano and singing lessons in payments of meatballs, and helping plan a wedding for a women he is slowly falling in love with, perfectly representing the accommodating style in the different conflict styles. In the beginning of the film it was apparent after being left at the altar, he was not in it to win, he was prepared to lose and whoever was on the other end of the conflict was going to win, he set aside his own needs in order to please others. You especially see this when he agrees to go on a double date with Julie, her fiancé Glenn and Julia’s sister, when he clearly does not want to because he has fallen in love with Julia, but he is accommodating to what Julia wants in order to make her happy. This was not a good conflict style for Robbie to use, he was miserable and unhappy putting his own feelings aside to ensure the happiness of others, he should have stepped up and had both sides in mind sooner rather than later, but of course it never happens like that in the movies. In an article called, “Influence of Conflict Training on Conflict Handling Styles of College Students”, it discusses that, “improper conflict handling styles can make the existing conflict worse and bring about additional conflicts.” This was shown when Robbie and his friend decide to confront the bad guy fiancé Glenn after coming off at first as the accommodating style, he wasn’t taken seriously and it made matters worse, and the damage had already been done, Robbie was too late to help the conflict due to the fact he hadn’t spoken up sooner and taken the conflict head on. The conflict continued to fester between both Robbie and Glenn the fiancé, and Robbie and Julia until it eventually surfaced into a fight, where it looked as though Glenn was going to win and marry Julia, and continue to cheat on her. But of course, since it is a romantic comedy and all, Robbie was able to find the courage and channel his inner Shark as a Competing Style to win over Julia romantically by singing to her on an airplane, while Glenn looks like a fool and gets threatened by singer Billy Idol.

 

Works Cited

Waithaka, A., Moore-Austin, S., & Itimu, P. (2015). Influence of Conflict Resolution Training on Conflict Handling Styles of College Students [Abstract]. Research in Higher Education Journal, 28. Retrieved March 6, 2016.