Jerry Maguire is a 1996 film, staring 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 Crowe, that have defined contemporary cinema.

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, Jerry Maguire's mentor, who comments at the very end of that 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." Director and script-writer, Cameron Crowe, suggests that 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 that 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.

Famous quotations

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 that shit! "

Maguire: "Show me the money! "

Tidwell: "Louder! "

Maguire: "SHOW ME THE MONEY!"

Jerry: "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 to heart is empty, this 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."

Trivia

• To date, the Jerry Maguire DVD is the only DVD to feature commentary by Tom Cruise himself.

• 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 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 who is currently in the news for allegedly getting one of his main clients, Terrell Owens fired from the Philadelphia Eagles.

• The Maguire character is based on Leigh Steinberg who had a cameo at the end of the movie

• The film featured then-New England Patriots quarterback Drew Bledsoe as himself.

• Cuba Gooding Jr. reportedly said that 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.

• In the movie, A True Underdog Story, Vince Vaughn's charecter says, "You had me at Blood and semen", obviously derived from 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.

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 magazine during the 1970s). Highlights of the film's soundtrack include Elvis Presley performing "Pocket Full of Rainbows", The Who's "Magic Bus" and the Oscar-nominated "Secret Garden" by Bruce Springsteen.

External links

• "Things we think and do not say", the memo that led Maguire to establish his own agency
• Jerry Maguire, movie script (text document)

1996 films | American football films | Best Picture Academy Award nominees | Films featuring a Best Actor Academy Award nominated performance | Films featuring a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award winning performance | Fictional agents

Jerry Maguire – Spiel des Lebens | Jerry Maguire | ザ・エージェント | Джерри Магуайер (фильм) | Jerry Maguire