Rhetorical Analysis (Documentary Film)
I strongly encourage you to organize groups to watch and
discuss the movie together. This collaboration should prove helpful in terms of
organizing and clarifying your reactions. Movies can be found on NETFLIX,
Greenfield Public Library, GCC, Greenfield High School library, or any other
video outlet available to students. Again organizing and watching in groups
will allow for many students to gain access to the material with only one copy
of the film.
·
The essay should not be a summary of the film.
· The essay should
not be a review of the film.
Your essay should do all of the following:
1. Identify the filmmaker’s purpose and analyze the rhetorical strategies used in order to develop the film’s thesis.
2. Examine the ways in which the thesis and / or aim of the film’s argument is supported through the particular style and manner of the composition’s construction, that is, through rhetorical strategies. Choose a selection of strategies and techniques to analyze; do not attempt to discuss everything about the film. Choose specific scenes or moments from the film which illustrate these techniques, and analyze how the filmmaker uses them to present the film’s argument.
3. Interpret or explain why you think that the filmmakers made the particular rhetorical choices they did in an effort to forward their main argument or achieve their purpose. These choices are not random. Interpret why the filmmakers makes these certain choices. Again, support all claims with specific examples from the film.
Your essay should do all of the following:
1. Identify the filmmaker’s purpose and analyze the rhetorical strategies used in order to develop the film’s thesis.
2. Examine the ways in which the thesis and / or aim of the film’s argument is supported through the particular style and manner of the composition’s construction, that is, through rhetorical strategies. Choose a selection of strategies and techniques to analyze; do not attempt to discuss everything about the film. Choose specific scenes or moments from the film which illustrate these techniques, and analyze how the filmmaker uses them to present the film’s argument.
3. Interpret or explain why you think that the filmmakers made the particular rhetorical choices they did in an effort to forward their main argument or achieve their purpose. These choices are not random. Interpret why the filmmakers makes these certain choices. Again, support all claims with specific examples from the film.
Some
Popular Documentaries
OutFoxed
Lost Boys of Sudan
Grizzly Man
Man on a Wire
Bowling for Columbine
Rivers And Tides
Gasland
Generation Next
The Thin Blue Line
An inconvenient Truth
The Devil Came on Horseback
Chiefs
Sicko
The Cove
Restrepo
Exit Through the Gift Shop
Collapse
Food Inc.
Bigger, Stronger, Faster
Kicking It
The King of Kong: Fistful of Quarters
When We Were Kings
Alone in the Wilderness
We Live in Public
In the Shadow of the Stars
Who Killed the Electric Car?
Lost Boys of Sudan
Grizzly Man
Man on a Wire
Bowling for Columbine
Rivers And Tides
Gasland
Generation Next
The Thin Blue Line
An inconvenient Truth
The Devil Came on Horseback
Chiefs
Sicko
The Cove
Restrepo
Exit Through the Gift Shop
Collapse
Food Inc.
Bigger, Stronger, Faster
Kicking It
The King of Kong: Fistful of Quarters
When We Were Kings
Alone in the Wilderness
We Live in Public
In the Shadow of the Stars
Who Killed the Electric Car?
posted by MrGarland at 8:43 AM
