Persuasive Techniques In Bowling For Columbine

Specific Purpose: To convince my audience to stand up for our constitutional rights, and to see that we need to be able to defend ourselves effectively against outlaws who will obtain the guns the government is trying so hard to ban.

Since documentary films are made in a great variety of tradition, style, characteristics and purpose, they can be broadly categorized into five schools depending on their chronological existence. Newsreel strictly describes records of the actual events without dramatizing the event. This school follows the tradition of the soviet newsreels e.g. Reisner’s The March of Time. Propagandist school on the other hand, employs pseudo-documentary as an instrument of political propaganda by making full use of the persuasive capacity of this audio-visual medium. This school primarily follows the style of Soviet and Nazi propaganda films. Triumph of the Will is a suitable example in this regard. Realist school portrays contemporary city scene, gives a

The documentary I picked for this assignment is The Hard Stop directed by George Amposh in 2015. This documentary focuses on the shooting of an unarmed black male Mark Duggan in Tottenham, London in 2011. It raises issues of racism, discrimination, prejudice, injustice in society, and humanity of a victim. In my opinion, this documentary was powerful, insightful, and balanced when explaining the issue, as well as, is extremely prominent today.

In the Bowling for Columbine documentary has been partly dramatized in regard to some of the events in order to cause an effect to the viewer and some have even gone as far as reshooting the same scene or having various angles of the same scene/event just to make it visually pleasing to the audience in which the point of the documentary is deliberately, seriously, and consistently deceptive.

It is common knowledge that numerous documentaries have been made throughout the years. Various of the documentaries had very minimal effect on the world if any effect at all. While, plenty of other documentaries changed how someone, some movement, or some country is perceived by society. The later is what is going to be mentioned in just a little bit. The definition of documentary is “a movie or a television or radio program that provides a factual record or report”. This definition is quite important as it sets the basis needed to continue. Now it is important that it is established that, while documentaries almost always include truth in the documentary, they can portray the facts in whatever light they want. Sadly, this can cause a large

Controversial issues have kept people divided for years whether it be about religion, politics, health care, etc. Some will fight and argue for what they believe is right but will still preach on their need for unity without opening up to the opposing side. Others refuse to tell their opinions in fear that they will be persecuted for what they believe in. Documentaries that can effectively shine light on some of the tragedies that the world has faced are worth watching. Many historical situations that impacted the society of diverse locations are important to be educated on, and after seeing this film, an argument that schools should be teaching about more historical facts and subjects has come to light. David France’s documentary “How to Survive

The assignment task for Term two was for a small group of people (three), to create a documentary and then each person to write a reflection. Before starting this documentary, we studied the history and development of documentaries. We then looked more into how different documentaries, Spellbound (objective) and Bowling for Columbine (subjective) have different effects on people.

Documentaries are a fundamental element of the cinematic world. They educate viewers on historical happenings, or discuss phenomenons currently going on. These films not only educate viewers, but often provide them with a claim to convince them of a certain belief. However, in order to be effective towards the viewer, these arguments need to contain certain elements. The argument presented needs to be able to be easily accepted, or it will not do the job that many filmmakers intend it to. Evan Grae Davis’s It’s A Girl exemplifies a solid argument that is highly effective at moving the reader. The film’s effectiveness is due to its use of logos to provide factual evidence, pathos to connect emotionally with the viewer, and ethos to validate the argument.

Charlie is an introvert having a difficult time assimilated to the conformity of high school, but at a turning point in the story Charlie is finally accepted and his word choice enhances the mood into inspiration and happiness. For instance, when Charlie is with his best friends Patrick and Sam he describes at that that moment, “ Sam sat down and started laughing. Patrick started laughing. I started laughing. And at that moment, I swear we were infinite”(39). That moment that Charlie was experiencing was so perfect that Charlie forgot the hurt he had built himself. The word “laughing” and the fact that all of them were laughing enhances the reader’s mood to happiness and a light-hearted in nature. It can be compared to going to a comedy show

     The Academy for Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ criteria for “Best Documentary Film” includes in their definition for a documentary that it should be a non-fiction film that creatively addresses cultural, historical, social, etc. subjects. Bowling for Columbine won the Academy Award for best documentary film and has stirred up quite a bit of debate amongst its viewers. Thousands hail Moore for his ingenious creativity and are ready to take a stand to change America after seeing it. Bowling for Columbine is a great documentary because Moore creatively puts what seem to be unrelated shots and scenes together to create viewer’s minds to open up and think about things in ways they

Michael Moore’s, Bowling For Columbine won an Oscar for best documentary. The Academy’s definition of what a documentary is, “a movie, television show or radio program that provides a factual record or report”. With this definition in mind, one could say Moore has been extremely successful in persuading the audience to agree with his message if his fiction movie won an Academy award for best documentary. Moore’s use of persona, interview tactics, editing sound/camera angles, and incorporation of comedy satire both impact his audiences’ perspective and include towards the general message of the film.

In film theory, documentary is increasingly identified as film, a story and, it can be argued, as fiction like any other film. There can be two types of documentaries which include, Objective and Subjective. A subjective documentary is personal interpretations of facts or events that is not impartial. A objective documentary consists of observed facts and is unbiased. Our assignment was to develop a documentary on a topic of our choice and choose what type of documentary we would like to do. We chose to do a subjective documentary on Why St Luke’s Anglican School is a Good School. Our target audience was 15 years old students at St Luke’s Anglican School. When choosing the groups, the final outcome was Harry, Letitia, Alister and myself. I

Kin Hubbard once said, “We’d all like to vote for the best man, but he’s never a candidate”. Political parties consistently use deceit and manipulation as a way to sway voters away from their opponents and towards themselves. Our current Presidential Candidates are Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Some may say we have to choose between the lesser of two evils. It makes one wonder how these evils came so far in the running. The answer is simply they have excellent campaign Ads in addition to a really great poker face. Granted, not everyone is enticed by these “promising” campaign ads, but most people buy into them.

Documentaries are often assumed to be credible and filled with factual information; they do, after all, document reality. This is not always the case though. There are many factors that determine the reliability of documentaries: the editing, the director’s agenda, the film’s style, confirmation bias, and choice of interviewees, among other things. Documentaries are a representative medium, after all, and although they are able to give audiences insight into people and events that they were not able to experience first-hand, there is much ambiguity surrounding the truthfulness of non-fiction film. While it may be possible to inform and persuade people through film, it will never be able to accurately represent reality. By comparing two documentaries about Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, it will become apparent that there is still a blurred line between what is fiction and what is not.

Throughout the documentary tears, tragedy and humour all come together in a fun packed politically incorrect infomercial. Michael Moore definitely does not shy away from pushing his agenda as it’s recognisable from his previous documentary Bowling For Columbine.