| Introduction |
This site is intended as a guide to analyzing film rhetorically and writing about it. There is a lot more to movies than just what happens, and if you are going to write well about film, you have to be able to look at all the other stuff. Film can be analyzed rhetorically just like writing can, but you have to know how the multimedia elements of film translate for this type of analysis.
One way to analyze film that not only gives you a framework for discussion but also teaches you more about the rhetoric in your own writing is by examining film through the framework of the three rhetorical appeals: logos, ethos, and pathos. This is the approach that this site seeks to teach you.
So that this all makes more sense, we will use some example films, examining how the appeals work in each of them. In order for you to better understand moving beyond plot in your discussion of film, I have picked two similar films so that you can see how looking at some of the more subtle elements of film is the best way to determine what sets them apart from one another and also the best way to understand a film's purpose.
WARNING! Sometimes it will be necessary to discuss plot twists, surprise endings, and other details about the movies that may ruin the experience for you if you intend to watch them and get the full effect of these surprises. If you are worried about this, I suggest watching the movies first. At the time of this writing, both are available at Wal Mart on DVD for about five dollars each.
The main two films we will discuss in detail here are these two films:
 The Bad News Bears (1976) image source buy it |  Hardball (2001) image source buy it |
On occasion, I will refer breifly to other movies to illustrate how the appeals might function in different types of films, but most of what you need to know about rhetorical appeals in film can be supplied to you through the discussion of The Bad News Bears and Hardball.