Obvious arguments, that is, arguments that are easily understood by the audience of a film, are made mainly through plot, chronology, dialog, and acting. If a filmmaker is making an argument, he should rely upon these rhetorical tools and through them make the argument as clear as possible.

If Oliver Stone wished to make through this film the claim that the media glorifies violence and makes celebrities out of murderers, there are several things he should have done in this area:

• focus on the media in order to show its importance to his message
• create a contrast between how the media in his movie portray the killers and the way they really are (i.e., the way they are portrayed in the rest of the film)
• have at least some indication that he is not condoning violence and murder
• create, perhaps, sympathetic characters in his killers, but not so sympathetic that there seems to be excuse for their actions

Stone, however, is unsuccessful at most of these tasks.