Analysis Of Blackfish

Guillermo Aragon

English 121

Leslie McCutchen

October 09, 2015

In the Deep End Since the beginning of filmmaking producers had made documentaries to present an argument, an idea, or to portray a kind of reality. In attempt to introduce an argument of some kind filmmaker’s intent is to engage the audiences and to also appeal to their values and emotions. To do this producers use a number of rhetorical deceives, such as logo, ethos, and pathos, to help get their audience to believe and think in a certain way. Gabriela Cowperthwaite director of the 2013 documentary Blackfish uses these rhetorical techniques throughout the film, which tells the story about Tilikum, an orca whale that killed three professional trainers while in captivity. Throughout

Cowperthwaite uses the interviews done with former SeaWorld trainers, also interviews people in the audience who witnessed the death of professional whale trainer Dawn Brancheau and the recording of the emergency calls that we hear going along with the visual footage of the horrific attacks. Blackfish also uses pathos to help portray killer whales was gentle giants who have the ability to feel emotions just like humans do. This comparison of whales to humans helps formulate an emotion from the audience and cause use to question the actions SeaWorld takes to provide these animals with a “livable” environment. To back up claim that orcas share similar characteristics with human Cowperthwaite interviews neuroscientist Dr. Lori Marino, who explains that whales have a part in their brains that allows them to process and understand emotions. By adding this scientific information of killer whales and the way the process emotions helps to make the reinforce Cowperthwaite’s claim that orcas deserve to be out of captivity. Another types of rhetoric that plays a major role in getting the audience to emotionally appeal to Blackfish are the use of typography, audio, and visual affects. For instance whenever there is a scene showing attacks on killer whales Cowperthwaite uses a combination of the right typography and audio affects to increase the suspense of the events that are taking place in the film and the emotions to build up a certain response from the