Essay
This is a copy of our essay that we wrote to give to our teacher.
Abby Walsh, Jonathan Morley, Laurie Beth Johnson, Nana Debrah
English 101
David Brookshire
14 October 2014
A Rhetorical Analysis of The Cove
When Louie Psihoyos presented his documentary, The Cove, at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, the audience was shocked. Most of them had likely never heard of the Taiji dolphin problem, and even more had likely never witnessed it. Psihoyos and the rest of his crew had wanted to show the world what was happening, to bring awareness to this problem, and they did just that. After winning the Audience Award for the Sundance Film Festival, they went on to win seven more Audience Awards at other Film Festivals in that same year. By raising awareness, Psihoyos and his team hoped to bring an end to the dolphin and porpoise hunting season that occurred at the start of each September. In order to convince his audience that the hunting was a problem that needed to be stopped, Psihoyos used the three rhetorical appeals--logos, ethos, and pathos--in abundance in his documentary.
The first rhetorical appeal is logos, the appeal to reason. Logos is the quality of the message, or the internal consistency and clarity of the argument itself and on the logic of its reasons and support. This documentary works to provide logistical evidence against the practices in Taiji. Whether the dolphins are sold for captivity or slaughtered for their “meat,” The Cove argues that both circumstances are cruel and unnecessary. Little action has been taken by government programs to stop the slaughter. In fact, once commercial whaling was banned, Japan's number of kills in dolphins and porpoises tripled. Taiji plays a large part in this number. The Taiji fishermen herd the animals into the cove by using sound. Dolphins rely on sonar sound to navigate the seas and communicate. The fishers create a barrier of noise that is alarming to the dolphins to herd them into the cove. Once lured in, the dolphins have one of two destinies, sold for captivity or death. Taiji is the largest supplier of dolphins to aquatic shows and marine parks in the world. Dolphins that are sold to be trained for dolphin shows or museums are sold for anywhere between $32,000 to $250,000. Because of his former career as a dolphin trainer, Ric O’Barry has first hand experience with the crippling effects of dolphin captivity. Normally swimming up to 100 miles per day, dolphins that are forced into tanks are unable to move around as they should. These dolphins die at much quicker rates due to copious amounts of stress from the noise and the enclosure. Though O’Barry connects on a personal level with this issue, the majority of the facts shown in the documentary revolve around the mass killings of dolphins in Taiji harbor. The dolphins who are not purchased are dragged further into the cove to a portion that is unable to be seen by the public and is severely guarded by gates and security guards. This is where the slaughter takes place. Taiji claims the dolphins are pests and those being killed are used for their meat, but when asked, the Japanese population say that they do not eat dolphin meat and were unaware that dolphins were being killed in their area. Research shows that dolphin meat contains extremely toxic levels of mercury which should not be consumed by citizens. Though some mislabeled whale meats are actually dolphin meat, mass numbers of killings are still not accounted for. Separate from the dolphins that were purchased from captivity, more than 20,000 dolphins were killed annually in Taiji harbor. Proof of the detrimental effects of dolphin captivity paired with the unexplained claims made by Taiji regarding the need of such extreme amounts of slaughter shows the audience what is occurring in Taiji, as Psihoyos wanted.
Ethos, or the credibility of those involved in an argument, is a strong factor in The Cove’s rhetorical appeal. Louie Psihoyos, who directed as well as starred in The Cove, establishes a secure connection of legitimacy with the audience by briefly explaining the goal and history of the Oceanic Preservation Society--which he founded--as well as a few of their past projects. To further the film's credibility through the experience and education of the writer, or through the use of extrinsic ethos, Psihoyos employs the help of several world famous ocean and marine activists including O’Barry, who has worked with dolphins for almost 50 years. When introducing O'Barry and his past, Psihoyos cuts to film of him in the act of various protests and dolphin liberation operations. This makes clear to the audience that in the activist community, O'Barry is a force to be reckoned with. Several accolades O'Barry had gained through his work in activism were also elaborated on and presented in the film, thus solidifying the audiences trust in his words. The amount of experience O'Barry has with activism is truly a staple to the film's extrinsic ethos because Psihoyos relies on him to provide much of the narration. Psihoyos understands that any piece of media that his organization produces will fall under extreme scrutiny because of the polar stance OPS holds regarding dolphin slaughter and captivity. To combat this, he calls upon other famous activists such as the cofounder of Greenpeace International, Paul Watson, and actress/activist Hayden Panettiere. Once the audience begins to identify familiar faces, they are more inclined to agree with the argument presented by The Cove. Aside from packing the cast with famous figures and professionals alike, Psihoyos developed the film's intrinsic ethos through the word choice, delivery, and tone of the film's dialogue. One way this ethos was produced was by incorporating a brief concession within the first thirty minutes. In this first third of the documentary that Psihoyos reveals much of O'Barry's life. It is through these clips that the audience garners a lot of respect and trust toward the film itself. Within these clips, O'Barry returns to his past and describes how he was once an advocate for dolphin captivity. He himself caught dolphins and trained them for the TV show Flipper. During the first ten years of his experience with dolphins, he would only care about where he stood to profit from the dolphins he captured. O'Barry explains it was not until he witnessed one of his captive dolphins commit suicide that he experienced a deep change of heart. These clips create a bridge of understanding in terms of his allegiance to dolphin activism and of trust with the audience that O'Barry is on the correct side of the battle. This fairness to the opposing side of the argument tempers the bond between the film and the audience so much more. It is at this point where Psihoyos was able to move forward and further the film's intrinsic ethos through other means, such as the delivery of the dialogue. Psihoyos blends the elements of narration and video together in a way that solidifies the film's credibility even further. Video clips of the slaughter location, perpetrators, and slaughter itself were often played with one or more activists narrating in a stark tone. It creates the feeling that almost every sentence was a call to action. Through this splicing of footage and narration, the messages the film conveys are immediately strengthened. This in turn projects onto the audience and leaves them with a sense of common allegiance between themselves and Psihoyos, O'Barry, and every other team member out in the field. This is how the film appeals to the sense of trustworthiness and professionalism among its viewers.
Pathos, the third rhetorical appeal, is defined as a call to the emotions and values of the audience. Ric O'Barry's role in The Cove makes heavy use of pathos through his personal experiences with dolphins. His personal connection with the dolphin hunting and captivity industries allow the audience to feel his sadness and guilt over his involvement. O'Barry makes a direct appeal to the values and morals of his audience through his involvement in the hit TV show Flipper. At the start of his career, O'Barry believed that having the dolphins in captivity was beneficial to them. However, his entire opinion changed when one of the dolphins that he cared for committed suicide in his arms. This incident spurred the start of O'Barry's activism against dolphin captivity and helps to convey the reasoning behind his strong moral compass to his audience. On the other hand, through footage of their interactions with the fishermen who hunt the dolphins, the crew conveys to the audience that the fishermen know their activities are frowned upon, and even borderline illegal, yet continue to do it anyways. This establishes the fishermen as people of weak morality due to their attempts to cover up the slaughter and hide it from the outside world. The documentary further establishes the fishermen as 'the group in the wrong' through the fact the crew is forced to illegally sneak into the cove at night in order to observe the dolphins before they are slaughtered the next day. The crew uses these incidents to establish that they are in the 'moral right' while the Taiji fishermen and, on a more general scale, the entire dolphin hunting industry, is in the 'moral wrong'. Psihoyos also makes heavy use of both word and image choice in order to stir powerful emotion among the audience. For example, the images showing the aftermath of a slaughter. In the documentary, the scene is shown without any sound or commentary in order emphasize the pure horror the crew is feeling as they document the deaths of hundreds of dolphins and porpoises. The crew successfully conveys personal feelings toward the fact that thousands of dolphins and whales are being hunted and slaughtered each year. Throughout the film, the crew shows images of the dolphins being captured and killed at points where there is a lull in tension. This technique keeps the horror and bloodshed of this industry fresh in the minds of the audience and helps to connect the statistics of both dolphins in captivity and hunted dolphins with their own personal emotions. Overall, the use of pathos in The Cove allows Psihoyos and his crew to stir horror and indignation in the audience while connecting the facts of the dolphin, porpoise, and whale hunting industry with the emotions that rise from personally viewing the slaughter.
Louie Psihoyos effectively uses all three rhetorical appeals of logos, ethos, and pathos in his documentary. This allowed him to win many awards and to raise awareness of the dolphin and porpoise hunting in Taiji. Audiences across the world are falling under Psihoyos’ persuasive documentary and are attempting to change the fate of these dolphins, which is what Psihoyos and his crew was aiming for all along.
Work Cited
Psihoyos, Louis, dir. The Cove. Oceanic Preservation Society, 2009. Documentary.
English 101
David Brookshire
14 October 2014
A Rhetorical Analysis of The Cove
When Louie Psihoyos presented his documentary, The Cove, at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, the audience was shocked. Most of them had likely never heard of the Taiji dolphin problem, and even more had likely never witnessed it. Psihoyos and the rest of his crew had wanted to show the world what was happening, to bring awareness to this problem, and they did just that. After winning the Audience Award for the Sundance Film Festival, they went on to win seven more Audience Awards at other Film Festivals in that same year. By raising awareness, Psihoyos and his team hoped to bring an end to the dolphin and porpoise hunting season that occurred at the start of each September. In order to convince his audience that the hunting was a problem that needed to be stopped, Psihoyos used the three rhetorical appeals--logos, ethos, and pathos--in abundance in his documentary.
The first rhetorical appeal is logos, the appeal to reason. Logos is the quality of the message, or the internal consistency and clarity of the argument itself and on the logic of its reasons and support. This documentary works to provide logistical evidence against the practices in Taiji. Whether the dolphins are sold for captivity or slaughtered for their “meat,” The Cove argues that both circumstances are cruel and unnecessary. Little action has been taken by government programs to stop the slaughter. In fact, once commercial whaling was banned, Japan's number of kills in dolphins and porpoises tripled. Taiji plays a large part in this number. The Taiji fishermen herd the animals into the cove by using sound. Dolphins rely on sonar sound to navigate the seas and communicate. The fishers create a barrier of noise that is alarming to the dolphins to herd them into the cove. Once lured in, the dolphins have one of two destinies, sold for captivity or death. Taiji is the largest supplier of dolphins to aquatic shows and marine parks in the world. Dolphins that are sold to be trained for dolphin shows or museums are sold for anywhere between $32,000 to $250,000. Because of his former career as a dolphin trainer, Ric O’Barry has first hand experience with the crippling effects of dolphin captivity. Normally swimming up to 100 miles per day, dolphins that are forced into tanks are unable to move around as they should. These dolphins die at much quicker rates due to copious amounts of stress from the noise and the enclosure. Though O’Barry connects on a personal level with this issue, the majority of the facts shown in the documentary revolve around the mass killings of dolphins in Taiji harbor. The dolphins who are not purchased are dragged further into the cove to a portion that is unable to be seen by the public and is severely guarded by gates and security guards. This is where the slaughter takes place. Taiji claims the dolphins are pests and those being killed are used for their meat, but when asked, the Japanese population say that they do not eat dolphin meat and were unaware that dolphins were being killed in their area. Research shows that dolphin meat contains extremely toxic levels of mercury which should not be consumed by citizens. Though some mislabeled whale meats are actually dolphin meat, mass numbers of killings are still not accounted for. Separate from the dolphins that were purchased from captivity, more than 20,000 dolphins were killed annually in Taiji harbor. Proof of the detrimental effects of dolphin captivity paired with the unexplained claims made by Taiji regarding the need of such extreme amounts of slaughter shows the audience what is occurring in Taiji, as Psihoyos wanted.
Ethos, or the credibility of those involved in an argument, is a strong factor in The Cove’s rhetorical appeal. Louie Psihoyos, who directed as well as starred in The Cove, establishes a secure connection of legitimacy with the audience by briefly explaining the goal and history of the Oceanic Preservation Society--which he founded--as well as a few of their past projects. To further the film's credibility through the experience and education of the writer, or through the use of extrinsic ethos, Psihoyos employs the help of several world famous ocean and marine activists including O’Barry, who has worked with dolphins for almost 50 years. When introducing O'Barry and his past, Psihoyos cuts to film of him in the act of various protests and dolphin liberation operations. This makes clear to the audience that in the activist community, O'Barry is a force to be reckoned with. Several accolades O'Barry had gained through his work in activism were also elaborated on and presented in the film, thus solidifying the audiences trust in his words. The amount of experience O'Barry has with activism is truly a staple to the film's extrinsic ethos because Psihoyos relies on him to provide much of the narration. Psihoyos understands that any piece of media that his organization produces will fall under extreme scrutiny because of the polar stance OPS holds regarding dolphin slaughter and captivity. To combat this, he calls upon other famous activists such as the cofounder of Greenpeace International, Paul Watson, and actress/activist Hayden Panettiere. Once the audience begins to identify familiar faces, they are more inclined to agree with the argument presented by The Cove. Aside from packing the cast with famous figures and professionals alike, Psihoyos developed the film's intrinsic ethos through the word choice, delivery, and tone of the film's dialogue. One way this ethos was produced was by incorporating a brief concession within the first thirty minutes. In this first third of the documentary that Psihoyos reveals much of O'Barry's life. It is through these clips that the audience garners a lot of respect and trust toward the film itself. Within these clips, O'Barry returns to his past and describes how he was once an advocate for dolphin captivity. He himself caught dolphins and trained them for the TV show Flipper. During the first ten years of his experience with dolphins, he would only care about where he stood to profit from the dolphins he captured. O'Barry explains it was not until he witnessed one of his captive dolphins commit suicide that he experienced a deep change of heart. These clips create a bridge of understanding in terms of his allegiance to dolphin activism and of trust with the audience that O'Barry is on the correct side of the battle. This fairness to the opposing side of the argument tempers the bond between the film and the audience so much more. It is at this point where Psihoyos was able to move forward and further the film's intrinsic ethos through other means, such as the delivery of the dialogue. Psihoyos blends the elements of narration and video together in a way that solidifies the film's credibility even further. Video clips of the slaughter location, perpetrators, and slaughter itself were often played with one or more activists narrating in a stark tone. It creates the feeling that almost every sentence was a call to action. Through this splicing of footage and narration, the messages the film conveys are immediately strengthened. This in turn projects onto the audience and leaves them with a sense of common allegiance between themselves and Psihoyos, O'Barry, and every other team member out in the field. This is how the film appeals to the sense of trustworthiness and professionalism among its viewers.
Pathos, the third rhetorical appeal, is defined as a call to the emotions and values of the audience. Ric O'Barry's role in The Cove makes heavy use of pathos through his personal experiences with dolphins. His personal connection with the dolphin hunting and captivity industries allow the audience to feel his sadness and guilt over his involvement. O'Barry makes a direct appeal to the values and morals of his audience through his involvement in the hit TV show Flipper. At the start of his career, O'Barry believed that having the dolphins in captivity was beneficial to them. However, his entire opinion changed when one of the dolphins that he cared for committed suicide in his arms. This incident spurred the start of O'Barry's activism against dolphin captivity and helps to convey the reasoning behind his strong moral compass to his audience. On the other hand, through footage of their interactions with the fishermen who hunt the dolphins, the crew conveys to the audience that the fishermen know their activities are frowned upon, and even borderline illegal, yet continue to do it anyways. This establishes the fishermen as people of weak morality due to their attempts to cover up the slaughter and hide it from the outside world. The documentary further establishes the fishermen as 'the group in the wrong' through the fact the crew is forced to illegally sneak into the cove at night in order to observe the dolphins before they are slaughtered the next day. The crew uses these incidents to establish that they are in the 'moral right' while the Taiji fishermen and, on a more general scale, the entire dolphin hunting industry, is in the 'moral wrong'. Psihoyos also makes heavy use of both word and image choice in order to stir powerful emotion among the audience. For example, the images showing the aftermath of a slaughter. In the documentary, the scene is shown without any sound or commentary in order emphasize the pure horror the crew is feeling as they document the deaths of hundreds of dolphins and porpoises. The crew successfully conveys personal feelings toward the fact that thousands of dolphins and whales are being hunted and slaughtered each year. Throughout the film, the crew shows images of the dolphins being captured and killed at points where there is a lull in tension. This technique keeps the horror and bloodshed of this industry fresh in the minds of the audience and helps to connect the statistics of both dolphins in captivity and hunted dolphins with their own personal emotions. Overall, the use of pathos in The Cove allows Psihoyos and his crew to stir horror and indignation in the audience while connecting the facts of the dolphin, porpoise, and whale hunting industry with the emotions that rise from personally viewing the slaughter.
Louie Psihoyos effectively uses all three rhetorical appeals of logos, ethos, and pathos in his documentary. This allowed him to win many awards and to raise awareness of the dolphin and porpoise hunting in Taiji. Audiences across the world are falling under Psihoyos’ persuasive documentary and are attempting to change the fate of these dolphins, which is what Psihoyos and his crew was aiming for all along.
Work Cited
Psihoyos, Louis, dir. The Cove. Oceanic Preservation Society, 2009. Documentary.