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First, in attempt to persuade viewers, Moore does a great job of bringing about
an emotional response. Pathos is presented as soon as the screen becomes pitch
black and the only sound is the noise from September 11, the day planes were
taken over by terrorist and crashed into the twin towers, located in New York City.
You can hear the horror in the people's voices and the loud bang from the planes
hitting the buildings. This scene was very powerful; it grabbed my attention and
did not let go. Moore intention for this scene was to really start the film off. He
also used this scene to persuade his audience into feeling what he felt and see
how horrible this event truly was. Also, an interview with a woman who lost her
husband during the attack on September 11 was another way that Moore used
pathos in Fahrenheit 9/11 to convince his audiences. There was a reason that this
interview was shot close up, Moore wanted the viewers to see the sadness in the
woman's eyes, to feel the pain that she had felt, and to show the emptiness she
had. By showing the widower's emotions in this way, Moore opened the door and
collected the viewer's sympathy. However, he still left every scene open-ended
for the viewers to collect their own opinion on the attack that occurred on that
horrific day.
Another thing to know when presenting one's opinion is that, in order to have a
true argument, a person should demonstrate equality; they should be fair to the
other objective view point, and show that there is an understanding of both sides
of the argument. This is the second appeal, ethos, a form of persuasion used by
Moore to show that he is a fair and knowledge man. Ethos is all about being
credible; presenting oneself as a trustworthy person to convince an audience and
make an argument applicable; or to show that another person is not credible by
using manipulation. When using ethos, the speaker's character is really revealed
and observed by the audience. It is important to have ethos when making a
claim or assuring an argument.
In the film, Fahrenheit 9/11, Moore made sure to use ethos so that's his audience
would be persuaded to believe his theories. Moore wanted his audience to see
how credible his information was and to let them know that he was a trustworthy
person; in this case, he wanted the audience to believe he was more trustworthy
than President George W. Bush and his Administration. To show that Moore was a
credible source and to question Bush's character, Moore used real footage of
Bush and the events that was touched upon. He showed the footage of the time
when Bush was first told about the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001. This
footage showed Bush's reaction; really Bush did not react and instead continued
to read to a class that he was visiting that day. This helped manipulate the
audience to believe that Bush was not a fit president and had no idea what to do
in this situation. Other video that was shown was of Bush in meetings with
members of the Bin Laden family. This footage made it apparent that Bush was
fraternizing with the so called, "enemy" the ones who were believed to be behind
the attack. This makes the audience look at Bush in a very poor light and was a
tool used to persuade the audience to judge Bush's character based on this fact
solely. Moore also used this appeal again when he presented facts about
President Bush's National Guard records. Moore showed that Bush's records were
tampered with in the beginning to hide a certain name, James R. Bath, a Texas
money manager for the Bin Laden family. Bath was just another involvement that
connected Bush to the instances with the Bin Ladens. Moore showed what the
original and uncensored records looked like before they had been edited. This
showed that Moore was fair, but he was also very trustworthy with the
information that he was presenting, unlike Bush who did not present accurate
records.