Hello fellow bloggers,
This month I chose to do something slightly different. I based this blog on a slightly narrower topic. Still having to do with movies and rhetoric, this month I decided to pull out a small speech used by a character in a movie which contains various different appeals of rhetoric. This month I chose a movie that really caught my attention once I saw it. The movie I decided to create my blog on for this month of November is “Kingdom Of Heaven”.
“Kingdom of heaven” is a movie based on the 12th Century Crusades. This movie is a drama of “Balian” the main character looking for a reason to live after he lost everything he had, which were his wife and his son. Balian while working as a blacksmith is approached by a man who reveals he is his true father. His father was a knight and so he offered Balian his newfound son to go with him and his knights to defend the Holy City of Jerusalem. He accepts and once arriving he goes through many different difficulties where he is faced with death and uncertainty.
Within this movie Balian makes a small speech he says” It has fallen to us to defend Jerusalem, and we have made our preparations as well as they can be made. None of us took this city from Muslims. No Muslim of the great army now coming against us was born when this city was lost. We fight over an offence we did not give, against those who were not alive to be offended. What is Jerusalem? Your holy places lie over the Jewish temple that the Romans pulled down. The Muslim places of worship lie over yours. Which is more holy? The wall? The Mosque? The Sepulcher? Who has claim? No one has claim. All have claim!” Throughout his speech Balian uses the power of Logos(reason) and rhetorical Questions. He uses Logos by stating the obvious, which was that no one is truly fighting for what they called the Holy City. They were just fighting because they were ordered to. He also states that those who are defending it had the same right as those who were fighting for it. He states that it is for anyone to claim. The obvious though is that those who live there have more to loose because that had been their home for more that the past century, therefore they had more to fight for. He uses rhetorical questions throughout his speech to better give a transition to his use of logos.
Throughout the movie there were many uses of appeals used in many different dialogues throughout the characters. I believe that Rhetoric truly stands out in movie because the way they state what they are trying to say gives out a better tone. “Kingdom of Heaven” is a movie I would recommend to anyone it contains what I believe a good movie would have action, action, and more action.
