Probably one of the movies strongest rhetorical techniques was the alternation between a happy Sea World commercial and then the harsh reality of its working conditions. It made Sea World seem extremely fake, and really hit the point about how much it seemed to hide to the outside world. The juxtaposition of these two ideas served to emphasize Sea World as a giant corporate scumbag that, in reality, had no care for its animals despite the commercials claiming otherwise.
Another thing that was so impactful was the extreme dramatization of the bad events done by Sea World. The people who spoke for the documentary were very emotional, and the music, tied in with the way the information was represented, really exaggerated the whole situation to make the viewer hate Sea World. The information could’ve simply been presented in an unbiased way, with a speaker unemotionally talking about the information, or with the information written in text. However, the speakers that were so dramatic about the issue allowed the documentary to achieve its rhetorical effect.
After having watched Blackfish I feel a bit of the rhetoric myself. Although I was never really a fan of Sea World, I do see it in a much different light, a much more negative light. However, I do wonder – what if the information were presented in a much more positive way, like from the viewpoint of Sea World itself? Would people’s viewpoints change? Or would they still see Sea World as the scumbag they are as portrayed by Blackfish?
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