Ethos Pathos Logos In Blackfish

Blackfish Rhetorical Analysis One fish, two fish, red fish, Blackfish. Blackfish is a documentary created by Gabriela Cowperthwaite to expose Seaworld and to show people what really happened with attacks on trainers such as the one Dawn Brancheau and the mistreatment of animals through many series of interviews of ex-trainers, experts on orcas, orca hunters, and eye witnesses of gruesome experiences. She accompanied her interviews with an array of video clips to back up her interviewer 's testimonies for her film. Cowperthwaite built her argument against Seaworld by using various examples of ethos, logos, and pathos. She used them with skill to make a strong and convincing argument with solid logic and without using any logical fallacies.

Logos is excellently used in several parts of the film: A few stuck out for being well-backed by facts and logic. In the documentary, Cowperthwaite used a series of video clips where Seaworld had trainers saying false information about orcas’ life span lasting from 25-35 years when earlier in the film an expert on orcas stated that orcas could live until they’re 100. They even had another man state that Seaworld has the fake perception that orcas live until their 25-35 because none of their orcas have lived past that point. The clips following the man’s statement were series of different tour guides, trainers, and “Specialists” saying that orcas have this false life span. There was interviews with actual whale researchers and specialist saying that wild orcas live up to 100 years. The viewer of this documentary is going to believe an actual research or specialist over a simple animal trainer. The former trainers in the film admit to believing what they’re told by SeaWorld and now they know that the information SeaWorld told them was false. Seaworld made another false accusation when trainer Keltie Bryne fell into the pool and was pulled under by the six-ton orca Tilikum. Sealand of the Pacific said she drowned, but many people witnessed her getting pulled under. There were photos and videos, but Sealand continued to make this claim until they were eventually shut down and Tilikum moved to SeaWorld

Since she couldn’t obtain that said interview, she couldn 't offer a strong counter argument, or offer many other solutions than the solutions she offered. Since she couldn’t create a strong counter argument she couldn’t offer many other options and it makes you think she doesn’t realize the other options available for the situation but really she’s trying to build her argument off of what she found out. The second downfall to her argument was her credibility. Cowperthwaite stated “I set out to understand this incident not as an activist, but as a mother (who had just taken her kids to SeaWorld) and as a documentary filmmaker (who can’t let sleeping dogs lie).” Cowperthwaite is by no means a whale expert but she tries her best to find out and research her information to create her supporting argument.

In conclusion Gabriela Cowperthwaite made a strong argument using ethos, logos, and pathos with only having two small downfalls to her argument. She touch the viewer 's hearts by using fact, reason, emotion, and appeal to authority. Blackfish was a documentary with a good argument that showed the viewers that we need to help not only the orcas but help and protect the trainers who work for