Rhetorical Analysis Of Burzynski: Cancer Is Serious Business

As the camera zoomed in onto a sad little girl after the loss of her sister, I realized that the documentary, Burzynski: Cancer is Serious Business would be a difficult film to watch. Movies that depict dying children are often full of drama and heartache and this was no different. I was appalled at the treatment of these poor innocent patients and their families, and the movie had just begun. As I continued to watch the movie; however, my opinion changed from outrage that the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would be so corrupt and unjust, to realizing that maybe the movie was playing with my emotions. Although effective in using good rhetorical strategies, the viewer must separate emotion and drama from lack of evidence and

Burzynski as a doctor solely trying to help patients that would likely die without his treatment. The movie uses convincing rhetorical strategies throughout to make its case that antineoplastons are only being denied because the FDA is victimizing a doctor. Most effective were the countless stories presented by the patients’ families begging that a father or son’s life be saved all the while dramatic music played in the background. Unfortunately, this movie provided these patients with a “false hope” because the claims were not statistically proven. Although the movie credited antineoplastons as the “most important discovery in cancer treatment – ever” (Burzynski), clinical evidence as well as dangerous results do not support this biased claim. Upon further research, the antineoplaston treatment did not follow proper protocol for the clinical trials, and the treatment was found to be dangerous in some cases. Because of these omissions, the documentary manipulates the viewer into believing its embellished claims. The real travesty is that Dr. Burzynski was selling false hope in a medicine bottle, and desperate families were willing to blindly take the treatment instead of seeking protection from the