Alex Gibney, Ophelia Harutyunyan, and Suzanne Hillinger, in their documentary Totally Under Control, analyze the U.S government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. To highlight the failure of the US government to address the uprising pandemic, Gibney, Harutyunyan, and Hillinger use comparison and contrast, casual relationship, and visual representation. They adopt a serious and pragmatic tone in their documentary, as they appeal to their global audience’s logic and establish their credibility to explain the U.S government’s shortcomings to address the uprising pandemic and the reasoning behind much of it. Comparison and contrast is used throughout Totally Under Control, as the directors draw parallels between Korea and America’s responses …show more content…
Throughout Totally Under Control, the audience’s attention is directed to bold, and significant visual timestamps of the American government’s failure to respond capably to the oncoming rise of the coronavirus; such as January 3rd, which is regarded as the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak; January 18th, when actions like “convening disaster leadership meetings” were denied by the American government; February 26th, when Trump unseated Dr. Messonnier after her true, but devastating statements considering the severity of the coronavirus; and finally April, the month of the height of coronavirus related death due to the American government’s decision to reopen the borders of America for travel. Paired with these graphic timestamps are pictorial maps, displaying the amount of covid cases in America. These maps present growing areas of covid infested states as the timestamps progress. The images and diagrams in Totally Under Control are used to appeal to the audience’s understanding of the urgency of American action to quell the outbreak of COVID-19; in just about four months from the first reported covid case, national shutdown ensued, and thousands of deaths occurred. The timestamps are spread throughout the two hour documentary, and with the maps, are a reminder of how fast time and covid are spreading– and how little effective government action took place despite