Blog #11

 

I decided to analyse the movie, “The Room” for my paper. The film was released in 2003 and many critics claim it to be one of the worst movies to ever appear on the big screen. Tommy Wiseau is the man responsible for directing, producing, and starring as the main character in the movie. To put it simply, he is strange beyond belief and you could easily figure this out by watching the movie. In a few interviews with the media he has repeatedly said that the intended audience was everybody because the movie was about life and that everyone could learn something new each and every time they watch the film. Unfortunately for Tommy, his original intention was shot down when the film received countless awful reviews for being so poorly produced. So bad in fact that it is actually superb in a select few people's eyes. Pathos, in my opinion is the most important rhetorical technique in play in the movie. Extremely bad character and plot development in my opinion creates a strong emotional sensation to a viewer of the movie. Humour, derived from the atrociousness that is the movie is the main reason why this movie appeals to so many people to this day. Therefore, this movie can only appeal to people who have a unique sense of humour to say the least. For example, one scene has the main character attempting to comfort his friend when he is embarrassed that he left his underwear in his apartment only to be discovered by an elder women. Scenes like this really are only funny because they are absurd and random, but they somehow are successful in garnering the attention of people who appreciate this type of comedy.

I commented on both Victor's and Donovan's blogs.

Blog #10

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKYKyIObXyMInfomercials, in my opinion are absolutely hilarious. Especially ones that are so ridiculously stupid that they don't end up doing anything at all. This is the case for the HD sunglasses. The company tries its hardest to try to make something as illegitimate as this, a serious product. The target audience seems to be everyone, but more specifically middle aged men and women because those are the only types of people being “interviewed” during the commercial. Because of this, I think that the commercial appeals somewhat to “ethos” for the main reason of them being mature looking people.

Although the company surely did not intend on having humour as being a component of their advertisement, I feel something as goofy as this might make people like me go out and buy these things (like I did recently) for the sole fact of it making a funny story. This commercial definitely appeals to “logos” because the glasses are used during an experiment on a sunny day while driving to reduce glare. The results are miraculous, with the glasses magically appearing to cut dangerous glare from the sun.

I don't know how they did it, but it seems that the people who came up with the idea with this did an excellent job with their commercial. It is extremely persuasive. They advertise the product as being very inexpensive as compared to some renowned brand of HD glasses. Also they throw in a free pair which makes this all the more enticing.

I commented on Bryan's and Linden's blog.