Director, writer, and producer, Gabriella Cowperthwaite, in her documentary, Blackfish, describes the shameless hunting and treatment of killer whales. Cowperthwaite’s purpose is to persuade us into opening our eyes to the reality of what we are doing to killer whales by confining them in captivity. She invents an emotionally wrenching tone in order to transmit to the adult viewers that living in captivity may not be acceptable life for the whales. The film effectively showed that the whales should not be kept in captivity by giving the audience examples of their signs of aggression and displays of emotion.
In 2013, the documentary called Blackfish was released, a story about a killer whale that over the years at SeaWorld killed several people. It highlighted some of the major problems with animals in captivity. SeaWorld, known for having several different animal attractions; Dolphin Cove, Dolphin Nursery, Orca Underwater Viewing, Shark Encounter, Wild Arctic (Habitat) and many more. The organization first started with the intention of learning more about animals in order to educate the public about different behaviors of each animal. Trainers at Seaworld are offered the opportunity to get hands-on training with animals and are eventually are allowed to entertain the public with the skills they have acquired. Over the years there has been controversies with the way SeaWorld treat the animals and the type of behaviors animals portray as a result of its enclosures. SeaWorld's defense of capturing
“We can tame and love wild animals so we should capture them, to educate and entertain humans.”
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.
Blackfish is a 2013 movie directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite it concerns an orca named Tilikum which is held at SeaWorld. The movie speaks of the present incarcerated killer whales living at the SeaWorld Park. The film uses many forms of rhetorical strategies, such as pathos, ethos, and logos to positively persuade the audience of their argument. Ethos, Pathos, and Logos are three persuasion tools used both in Julius Caesar and in Blackfish. Ethos is persuading through the character of the author. Pathos is convincing through the attraction of the reader's emotions. Logos is the persuasion through logic. In Julius Caesar, Mark Antony uses these strategies to turn the Roman crowd against the conspirators with a very convincing speech. Also, in
The documentary film Blackfish, by Gabriela Cowperthwaite, is a daring venture, which claims that orcas in captivity become dangerous to human beings, as well as to other orcas. Cowperthwaite points to SeaWorld, in particular, since this world-renowned tourist attraction has had many examples that support her claim. In producing this film, Cowperthwaite hopes to bring about an end to SeaWorld’s practice of using killer whales as performance animals since the limited environment is ultimately doing more harm than good for both the whales and their trainers. The purpose of this rhetorical analysis will be to determine whether Blackfish offers a compelling argument.
Blackfish written by Gabriela Cowperthwaite. From the start attraction at Sealand of the Pacific in 1969, the aquarium grew attention for their orcas that would perform. Years later a two year old whale was captured and arrived in 81’. His name was Tilikum, coming in at two years old and 4,000 pounds. How do you go about taking orcas out of their setting, changing how they feel, and go about certain lies of how situations occurred? Why was Tilikum to blame? What really happens when you take orcas out of their natural habitat?
This documentary uses a lot of rhetoric devices throughout the entire movie. The purpose is to attract attention to the slaughtering of dolphins in Taiji, Japan. They want to attract attention to this matter because not only is this very cruel to these animals but it is also poisoning the civilians of Japan for eating dolphin meat because dolphin meat is very toxic with mercury. The audience of this documentary would be the civilians of Japan who are unaware of this situation as well as anyone who does not know about this situation. The documentary uses pathos by showing videos of these slaughterings taking place through hidden cameras placed around the cove where the slaughterings take place. One video is an underwater video that shows how clear the water is and then as the slaughterings begin the water instantly turns bright red due to all of the blood. This connects to pathos because it will make the viewer very sad because of these animals being slaughtered in a cruel way. The filmmaker’s argument in this documentary is that the dolphin slaughtering that is practiced in
This shows how determined and active Ric O’Barry and his team are as they are willing to do anything to protect the dolphins. In the beginning of the documentary, Ric risks his freedom releasing the imprisoned dolphins. This proves how Ric is a good global citizen because he risked his freedom for the dolphins. I believe that Ric and his team are active and good global citizens as they take extreme measures to raise awareness for the dolphins.
To begin with, I am against whale captivity. I will be telling you three thing and then how I feel about them. So I hope you are ready to listen. LET 'S GO!!!!
In 2010, a well-known trainer of SeaWorld Orlando, Dawn Brancheau was murdered during a performance with Tilikum the orca in front of an audience. Blackfish claims the incident was caused from anger, although, SeaWorld claims the accident was due to trainer error. Psychologist explains how humans could also become mentally ill if one was to live in a crowded bathtub for an extensive period of time. Blackfish predicts the reason behind Tilikum’s bizarre outbreak with Brancheau was because he had grown mentally unstable and furious due to his captivity. It is said if the orcas have a healthy mind and body, they will hold a more cheery lifestyle. SeaWorld believes stunt training the orcas help achieve exercises for their minds as well as keeping
In 2013, Gabriela Cowperthwaite directed the documentary Blackfish. This documentary is about Tilikum, an orca from SeaWorld that has taken the lives of many trainers. The documentary makes the claim that orcas should be freed from captivity. While in captivity they are causing harm to both themselves, humans, and the other orcas. Blackfish is a great example of an argument that can be rhetorically analyzed because it has pathos, ethos, and logos.
The documentary Blackfish, directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite released in July 2013, explores the mistreatment of killer whales and the relationship between the killer whales and trainers as well as the significant problems of the sea-park industry, with a focus upon SeaWorld. Cowperthwaite positions the audience to feel sympathy towards the killer whales by making deliberate choices in sound, visual, language, and structure through the representation of trainers as unprofessional, and whales as mistreated, also experts as reliable information source.
Zoos and aquariums have been around since the times of the Romans and the Egyptians. Although the zoos and aquariums have adapted since those times, they still have the same concept behind them. Although zoos and aquariums have been around for ages, over the decades, controversy about these two places have grown. Although most people don’t think anything of it, there is a huge debate as to whether zoos and aquariums are acceptable or not. This topic can be very touchy to some people and can sometimes cause disputes. People such as animal activists go against zoos and aquariums and try to show the problems with zoos and aquariums. Some of the issues they bring up about these places is that it is inhumane to keep these animals
SeaWorld has been in the spotlight for several years now. Whether it is negative or positive publicity, someone is talking about SeaWorld; from the new animal births at their facility, killer whales attacking their trainer and the sudden unexplainable deaths of many of their animals. In 2013 the documentary “Blackfish” explained how SeaWorld’s animals and staff are really treated. Since the release of Blackfish, SeaWorld’s image and attendance has gone down the drain. SeaWorld San Diego’s attendance is down 12% and SeaWorld Orlando is down 8% (Weisberg, 2015). People want to see change; some have even suggested SeaWorld closing for good and releasing all the animals back into the wild. However, preparing the animals to be released is costly