Food Inc.

The movie Food Inc. is a documentary about slaughter houses, food manufacturing and other food related subsets. Overall the argument claim across as putting certain industries in a negative light, as well as anyone who eats meat. The film realize heavily on visuals, this is not to say commentary and text was not used, but majority was visual. The commentary used statistics and facts creating ethos. The commentators were introduced by pinning the name to the corner of the screen, creating a smooth transition from opening narration to discussion speakers. To add tot he ethos the commentators career, or work of literature, was tacked onto the name.

The film used sign posts to separate the films main topics. The screen would go black as a simple display of texts acted as a header giving the viewer a good sense of direction. Text was also used in between commentators and visuals. When word text was used it seemed to be stating facts that followed a rather negative notion and added to a somber tone.

Pathos seemed extremely prevalent when it came to the use of personal anecdotes. The story of a mother losing a child due to industry management appealed to the viewers sympathy towards mourners. Also it warrants that people do not like to see animals being treated any less than how domestic animals are usually treated, so they show disturbing images of malnutrition and horrid living conditions.

The language is simple and easy for anyone to understand. While the sources are credible and commentators are of literary merit the sentences are short to median and simple. The ideas behind what is being said are more drawn from the audience instead of being drawn out by the speaker. This makes viewers more self aware because they are not simple being told what they should think about the situations, but rather given a situation that makes them evaluate what they think.

The music was also a contributing factor to the mood. Even in the beginning while showing images of pristine farms and green pastures, a way of life untouched by moder society the music created a sense of darkness and scepticality (i'm aware this isn't a word...i really don't know what to say in its place at the moment) about the images being shown. The music switched from happy to somber giving the viewer, in a way, an emotional queue.

Overall the documentary was effective in a sense making people aware of things they may have been previously ignorant of before. The combination of facts, visuals and well mapped out video order made it easy for viewers to understand the information it was portraying as well as create the same feeling toward the food industry that the film had: a negative one.