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Casey Dugan Dr. McLaughlin WR 13330 27 February 2015 Selmas Persuasive PowerThe academy award nominated film Selma has been released around the 50th anniversary of the infamous march. After Martin Luther King Jr., leader of the civil rights movement in the United States, does not get the help his group needs from President Lyndon B Johnson, he turns toward peaceful protests in Selma, Alabama. Thousands gather for a peaceful march that is received with bigoted brutality by the police force and government officials. The movie begins to make an argument to persuade views to become sympathetic to the civil rights movement and chose a side on the current police brutality in the news. Rhetoric is the art of using a medium in a persuasive way to make an argument and through artistic techniques the director can make a commentary on their point of view. It is in a sense the way to most effectively convince people of an argument. Through the use of rhetoric, one is able to make a case for their point of view on a particular topic. There are a variety of devices one may make their case, for example audience connection, logic, ethics, symbols, and irony. In the case of film directors may employ visual effects in order to make the strongest possible connection with the audience, therefore making the strongest possible case. Selmas persuasive power stems from the director, Ava DuVernays, intentional choices in camera angle editing. These various camera angles work together in order to change the viewers perspectives on police brutality in the 1960s American South, as well as providing commentary on more contemporary debates about police brutality.The violence in Selma is generally perpetrated by the law enforcement and through the strategic use of camera angles employed by DuVernay; the effect of the brutality is augmented. Camera angles are important in film because they direct the audience to what they should be looking and what the director thinks is important in the scene. Close ups cause the view to focus on one thing, drawing their attention specifically to one object. Wide-angle shots emphasize the importance of the entire scene causing the view to take in the entire landscape at once. Camera angles in film help the director direct the audience throughout the movie. These brutal beatings are not only extremely violent but the angles extenuated their illegality. This brings forth a logic argument. The ironies of the law enforcement being the ones breaking the law are according to the University writing program proofs based in logic and reasoning. For example during a peaceful night march, one the police shoots, protester, Jimmie Lee Jackson, with no probable cause yet he faces no consequences. The juxtaposition between what should be and what is highlights the injustice of these law enforcement officers. During one riot sequence, the camera alternates between close-up shots of a bat being completely wrapped with barbed wire to a wide lens shot of protesters being beaten. The close up demands focus on the bat and its enhancements for brutality. The wide lens shot demands the audience see the bat in use and its effect on the victim and those around them. The wide lens allows the audience to see how many others are brutality-beating protesters with what the audience is allowed to assume is similar brutal objects. The close up of the bat with the barbed wire and then a panning shot of it being used on people work together in order to magnify the effect of the violence. As Lancioni states the close ups achieved through mobile framing and reframing enables viewers to experience the past on the intimate terms they have been conditioned to regard as reality(107). These close ups bring the viewer into the scene, causing them to feel sympathy. It makes the movie real, commanding the viewers attention and forcing them to acknowledge the atrocities. The scene calls the viewer to change their perspective on law enforcement always being the ones abiding by and protecting the law. Obviously the barbed wire bat is an illegal weapon yet it is being used by a police officer, who is essentially the law. The close up calls the viewer to activate their common assumption about how the bat is a weapon designed to inflict pain not just helping to enforce the law (Lancioni 109). Logically police officers should be the ones who defend what is right but in Selma they are defending what is wrong and literally against the laws of the country they are supposed to be protecting. As Herrick points out rhetoric often plays a critical social role in making determinations about what is true, right, or probable and the bat scene emphasizes the inhumane actions of the law enforcement emphasizing the social correctness of the African-Americans argument (21).As close ups and wide lens shots caused the audience to question their ideas of police brutality, so does point of view of a camera shot. The perspective of a camera angle can change the way a scene intends to be viewed. When in front of courthouse where all of Kings followers gather to obtain their right to vote, the officers tell them to disperse. As King says, we have a right to assemble the officers beat men in the street. The positioning in the street, and the way the camera positions looking from both sides emphasizes the tensions and between the sides in Selma. This increases the divide between the African-Americans and the law enforcement. Here the viewers can be counted on to bring their interpretation of thesequence (Lancioni 11). Depicting the scene as having two sides simplify the argument; the African-Americans are right because they are exercising their rights within the law, while the law enforcement is operating outside the bounds of it. The courthouse that the African-Americans are protesting in front of is the typical American architecture that is symbolic of the freedom and rights U.S. citizens have. Again there is juxtaposition between what the laws say should be and what is being done. It appears as if the law enforcement is what is standing between the African-Americans and what is rightfully theirs. The speed of a scene also effects the emotions and argument the film is making about the brutality of law enforcement. During the first few scenes of the film, when there are young African-American girls laughing and playing in the church stairwell, the movements seem choppy and pieced together. Unexpectedly a bomb explodes and time seems suspended with everything moving in slow motion. There is a mixture of childrens laughter and the loud boom of the bomb. The slow movement of the camera gives the views time to contemplate the scene and question its significance (Lancioni 110). This editing forces viewers to question why such an act would take place. Rhythm of the cutting allows views to make connections and form relationships between shots contributing to the connection between the church and further into the Selma (Lancioni109). Later on in the film when King is standing in front of a crowded church he acknowledges how the perpetrators of the bombing were never found, it brings to light how police brutality was not always physical but was alternatively committed through a lack of seeking justice for crimes. The camera during this scene has King in the foreground surrounded by a huge cross and organ, emphasizing his influence and power of his words. This particular bombing scene highlights innocence of victims and how unjust the system is that the men of this action went un-prosecuted.While the actual camera framing in the movie is important to DuVernays claim on police brutality, the medias use of framing in the movie is just as important to claim against police brutality. The media in Selma, itself, employed a rhetorical argument about police brutality through the news. Visual rhythms allows the views to construct meaning from shot content and context from the relationship from shot to shot and from the rhythm of the cutting of a scene (Lancioni 109). The visual rhythms during scenes where police brutality of the Selma march was streamed live across national television connect the brutality of the police to the sympathy spreading across the nation. This effect mirrors what the audience should be feeling. The rhythms of the scene switch from African-Americans being beaten to people crying on their couches to black and white television pictures of the march connect the Selma march to the larger civil rights movement happening across the country. When James Reeb, the priest sympathizer, says, I heard about the attack on innocent people. I couldnt just stand by after he has seen the television, he represents what the intended feelings of the audience were supposed to be. There is an extensive emphasis on media as the viewers see headlines of papers, television sets with new broadcasts and even police officers talking about how they need to act differently with the media present. This illustrates how important media framing of police brutality is within Selma is successful in causing both the viewers in the movie and in the audience to sympathize with the African-Americans and make them feel for the atrocities committed against them.Ethically, the sound and movie editing may de-humanize the law enforcement and not historically depict them properly. It is undeniable that the law enforcement in the movie is the bad guy and uniformly they commit these atrocious acts against the marchers. However this is not completely historically accurate as there were sympathizers in law enforcement. Rhetorically arguments should be grounded in ones best understanding of what is true yet in the movie there not acknowledgement of sympathy from the people with in the city of Selma from the white people (University Writing Press). Though the movie captures the unjust violence against African-Americans, it may do so at the expense of adhering to complete historical accuracy. There may be generalizations of the law enforcement and the people of Selma as a whole, as there are no sympathizing white characters that actually originate from Selma throughout the movie. Selma is successful in its argument to bring to light the injustice committed by the law enforcement against the African-Americans. Through close ups, cutting and placement DuVernay was able to use the past to comment on contemporary issues of police brutality. Today in the United States there is an ongoing debate on how police stemming from murders of African-American men. It becomes clear that Selma is a commentary on contemporary topics when Ferguson is mentioned in the final credits scene. Selma is asserting the police tactics specifically target African-Americans in unjust ways. It is clear that the demand for change that King calls for is also a demand for change in the present day. This also contributes as to why the trailer played contemporary music appearing to target the younger generation. When it played on television, scenes from the movie played over contemporary music although there were few contemporary elements in the actual movie. Especially during a march over a bridge in Selma, contemporary music played over the scene, giving an inspiring feeling. Selma wants to have the younger generation demand for a change, which is why DeVernay wanted them to see her commentary on police brutality. This makes a case for the younger generation being the target audience. The primary goal of the film was to comment on police brutality and demand a change. Contemporary issues led writers to craft this film based on the past that acknowledges how long African-Americans have been fighting this injustice. The camera angles through out the movie accentuate this commentary calling the viewers to focus on the important aspects. Selmas importance stems from its ability to connect the younger generation with a new story of civil rights rather than the typical I have a dream speech narrative. The entire movie is a reflection of a demand for equality and justice. Selma is synonymous with a need for change and for equality.

Works CitedHerrick, James A. "An Overview of Rhetoric." The History and Theory of Rhetoric. 2nd Revised ed. Boston: Allyn and Beacon, 2001. PrintLancioni, Judith. "Revisioning Archival Photographs in the Civil War." The Rhetoric of the Frame: Essays on the Boundaries of the Artwork. Ed. Paul Duro. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1996. 105-15. Print.Selma. Dir. Ava DuVernay. Perf. David Oyelowo, Carmen Ejogo, Oprah Winfrey, Tom Wilkinson, Giovanni Ribisi. Paramount, 2015. Film."What We Teach." University Writing Program. University of Notre Dame. Web. 25 Feb. 2015.