The overall movie is likely to impress a viewer greatly. Not only the plot and the essence of the film are about to amaze the viewers with various conceptions the director offers. Also, there are some effects that are not seen to the average audience; thus, this essay will reveal some of the techniques of using the language effectively in the movie called Zeitgeist: The Movie – 2007 by Peter Joseph. No wonder some non-commercial movies like Zeitgeist have a great impact and even sometimes turn a person’s image of this life just because it was filmed properly and had a strong desire to pursue specific theme. The directors are usually very keen on adopting various rhetoric techniques in order to gain the highest appraisal from the viewers.
It is important to outline, however, that the movie Zeitgeist (2007) does not by any means add a new discussion to the polemic of religion or whatever else. There were other prominent documentaries before, however, it has to be mentioned that the techniques are truly amazing though somewhat cheap in some episodes. Therefore, since the purpose of this paper is talking about how the author achieved the overall viewers’ impression rather than criticizing the movie’s content then I am going to investigate the techniques Peter Joseph used in every chapter of his documentary.
There are three chapters in a movie. Two of which reflect the new information and the third one is basically the impact of previous two on world’s events of the twentieth century. There is no doubt the author chose the most debatable questions that concern people throughout the world and across America. Those are the religious and 9/11 issues. To my opinion the two questions were from the start some very burning topics as religion is something unprovable and the 9/11 is what concerns everybody around.
From the very start of Zeitgeist (2007) people are being completely undeceived in their religious beliefs because the way the author talks about the proofs of anti-God theory is very reasonable. Subconsciously you begin thinking that Peter Joseph is right – hence establishes his authority – since there were several evidences presented on the existence of several “Jesus Christs” within different epochs. Thus, the author appeals to the viewer’s logic telling that there were the analogues of what the contemporary religion considers to be the only one true theological theory. In this case while the beliefs of a specific person are being shifted to some extent the authority of the author’s voice gains much power in order to present next evidences on the true origins of religion; moreover, the overall impression about the video is empowered by the explanation of the resurrection after the tree days’ death according to the real laws of astrology and nature on December 25th. “The sun dies on the cross was dead for three days only to be resurrected or born again”. Once again besides the logical appeal to the audience the movie includes several audio techniques such as, for example, stopping the music track during the above quote was said in order to draw special attention and show the crucial truth of everything argued. Moreover, there are endless parallels drawn throughout the movie in order to show the evident repetition of miracle birth and salvation of God’s son, the author gives those synchronically – this is more effective than just outlining the facts one by one.
All the World’s a Stage chapter is the most powerful one because it contains the images of the most tragic event of America. It describes vividly how the US government reacted to the warnings of the future tragedy sent by different countries from all over the world. Namely, the episode when little string typed extracts are shown on the screen for several seconds, for example: “Why was Russia’s intelligence on Al-Qaeda ignored?” – The author’s voice here is not put on the first place. However, if you watch the video the second time you can understand clearly that this method of rhetoric is excellent – you get strongly pursued argument in seconds which reinforces the impression.
The third chapter of the movie is overwhelming because of the author’s voice, indeed. Though the movie holds too much of the information in one movie, the most disappointing opinion is that Americans do not want to think much, therefore they do not need their children to be over educated. Here, I can’t but mention the persuasive tone of Jordan Maxwell who entails much of inverted insight of the viewer: “… they do not want your children to be educated; they do not want you to think too much. That is why our country … has become so proliferated with entertainments, … drugs, alcohol…”
To be honest, right after you get freshen up after watching the movie, you see that the real techniques acquired by the author are the propaganda techniques. However, there is nothing bad about that because movie makers have been feeding us with that for a long time before. Nevertheless, the naysayer Jay Kinney said in his review: “…after spending nearly two hours trying to scare the bejeezis out of its viewers, Zeitgeist ends on an oddly upbeat note, telling us that Love — not Fear — is the answer”. Though I consider the movie well-directed and cohesively filmed even though there were so many details proving the lie around us.