Letter Of Intent: Film Analysis

Superior Essays
In the documentaries “Bully” and “Letter of Intent”, both cover the subject of bullying in public schools and how it impacts people involved. Both films effectively use multiple rhetorical strategies to present their cases. The documentary “Letter of Intent” by Jared L. Cristopher was created with the purpose to support the idea that it is not schools that create bullies, but how you are raised that does. The documentary film by Lee Hirsch titled “Bully” on the other hand, was created in support of the argument that the administration does not do enough to stop bullying. Although both films have different arguments, they are both successful in getting their points across to the audience. The short documentary “Letter of Intent” intended for …show more content…
To get their point across, the documentary used long scenes, statistics, word choice, symbolism, on screen words and titles, close ups, old home videos, and lots of emotionally draining scenes that really tugged at the viewer’s heartstrings. The beginning of the film began with a few home videos which depicted how happy and carefree Tyler Long- a boy who later killed himself- used to be like before he became a victim of bullying. As Tyler’s parents spoke of his struggles which later lead up to his death, the camera panned in on their faces- specifically his Dad’s face- to show the deep hurt that they felt just thinking about what their boy had gone through. Later, when David and Tina Long- Tyler’s parents- organized for a town hall meeting concerning bullying, none of the teachers or school board members from Tyler’s school showed up to represent their school system. This suggests that the administration at the school did not think they were at fault for anything that could have made Tyler want to kill himself. Not only that, but they allowed students one day after Tyler’s death to go around the school with nooses around their necks without any repercussions for their insensitivity to the situation. In a similar way, the documentary also used multiple anger inducing scenes that portrayed just how neglectful some of the teachers from other schools were when it came to students being pushed around. Most, if not all of these scenes, were of assistant principal Lockwood and her inability to actually help any victim of bullying at the school she supervises. Once scene in specific, showed Lockwood speaking with Cody, a boy who was getting called a faggot at lunchtime. The camera pans in twice on Cody- one time on his hands to show nervous twitching as he speaks

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