Katy Grunenwald

Multimedia Writing and Rhetoric

Film Analysis
2/22/15

Glory
Most Americans have a basic knowledge of who Martin Luther King Jr. is and
what he did. Many also know about certain goals of the Civil Rights Movement and its
effects; fewer, however, know of the specific occurrences in Selma, Alabama in 1965.
Selma focuses in on the three marches led by Martin Luther King Jr. from Selma to
Montgomery protesting for the enforcement of equal voting rights for African Americans.
The film dives into the complex and united effort that was required to create such
profound political change. The president at the time, Lyndon B. Johnson, was stubborn
and unwilling to do more than temporarily pacify the people, and Governor Wallace was
unwilling to support the efforts to further black equality. The first march from Selma was
met by law enforcement on the Edmund Pettus Bridge where the Sheriff deemed the
march to be an illegal gathering and public disturbance and ordered the state troopers to
attack. The traumatic events on the bridge account for that days remembrance as
Bloody Sunday. During the Second attempt to march from Selma to Montgomery the
state troopers moved aside, but fearing it was a trap Martin Luther King Jr. made the
decision to turn retreat and avoid any more casualties. The outcome of the final march
from Selma was one of success and followed by a speech by Martin Luther King Jr. in
front of the Alabama State Capitol building. The actions of these marchers put pressure

on politicians, Johnson in particular, and led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of
1965. Besides providing much historical value, the film Selma can also be viewed with
rhetorical significance.
Before discussing one of the particular arguments found in the film, however, it is
necessary to define rhetoric and explain how a film can be seen as argumentative.
Rhetoric is not a word with a clear definition attached; it is a complex concept and has
different connotations to different people. Herrick defines the art of rhetoric as the
systematic study and intentional practice of effective symbolic expression (7). With this
definition it is apparent that rhetoric is used in all forms of human communication and
has a couple key characteristics such as an intended audience and a goal of persuasion.
Rhetoric can take many different shapes, for example, it can be a verbal conversation, a
painting in a gallery, or as in this case a film. (Herrick 5-12). Film is a unique kind of
rhetoric because it combines visual motion picture with sound. These two elements
combined can serve very successfully to inform and persuade viewers to take a certain
stance on any given issue. At first glance Selma is a movie attempting to inform people
about our past and show how far we have come from the rampant racism that used to
prevail in the South, but there are many arguments, one could claim, that the film makes.
Selma persuades its viewers of the pivotal role of media in shaping the Civil Rights
Movement and stresses its ongoing pervasiveness in todays society and issues. It does
this by using the rhetorical devices of perspective, appeals, and arrangement to emphasize
the importance of media.
One of the rhetorical devices employed in the film is perspective. The presence of
a tall, white reporter in a telephone booth during the Bloody Sunday scene forces

viewers to see the event through a different lens, which affects the events meaning.
There are numerous reporters shown throughout the movie, but this one in particular
shows up many times, each time adjusting the context of the situation. During the
Bloody Sunday scene, when the troopers attacked the people attempting to march over
the bridge to Selma, the frames go back and forth between marchers being attacked and
beaten, and the reporter standing in a telephone booth on the side of the road, narrating
everything thats happening around him. The marchers are shown in slow motion, being
beaten to the ground, running into fog, and trying to help others up, all bloody and
disheveled. These images juxtapose the image of the reporter frantically gasping into the
telephone and trying to describe the brutality surrounding him. By showing this climactic
scene with such an emphasis on the reporter, great importance in is turn placed on media
and its communication between people. This arrangement and inclusion of the reporter
potentially changes the feelings that the scene evokes from pity and empathy to a call to
action, to spread the word and make a difference. Each change in context produces a
change in meaning it is also dependent on the context in which the image is presented
and the viewers who interpret it (Sturken and Cartwright 25-29). This reporter obviously
recognized how historically significant this moment would become and viewers see that
his first instinct is to call someone and report the facts.
Another way in which the film displays the impact that media has on social
movements is through emotional appeals. Appeals are those symbolic strategies that
aim either to elicit an emotion or to engage the audiences loyalties or commitments
(Herrick 13). An example of this in the film is after the Bloody Sunday scene, the
following frames show white Americans sitting in their homes, watching the televised

footage of the beatings. As the violence unfolds their faces drop in horror, and many
begin to cry out in shock and sympathy. This dramatic scene serves to show the lack of
awareness amongst many US citizens in terms of the prevalent racism in the South. The
effect that this broadcasting has on the movement becomes apparent when supporters
assemble for the next march and the group nearly doubles in size. Numerous white clergy
and other Caucasian supporters came out for the event, a pivotal turn of events for the
Civil Rights movement. The support that these televised stories garnered for the
movement was of immense importance in getting the attention of politicians. It was no
longer just a minority uprising; they were facing a united front of people working for a
common goal. Obviously there were differences in how people wanted to accomplish
change, but what mattered was the fact that all those people, black and white, were there
advocating change, and that was all it took to scare President Linden B. Johnson into
reconsideration. None of this would have been possible if not for the emotional appeal of
watching innocent people being beaten by law enforcement patrollers.
A third technique the film uses is arrangement. The order of events in Selma
argues for a set of causes and effects. In this situation, the cause is media and the effect is
change. Media directly affects President Johnsons reputation, thereby indirectly
persuading him to initiate change through the Voting Rights Bill. One of the main
struggles of the Selma Voting Rights Movement was with legislation, and trying to
persuade Lyndon B. Johnson to push laws forbidding the unequal treatment of voting
registries based on skin color. After the first march Martin Luther King Jr. said The
President could stop this with a stroke of his pen. He chooses not to. Despite his
persistence King could not seem to convince President Johnson to pass legislation in

favor of black voting rights. There is a distinct change in Johnsons opinion after the
second march, however, and there are many signs throughout the film that point to media
as the leading cause of this change. After Bloody Sunday there is a scene in the movie
in which Lyndon B. Johnson is shown a newspaper headline that displayed an image of
an African American woman being beaten by patrollers. This scene and his reaction to the
story are critical in explaining why Johnson then tells Governor Wallace that he needs to
get a handle on the situation. Johnson cant have this negative event attached to his
reputation and political career, and this motivates him to attempt to pacify the protestors.
Again after the second march Lyndon B. Johnson meets with Wallace and seems to have
had a complete change in opinion. He explains to Wallace that the people want change so
change is what theyre going to get; he says that he doesnt want to end up like him
(Wallace), viewed as a villain. Right after this scene the film cuts to people across the
country listening to the President announcing that he is sending the Voting Rights Bill to
the Senate. He even uses the movements own slogan of we shall overcome. Johnsons
reaction to the newspaper headlines and obvious concern about his image prove that his
decision to support the Selma Movement was greatly impacted by the media. Media not
only spreads information but in terms of famous figures like the president can make or
break his public approval, which in turn makes it a very powerful tool in social activism.
Strategically placing scenes that show media negatively affecting Johnsons reputation
right before his change in opinion and legislation persuade the viewer that the media
caused this change.
Critics could argue that the directors of the film didnt intentionally employ these
techniques to send a message about medias role in activism, but all combined there is no

way it could just be a coincidence. Beyond arguing that media played an influential role
in the Civil Rights Movement, Selma points to a larger argument for its perpetuating
importance in current issues. This is easily recognized in the song, Glory, that played
during the credits of the film that contained mentions of Ferguson and other lyrics such
as: the war is not over, Selma is now, and right the wrong in history. The film calls
us to learn from mistakes made in our countrys past and apply the tools we have today to
avoid those mistakes in dealing with current social issues. This ties in with media and its
evolution since the 1960s into even more a major part of our culture. The film calls us to
utilize the increasingly social aspect of media to promote awareness and political change
and to fight racism. The film argues that events like Ferguson prove that the war is not
over and gives its viewers the inspiration and techniques to make a change.

Works Cited
Herrick, James A. The History and Theory of Rhetoric. 2nd ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon,
2001. Print.
Legend, John and Common. Glory.
Selma. Dir. Ava DuVernay. Perf. David Oyelowo, Carmen Ejogo, Tim Roth. Paramount
Pictures, 2014. Film.
Sturken, Marita and Lisa Cartwright. Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual
Culture. Oxford University Press, 2009. Print.