Hannah Vincent

Deliz

AP Comp & Lang

26 April 2024

One Small Step For Man, or was it? - Option #3, Rhetorical Analysis

Fallacies: mistaken beliefs based on unsound arguments. The documentary film, “The

Moon Landing: World’s Biggest Hoax” directed by John Hsu and Marco Lococo had a main goal

of convincing the audience that the theories behind the supposed ‘fabricated’ moon landing are

not as true as they seem. Hsu and Lococo were able to prove that the moon landing was a cannon

event while simultaneously using rhetorical strategies such as irony and disproving supposed

ethos in order to break down the opposing argument, that the moon landing was fake.

Irony was one of the rhetorical devices used throughout the entirety of the film. This form

of rhetoric was even used in the title to prove a greater purpose. The title of the movie claims that

the moon landing was the world’s biggest hoax. When reading the title, it could be inferred that

the movie would be focused on convincing the audience that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin

did not, in fact, land on the moon. In reality, instead of trying to defend the claim the title makes,

they disprove it instead, making the entire film ironic. This form of irony is able to convince the

audience thoroughly that the moon landing was a real event because it shows that while some

may have started the film ready or not, to be convinced of the fake moon landing, the film

directors show each side of that argument and slowly tear it down through carefully placed

evidence. Some may argue that the situations weren’t ironic due to their more serious nature. For

example, the directors interviewed a few Anti-moon landing activists, the activists in question

showing what seemed like proof and sound answers to prove their beliefs. But as serious as these
interviews may have gone, they were all going to be used to actually prove the activist beliefs

wrong using even more trustworthy answers and evidence. The only reason the interviews were

seen as serious was so that the directors of the film were able to show the audience the side of the

argument they were trying to disprove.

Irony relates to the other strategy used in the documentary, ethos. This form of

rhetoric was used through the disprovement of the ideas or fallacies of the non-believers of the

moon landing. For example, in the film, there was an experiment that an activist, formerly part of

NASA, showed one of the directors using a homemade vacuum seal chamber. The experiment

involved using a vacuum to suck out all of the air in a compact space, then using a glove attached

to the space, to prove the moon landing was fake by not being able to move the glove. Not

moving the glove successfully supposedly proved that the moon landing was not a real event,

believed by those who thought that this man was credible due to his former workplace setting.

By including this small experiment in the film, the directors were able to use a more professional

setting and scientific evidence to show that the experiment was actually an untrue representation

of what would actually happen in space. The film’s directors were able to tear down the ethos

built up by this activist who used his former job in order to get people to believe that he was a

viable source of information. Another way the directors were able to discredit ethos was when

they interviewed a retired scientist. This former scientist, who also was using his former job as a

source of ethos, showed the interviewers a rock said to be from the moon, and a rock from earth.

Looking through the camera lens he shows that there are no clear differences between them,

proving that the supposed moon rock was actually a plain old earth one. This argument, held up

mostly by his credibility, was easily disproved again by going into a lab and comparing the rocks

under a grade-A microscope that showed the real differences between both rocks. Disproving yet
another argument made by the scientist was able to help the directors build some ethos with the

audience by showing that although they may seem credible, the one with the viable evidence is

the one with the real ethos.

In conclusion, the documentary film called “The Moon Landing: World’s Biggest Hoax”

does not agree with the belief that the moon landing was fake but rather tries to prove that it was

true. The directors of the film were able to use irony and the disprovement of ethos in order to

ensure that their claim could be believed and trusted by the audience.