The 2012 film “Act of Valor” utilizes ethos pathos and logos in its movie trailer. The clip begins with a man’s voice speaking into a radio and scenes of zodiac boats and soldiers with assault rifles and machine guns before showing the words, “THE CHARACTERS IN THIS FILM ARE PORTRAYED BY ACTIVE DUTY U.S. NAVY SEALS”. These words alone are enough to convince most of the prospective viewers to see the film, as the Navy SEAL’s have an almost mythical level of combat capabilities in the minds of most of the Americans, and this is an action movie about combat. This establishes the Ethos of the movie, as the United States Military is the most trusted institution in America, and the Navy SEALs are an even more elite branch of that. Most action movies hire retired soldiers to advise them on how combat scenes should be set up and run, yet this movie has those advisors as the stars. This would create a much more realistic fighting sequence and allow for better transitions in the combat scenes, as the actors would be the experts themselves. Utilizing Active Duty Navy SEALs adds to the Pathos of the film, as they are still the poster child of the U.S. Military after it was announced that they spearheaded the raid that killed Osama bin Laden on May 2nd 2011. This event and the details that were subsequently released about it by various politicians have thrust the Navy SEALs into the front of all of our minds and draw up a strong sense of patriotism in most Americans whenever they are mentioned. This scene adds to the Logos of the film, as who could create a better action movie about Navy SEALs than the SEALs themselves? Actors have tried and failed in the past with movies like the 1990 film “Navy Seals” with Charlie Sheen and the Arnold Swarchenegger film “Commando”. By showing this one sentence in the trailer for the film, the director has appealed to the ethos, pathos, and logos of the audience in a very convincing manner.
Through watching the trailer for the movie, you can clearly tell that it is an action movie, as there are multiple shooting scenes, fast boat scenes, skydiving scenes and explosions. While none of the Actors are recognizable, this should be expected as they are not professional actors, but rather are Warriors and have never been on film before. The trailer for the movie has an almost constant flow of different action scenes, but also breaks it up with a brief description of their family lives to show that it is not just one explosion after another. All in all this film will probably be most desirable to those who have had dreams of being in the military or have family in the military, as well as the all around action fan. Americans with a strong sense of Patriotism may also be drawn to the movie even if they typically would not watch this sort of film, while movie critics would probably say that the acting in it is horrible. Overall, this movie did an outstanding job of selling itself to its audience and I give it 5 popcorn tubs.
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