Do you like British football, bar-brawls,
and Elijah Wood? Yes, you read that right, I said Elijah Wood. I personally had
a hard time picturing Wood, who’s most famous role was that of the humble
hobbit Frodo, doing macho things like getting a tattoo and fighting in the
streets with a rowdy group of football fans. If you are still curious what that
looks like, then you’ll love the movie Green
Street Hooligans. After watching the trailer, the movie is a sports-themed
drama that targets for an audience of mostly 18- 30 year old men due to the
rowdy drinking and fighting behavior. There may also be a small attempt to draw
in 20-something year old women through the use of eye-candy. Within the Green Street Hooligans trailer the
viewer is exposed to different rhetorical devices in the form of ethos, logos
and pathos.
The only actor that is recognizable
within the trailer is Elijah Wood, and showing him within the trailer provides all
three appeals. Using a well-known star like Elijah in the movie is an appeal on
emotions, or pathos, because many people have great fondness for him as Frodo,
the lovable little Hobbit. He is also used as an appeal to ethos, because of
his credibility he’s gained with Lord of
the Rings fans. Those fans could be enticed to see Green Street Hooligans because he has already shown evidence of his
talent as a great actor. This appeals to logos. Elijah Wood as the leading role
was not the only emotionally driven casting choice. The character Pete, played
by Charlie Hunnam, was as well. Hunnam is a prime example of an attractive bad-boy
type character, which appeals to women’s sexuality. When they show a scene of
Hunnam walking across the screen with no shirt on, I knew that this was
specifically targeted towards the female crowd.
Although men may be drawn to see this movie because they are Frodo fans,
or like drunken behavior, the women are drawn in by the attractive co-star. In Everything’s
an Argument by Andrea Lunsford, she explains “emotional appeals are
powerful tools for influencing what people think and believe. We all make
decisions, even important ones, based on our feelings” (38). I’m sure that
people watching this trailer may watch this movie after seeing a half-naked
Hunnam or the recognizable Elijah Wood.
Near the end of the trailer the words
“Honor, Love, Loyalty, and Stand Your Ground” flash on the screen in between
some bonding scenes of the football firm. The background color of the words are
in a bluish-green color, which Louis Giannetti of Understanding Movies, writes is a
soothing, tranquil and serene color that can affect a viewer’s mood (22). After
showing a number of fight scenes that contained blood and violence, they
brought the attention away from the chaos and back to a calmer, peaceful
statement of friendship and self-respect. These words appeal to both
pathos and ethos. When you see words like “Loyalty” and “Honor” you think about
one’s ethical morals and standards. You start to ask yourself “Would I stand my
ground against a gang of men and fight for my honor alongside the other men in my
firm?” To many people the words are also related to thoughts and emotions from
their past. “Stand Your Ground” is the
main lesson that Elijah’s character learns, and is the overall message that the
trailer tries to convey to the audience.
Although the trailer does not reveal
what the movie is rated, it also does not try to hide it. By showing numerous violent
fight scenes it is clear that the movie is not for younger children and
therefore eliminates a range of younger audiences. Even though the movie is not
for children, I still think the trailer does a good job at appealing to a broad
range of both male and female adults. I give the Green Street Hooligans trailer 2 tickets!
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