Visual Arguments of Black Hawk Down and World Trade Center Trailers

In the trailers of Black Hawk Down and World Trade Center there is a sense of urgency and courage to the viewer. Both films start off with slow music and dark lighting so the viewer can get the depressed feeling. But then they start to speed up and the music tone gets higher and the light gets brighter. In Black Hawk Down it starts off as the USA wanting to help Somalia get food into the country for the poor people that are starving and the Somalian man in the beginning telling the general that it is their war and they don't need the help. Then they send in the soldiers and the militia shots the American helicopter down. It then turns into a rescue mission to get the soldiers out of the line of fire. This is a pathos appeal because of the emotional sense of the trailer. In both trailers the viewers feel emotional because of the courage that is shown and the heroic acts by the characters. It is the same way in the movie World Trade Center. The viewer feels the emotional weakness because of the horrible events that happened on that day. The trailer starts off slow and dark then turns light and the tempo becomes higher like the officers are going to have a normal day. After the planes start to hit and the events start to turn bad the music goes back down and the lighting goes back dark giving the viewer a sad and depressing feeling.

The previews are differint in ways as well. Black Hawk Down is a story of the United States trying to help another country when we did not really have to. But in World Trade Center the attack was brought to our home soil and we could do nothing to control the outcome of what had happened. As we see in Everything is an Argument, "Visuals can make very powerful appeals to emotion." (39)