The trailer for American Sniper contains many appeals throughout the entire teaser but one in particular is extremely powerful. That would be the appeal of pathos. The opening scene involved Chris over looking his team while a voice overlapping stating he has been credited with 160 plus kills. This is the “hook” of the teaser, it definitely grabbed my attention and probably the rest of the audience as well. This is followed by an explosion with a sniper shot towards a car, the teaser is already showing how the tone of the film is relatively dark and surreal. The intensity of the emotion of killing so many people straight into war action such as, the explosion. The trailer goes back and forth between the civilian life and war time of Chris. Showing his wedding day right before his way into war. That’s another example of how this trailer uses emotions such as sadness, happiness, and fear to engage its audience and gain interest from different perspectives. Some scenes which are intense and full of emotion include him riding in a plane ride with caskets of US soldiers, punching a glass window while screaming to help his new born baby, and Chris breaking down at the bar. These scenes all have powerful emotions behind them which reaches to a variety of people. There’s one scene of him in a hospital that shows how temperament and mental state has changed from when he’s when he’s returned home. While the scene of him at the bar shows a broken down man affected from the tides of war. It’s made him and shows signs of relapses. His family connection is shown throughout trailer aswell. It convey’s the emotional aspect Chris Kyle’s phone calls which he makes to his wife, with combat interrupting through out, which gives slight panic to the wife who does not know what happening to him in these moments of time.
This teaser also displays the credibility of Chris Kyle. He’s an everyday American, who decided to join the Navy and go through the experience of all out war. This violence affects his character greatly. Going through war gives a measure of respect but also comes with some major battle scars. Being able to over come such an experience such as Chris Kyle went through is almost impossible. In the trailer, it displays his credibility by showing how even though you are a war hero that has many accomplishments on the battlefield, there are still struggles at home. The soldiers out in the battlefield trusted Chris Kyle with their lives everyday as they were the ones on the front lines striving confidently, as Chris has credibility in what he does. Chris Kyle however, also shows credibility by joining the searches through house to house combat. Also another perspective is the credibility of the writer and his choices for the movie and trailer are based off his real life biography.
The text is organized in a way that feels like an emotional roller coaster that goes through an array of emotions. They range from excitement to sadness, in a way that interests you in the story behind the war heroes life. Many Americans can relate to this situation and may impact them emotionally on a more personal level in which, can only be imagined by those who do not have loved ones leave. As he goes through his four tours throughout the movie, the trailer shows him going from the battlefield, to back home with his family and back to the battlefield. This repeats a couple of times and show how each tour affected him more and more. The affects of battle and having trauma from not saving his fellow brothers in arms or killing so many people.
The subject of the trailer is to show what the famous war hero, Chris Kyle went through in Iraq. It didn’t only affect him when he was at war, as he brought his life from the war back home to his wife and kids. The film, written by Jason Hall and directed by Clint Eastwood, went into great detail on the life of Chris Kyle. The medium of the trailer is an extended movie trailer. The trailer was obviously was targeted towards people who go to movies however, the length of the trailer is about two minutes long and is intended to be shown as previews to other movies and other forms of advertising such as “YouTube.” The intended audience for the movie was heavily targeted towards the American people. Many people can relate to the situation of loved ones in war or know of someone who does. The trailer also shows the reality of war with many intense battle and action scene. This adds a depth to the trailer that targets both action and drama movie goers. The over all purpose of the trailer was to attract a broad audience in the country to show Americans what Chris Kyle did for his country and how it can relate to many soldiers both at war and at home.
The appeal of logos includes the reasoning behind the trailer. The trailer goes in depth to how Chris’ life transforms so dramatically. As the trailer goes on, the intensity increases and shows the effects of all of it. The trailer shows a trend in which, is how Post Dramatic Stress Disorder(PTSD), affected him at home as well as on the battlefield. The scenes show him emotionally distraught such as, the scene involving him yelling at the nurses to help his daughter and him on the battlefield when he is screaming that he is “ready to come home,” when he is on the phone with his wife. These different situations affect him, and shows how it would feel. The images shown display the reasoning of the message on how such a dramatic experience can affect you. Chris Kyle is shown in a bar as he states that he just “needed a minute.” This shows that even though being away from his family fro so long, in such an intense experience, it is hard to even see your loved ones. This shows that the situation of Chris Kyle and the reasoning of the story is not only the great accomplishments on the battlefield, but also how the after effects affected his life. The emotional experience is the reasoning behind the story and the trailer.
In conclusion, the trailer appeals to many different emotions as well as authority of being based on a war hero Chris Kyle, who was honored highly. The scenes that show the emotion are organized in a way that intrigues the audience by appealing to multiple different types of people. The different types of appeals such as pathos, ethos and logos are present in the trailer and help show the message of the story. People that can relate to the situation instantly have an emotional connection. The trailer was made to appeal to movie goers and shows the official credits and future dates of movie release. I can personally say that the movie trailer for “American Sniper” did a very good job of appealing to my emotions and is a good representation of the movie. War is a reality that is a part of history and will continue to be as Albert Einstein states, ““So long as there are men, there will be wars.”