"American Sniper" Movie Trailer Rhetorical Analysis  

"AMERICAN SNIPER." AMERICAN SNIPER. Warner Brothers, n.d. Web. 08 Feb. 2015

To protect our freedom everyday, our soldiers risk their lives to defend against the evil forces in the world.  During the war in Iraq also known as, "Operation Iraqi Freedom," a soldier named Chris Kyle served four tours of service.  A man well known for his accomplishments on the battlefield, earning himself the nickname, "Legend."  The movie based off of Chris Kyle's time during and after service, "American Sniper," shows the struggles of being a soldier off at war. The movie trailer appeals to the emotions of how the war affected his life at home.  The images in the trailer show how going through multiple tours and the drastic difference between the different worlds.  

The trailer contain many appeals throughout the scenes but one in particular is powerful.  That appeal is pathos, which is the emotion of the text.  The opening scene involved Chris over looking his teammates while a voice overlaps stating he has been credited with over 160 kills.  This is what I would identify as the "hook" of the trailer, as it grabbed my attention.  Followed by an intense explosion after a sniper shot towards a car, the trailer is already showing how the emotion of the film is.  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 civilian life and war time.  Showing his wedding right before him on his way to war, is another example of how the trailer uses emotions such as happiness, sadness and fear to engage its audience and gain interest from different perspectives.  Some scenes in which are intense in emotion include, him punching the glass while screaming to help his baby, a plane ride with caskets of US soldiers and Chris breaking down at the bar when he returns home.  These scenes all have powerful emotions behind them which reaches to many people. The scene of him in the hospital shows how temper mental he is when he returns.  While the scene of him in the bar shows how broken down war has made him and showing signs of relapses.  The family connection is shown throughout trailer and an emotional aspect is the phone call Chris Kyle makes to his wife, with intense combat interrupting which gives panic to the wife who does not know what happened to him.  
The trailer also displays the credibility of Chris Kyle.  An everyday average American, decided to join the Navy and going through the experience and all the war violence affected his character.  Going through war gives a standard of respect but also comes with 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.” 

Sources - 

"American Sniper - Official Trailer 2 [HD]." YouTube. Warner Bros. Pictures, 18 Dec. 2014. Web. 08 

               Feb. 2015.

"A Quote by Albert Einstein." Goodreads. Good Reads, n.d. Web. 08 Feb. 2015.

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"AMERICAN SNIPER." AMERICAN SNIPER. Warner Brothers, n.d. Web. 08 Feb. 2015.