Rhetorical Strategies in Expelled

One thing I really liked in the movie was all of the old movie clips, and I think they served as very effective rhetorical strategies. First of all, they provided visual interest and kept the viewer engaged in a serious topic that might have otherwise become uninteresting after a while. They also very effectively reinforced the ideas presented in the movie. At times, I think they even served as a way to send strong messages to the viewers—too strong to be put into words without attracting a lot of criticism. (I am thinking of several of the Nazi sequences, as well as the scene with the bully beating up the little boy. These are essentially saying that the people suppressing the Intelligent Design theory are not acting intellectually, but rather, are on the same level as big bullies—intellectual Nazis.) The repeated “Wall” imagery throughout the movie was also very effective. It really created the feeling that scientists and scientific research is being painfully suppressed, and gave Intelligent Design a sense of “forbiddenness.” It played up the “freedom in science” aspect of the movie, which was really the main focus. The movie wasn’t really saying that Intelligent Design is true, it only argued that it should at least be given the chance to be discussed, and I think the movie clips were very effective in reinforcing this.