Rhetorical Situation Statement

Rhetorical Situation Statement:

The 1993 documentary The War Room, directed by Chris Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker, chronicles the campaign efforts behind Bill Clinton’s first bid for President. The film focuses heavily on media representations of Clinton and how the campaign team, headed by James Carville and George Stephanopoulos maneuver the media, for better or worse, in Clinton’s favor. Ironically, despite the backdrop of Clinton propaganda, The War Room does more to reveal how Clinton’s public persona is managed behind the scenes than by the man himself.

“Thesis” Sentences:

Structurally, the film strongly parallels media footage of Clinton with firsthand coverage of the campaign office Carville and Stephanopoulos toil in back in Little Rock, Arkansas. This parallel starkly contrasts the shiny, packaged product of media representation with the unglamorous, hot-tempered manufacturers of it. Furthermore, by opening the film with an extended press conference scene concerning the Gennifer Flowers scandal, and an equally unflattering scene of Clinton fielding a phone interview, the film shows what a feat it must have been to portray this candidate as a potential leader of our country, lending a significant amount of credibility to the figures of Carville and Stephanopoulos.

Complete Intro Paragraph:

The 1993 documentary The War Room, directed by Chris Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker, chronicles the campaign efforts behind Bill Clinton’s first bid for President. The film focuses heavily on media representations of Clinton and how the campaign team, headed by James Carville and George Stephanopoulos maneuver the media, for better or worse, in Clinton’s favor. Ironically, despite the backdrop of Clinton propaganda, The War Room does more to reveal how Clinton’s public persona is managed behind the scenes than by the man himself. Structurally, the film strongly parallels media footage of Clinton with firsthand coverage of the campaign office Carville and Stephanopoulos toil in back in Little Rock, Arkansas. This parallel starkly contrasts the shiny, packaged product of media representation with the unglamorous, hot-tempered manufacturers of it. Furthermore, by opening the film with an extended press conference scene concerning the Gennifer Flowers scandal, and an equally unflattering scene of Clinton fielding a phone interview, the film shows what a feat it must have been to portray this candidate as a potential leader of our country, lending a significant amount of credibility to the figures of Carville and Stephanopoulos.