Speech RA

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106611/quotes

This is a link to a quotes page for the movie "Cool Runnings". The part that I wanted to discuss is a scene that is quoted on this page where John Candy's charachter goes to talk to the board of directors for bobsledding at the Olympic games. The reason for it is that his team has just been disqualified based on embarrassment to the sport. The speech is pretty short, but I think it carries a lot of substance.

The scene begins with the character, Irwin, charging into the office very upset. The quoted part on this page starts a little after the scene actually begins. He asks a little bit for their reasonings and gets even more upset when their main reason is the problem of embarrassment, despite the fact that his team qualified based on time. He turns the argument around on them and shows them how childish their complaint is by saying "I'm sorry, I didn't realize four black men in a bobsled could make you blush!" Then he focuses in on the head of the board, who happens to be his old coach and relates what he feels is probably the main reason behind his team's expulsion: His old coach wanted payback for Irwin cheating back when they went to the Olympics and having their gold medal taken away. He lays it all out, so that everyone is on the same page and understands the issue. This to me is a form of logos, because by clearly stating the issues the problem can be seen from a more logical perspective.

He then makes what I see as another appeal to logos by saying that if they should just disqualify him, the coach, and not his whole team, which based on points already made, is a logical argument. Then he turns to pathos, by bringing up that his guys have done everything that was asked of them with everyone laughing in their faces. You can't help but feel sorry for those guys and definitely guilt if you're the one who was laughing at them. The next appeal to logos is to the feeling of pride that comes with the Olympic games, especially for people who head and organize the program. He reminds them of what the games are all about, and says that by doing what they're doing they are forgetting that. It's a powerful message to me as someone who loves the Olympics.

In the movie, the speech ends up having the desired affect when his team is reinstated, but even if that weren't the case the argument is sent home very well, and it is well adapted for his audience. These men are in charge of how the Olympics run and he shows them that they are missing the point of it all. Even if they were to not reinstate him, they could not completely fail to respect the message that he sent them.