Battlefields and Big Macs Documentaries a Comparative Essay

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Battlefields and Big Macs

Documentaries

A Comparative Analysis of Documentary Styles

The role of documentary film in helping to shape and inform American culture has become increasingly apparent, especially in the last decade. The ability of nearly anyone to create and distribute documentaries cheaply and effectively using home computer software and video sharing sites like YouTube has created a diverse body of documentaries available with the click of a button. They are not all good, not all accurate, and some may not even be ethically or legally sound, but if they are powerful enough and relevant enough, they can move people and even governments to act. We have seen this recently with the independently produced documentary "Kony 2012," a 29-minute film that portrays the atrocities committed by Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony. Posted on YouTube in early March, the film got over 100 million hits in one week, and prompted renewed focus by the U.S. Congress to find and capture Kony.

Part of what makes documentaries so powerful is their unique mix of cold fact and human drama.

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A filmmaker's talent at balancing these two forces is often the secret behind a successful documentary. This balance can be difficult to achieve, however, in expository documentaries, where the focus is on offering accurate and thorough information in a way that still resonates emotionally with the viewer. One beautiful example of a successful expository documentary is Ken Burn's series The Civil War, which first aired on PBS in the fall of 1990. There is no question that the film is expository in nature -- Burn was aiming to present as much detail about the war as accurately as possible, with no apparent agenda but to enlighten the viewer. However, it was important to Burns that he also present what he called the "emotional archaeology" of the war as well as the facts and figures (Burns 2002).

In order to portray this emotional landscape while still staying true to the expository format, Burns relied….....

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