Rhetorical Analysis 3 - Speech (From Varsity Blues)

"Before this game started, Kilmer said, '48 minutes for the next 48 years of our lives.' Well I don't agree with that at all, alright? I think that's dead wrong. Let's go out there and we'll play the next 24 minutes for the next 24 minutes, and we'll leave it all out on the field. We have the rest of our lives to be mediocre, but we have the opportunity to play like gods for the next half of football! But we can't be afraid to lose! There's no room for fear in this game. If we go out there, and [give it less than our all] because we're scared, then all we're left with us is just an excuse. We're always gonna wonder. But if we could out there and give it absolutely everything . . . then that's heroic. Let's be heroes." --James Van Der Beek, Varsity Blues

Rhetorical Analysis 3 - Movie Speech from Varsity Blues: Word Count = 358

For my whole life I have either been active in playing football or at least surrounded by it. That’s one of the effects of being from Texas. It only makes sense that I tend to gravitate toward football topics, and movies are no exception.

My favorite football-related movie is actually Varsity Blues. The movie is all about a group of teenagers that have extreme pressure placed on them to perform well on their high-school football team, with a majority of that pressure coming from their coach. Eventually, the pressure on both sides is too much for either to bear; the coach nearly kills a player and then the players revolt. However, I don’t want to talk about the whole movie, just one specific speech that the stand-out, replacement quarterback gives.

The replacement quarterback, John Moxon, has only one motivation in his half-time speech during the last game of the season – convince his team that they can still win. Not to win for their coach or their families or the school or their town, but for themselves. His approach involves the argument that “anything is still possible if they give it their all”; they can still win if they play without fear of losing. This in an intense appeal to pathos because it plays on the emotions that the others have concerning winning and losing. He mentions that they can be normal for the rest of their lives, but this is their one moment to be god-like, and all it takes is to play without fear. Moxon provides more than sufficient motivation that their goal is plausible and delivers it in such a typical manner that it’s almost as cliché and jaded as a locker room speech can be, but somehow it never fails to inspire. The relevancy of his argument builds up perfectly and gives even the movie watchers chills up the spine. Naturally, it’s effective because at the end of the speech, all of the players are more psyched up than Moxon could have imagined and they eventually pull out the hard-fought victory. You just have to love a happy ending where everyone gets what they deserve.