"The 11th Hour" Through the Eyes of John Ramage

"The 11th Hour" written by Nadia Conners, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Leila Conners Petersen and directed by Conners and Petersen utilizes several appraoches to guide its audience to its core question. Using John Ramage's "Rhetoric and Persuasion II" we can see a meshing of questions that must be asked in relation to the film to achieve the full potential it has to impact humans. Ramage mentions five categories of questions, ending with the 'proposal question', with the idea that it often encompasses the other arguments. I believe that "The 11th Hour" follows this trend.

Ramage says that the 'proposal question' may start out as "a [definition of] the class of things to which the problematic element belongs" (Ramage 119). DiCaprio and the Conners', along with numerous notables, highlight such a problematic element early on in the film, noting that the human ecological footprint has gone up several sizes of late. However the 'class' of things' may refer, in this situation, to the set of actions that humans perform. This conclusion may be reached in looking at the ways that the film encourages humans to change their habits, to navigate themselves and their earth away from 'problematic' and towards higher "standards of its class" that can be reached (Ramage 119).

The film indicates what seems to be put forth as quite a sound solution to the problem. Ramage writes that the "proposal's benefits mayb be insuffieent to justify its risks" however "The 11th Hour" seems to lead its audience to the opposite conclusion -- that the risks of not following the proposal will be far too great (Ramage 120).

Upon hearing such possible results, Ramage reminds readers to also take things with a grain of salt, or what he calls "the old Watergate adage: Follow the money" (Ramage 120). This bit of advice may curb what we, viewers think of the film, as it definitely highlights an aspect that those who view it may not realize. Obviously we are led to believe that it will be to our benefit to follow the ideas of those involved with the film. Fingers are also pointed at governments and economic giants as some of the main offenders and hindrances. However, this may be a very watered down form of the reality of the situation. Surely, as Ramage tells us it is important to remember that we as humans are not "unfamiliar with the law of unintended consequences and what was touted... as progress has not always worked in [our] favor" (Ramage 120). Curiosity may be piqued as to what sort of effect the things that are discussed in the film may have on everyday life.