Wednesday, February 27, 2008


This speech is in the movie 'Any Given Sunday' and is given by Al Pacino's character who is the Coach of a professional football team. This speech is a terrific example of persuasive speaking as well as utilizing appeal to emotion and repetion.

To begin with - Pacino gives the audience, in this case his team, two options - similar to the persusasive style we discussed in class: To band together and fight to win or to lose as individuals. He explains why 'my way is better' by saying that the team is composed of people who are willing to fight and that if everyone else in the room will put out the effort needed, than so should the listener. He then explains why the other option is a poor choice, because if every ounce of effort is not exerted and the team does not gel together, then defeat will be guarenteed.

Pacion uses fantastic repetition throughout his speech. He refers to moving 'inches' throughout the speech. At the beginning he says that if they lose it will be 'inch by inch, until we lose'. He claims that his team is in hell, and 'can climb out....one inch - at a time!' Throughout the middle part of the speech he says 'lifes this game of inches, and so is football'. He claims the margin for error is small in both life and football. He claims 'the inches we need are EVERYWHERE around us!' and turns this into an appeal to emotion when he exclaims: "On this team, we fight for that inch! On this team we tear each other, and everyone else around us, to pieces for that inch! We claw with our fingernails for that inch! Because we know when we add up all those inches, that's going to make the F***ing difference between WINNING AND LOSING!"

This emotional appeal shows tremendous knowledge of his audience becasue Pacino then explains that everyone on this team will go 'that extra inch' for his teammate and that the individual must make the same sacrifice as the rest of his team. As a sports player, a person who loves competition, or just a human being with emotion, it is difficult to listen to this clip without feeling the powerful effect of Al Pacino's speech.

No comments: