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Logan Kusky
Dr. McLaughlin
Multimedia Writing & Rhetoric
9 December 2016
Even Subtle Choices: How the Film Happy Utilizes Rhetoric to Convey a Message
Rhetoric is often used in order to convey a certain message to an audience. Rhetoric,
even though we might not notice it, plays a role in every single day of our lives. Through
advertisements, political agendas, or even artistic productions, rhetoric is always around us. The
art of rhetoric, as defined by James Herrick, is the systematic study and intentional practice of
effective symbolic expression (7). Therefore, rhetoric must not but looked at solely as words,
but as different types of medium that are symbols. These include, but are not limited to, images,
videos, and sounds. Sometimes, through rhetorical techniques that dont involve words, different
meanings, other than the obvious themes and points, are pushed for an audience to notice. One
film that utilizes this technique is Happy. Directed by Roko Belic, and released on April ninth,
2011, the film Happy targets the recent demand for happiness in the United States. It response to
this demand, Happy presents various examples of people from around the world who are happy,
and interviews them to see what it is that makes them happy. With expert testimony and various
examples and ideas, Happy lays out multiple claims to where happiness truly comes from.
Looking deeper into the rhetorical choices of the film, it attempts to showcase that a very
simplistic lifestyle is one that will lead to happiness. This message is conveyed throughout
various examples and revolves around direct choices made by the filmmakers. Marita Sturken
and Lisa Cartwright discuss how the creation of an image through a camera lens always

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involves some degree of subjective choice through selection, framing, and personalization (5).
Therefore, we must look closely into the choices of filmmakers from simple decisions about
angles all the way to what clips to use. Noticing these direct decisions makes sure the audience
is aware of the filmmakers intentions, which, in turn, allows the audience to draw their own
perspective of the film more clearly, and without unnoticed interference. Happy argues that even
though we live in a complex world, living a simplistic lifestyle with relatively low stress will
lead to happiness. More specifically, the film utilizes emotional appeals along with certain audio
and video techniques to prove this point.
One technique the film Happy relies on, is appealing to the audience through powerful
pathos that ignite emotions with specific examples. Pathos are defined as a quality of an
experience in life or a work of art that stirs up emotions of pity, sympathy and sorrow
(literarydevices.net). These appeals draw the audiences attention to specific scenes in hope to
elicit an emotion from them (Herrick 13). In one example, the scene begins with a short
biography of a women who seemed to have a great life (00:17:09 - 00:23:18). She was
showcased as a model who everyone loved. However, she was run over by a truck and lost her
beautiful appearance. Her husband divorced her, and she even contemplated suicide.
Eventually, she moved on and learned to enjoy the simple things it life such as spending time
with her horses. As a seemingly average American, this example relates to the audience while
also making them aware that its one of those things that can happen to anyone. The simplistic
lifestyle she lives after the accident further supports the motive of the filmmakers. Happy
utilizes another example of Japanese workers working themselves to death, which is more
specifically referred to as Karoshi (00:29:55 - 00:36:00). In the scene, there is an example of the
wife with a very young child who loses her husband to this epidemic. The sad example is

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supported by images of the wife crying and viewing pictures of her passed husband. A support
group sings songs in memory of the victims of Karoshi, and whenever the choir is shown, the
focus is on the wife. Every time the audience looks at her face, they must think about the
tragedy she went through. The family ties connect to emotionally to almost everyone, and so
does the tragic loss of a loved one. This example instills a fear of working and further supports
the goal of a lifestyle with relatively low stress and simplicity. These emotional examples force
the audience to consider the simple life as a better one.
The film provides very warm and welcoming sounds and visuals to the more simplistic
and natural examples to make the audience feel calm and happy during them. The filmmakers
use [l]ong takes [and] slow pans in order to invite viewers to explore images [and] reflect on
their possible meaning (Lancioni 109). One scene captures the life of a surfer in Brazil
(00:11:17 - 00:13:45). For the most part, he lives a very poor lifestyle and mainly surfs all day.
While depicting this scene, the video clips are accompanied by very soothing, welcoming music
that makes the viewer feel welcomed. This scene also relies on showcasing the very simplistic
environment which the surfer lives in. Videos of the man surfing are often showed for a quite an
extended period of time, along with videos showing the beautiful environment like the trees and
beaches. These long takes give the viewers plenty of time to view and appreciate the
simplicity (109). In another scene involving a very poor Indian man, a nice flute song is played
in the background during the scene (00:01:23 00:04:02). This, again, welcomes viewers to the
scene with a calm, happy song. Since it is played throughout the scene, the welcoming feeling it
brings is carried through the entire scene. Furthermore, this man works as a rickshaw driver and
has very little technology around him. His house is very small and covered with simple tarps for
roofing. When he is interviewed, the filmmakers record him sitting down with a river and nice

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scenery in the background. Showing his simplistic resources along the relaxing scenery during
the interview line up with the filmmakers plans to support the not complex lifestyle. A third
example is when the film goes to Okinawa, Japan (00:45:38 - 00:52:30). Here, many people
stay busy with simple work, like farm work, and hanging out with family and friends. This scene
is covered with slow, long pans of the beautiful scenery and happy music in the background. For
example, the farmland is shown slowly allowing the viewers to appreciate things they wouldnt
normally think to, such as the bugs on the leaves or the vegetables dropping into a basket. Also
shown is the local band who goes around and plays for the community. When showing the band,
which consists of mainly simple instruments, the camera shows the reaction of certain
individuals and how they appreciate this simple band. This videos showcase the simple aspects
of the people in Okinawas lives, and prove how film focuses in on these plain, uncomplicated
examples. In all three of these examples, the purposeful use of music and certain video clips
supports the filmmakers intent of making the simplistic lifestyle more appealing.
Happy provides fast paced and unwelcoming music and video clips when portraying the
complex rural atmosphere to make the audience feel rushed and uncomfortable. These choices
made by the filmmaker contribute to [the] films visual rhythms from which viewers
construct meaning (qtd. in Lancioni 109). [V]isual rhythms are formed from shot content
and context, the relationship of shot to shot, and from the rhythm of cutting (109). At one
point in the film, they are attempting to disprove that money buys happiness (00:23:45 00:24:47). While the narration of this scene is being discussed, there are visuals of crowded
cities and traffic clogged highways. Very short, quick videos are used as images for this scene.
For example, a couple taxis driving by are shown for just a second. The same goes for when a
crowd of people are crossing a street in a cityit is only shown for a second. Furthermore,

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noises such as cars honking and emergency sirens are heard in the background, along with a
rather fast paced song. These quick examples with the fast-paced music make the audience feel
rushed and uncomfortable. The welcoming feeling of the long, simple scenes is lost with the
quick transitions and fast music. When previewing the Japanese workers scene, an ominous,
unpleasant song is played when showing the city atmosphere of Japan (00:29:55 - 00:36:00).
Along with this unpleasant song, there are videos of the subway moving very fast. The viewers
almost get dizzy from the quick camera jerks from door to door while watching subway move.
This unpleasant music along with the unpleasant videos gives the viewers a negative feeling
towards the city atmosphere. Also, in the opening scene of the movie, visuals are displayed such
as scenes from a city, various advertisements, and images of people who do not appear happy
(00:00:36 00:01:23). The visuals are shown typically for just a couple seconds so it is very
hard to get analyze the deeply. Typically, all you can see are the parts of the image that pop
out the most. Some parts that are very noticeable include images of a broken car, men arguing,
and kids sitting unhappily in a stroller. All of these images provide a very unfavorable feeling
for the audience towards the clips. Not only are the visuals very fast and rushed, but they also
provide unpleasant images. These visual rhythms are also accompanied with a fast-paced
song in the background (109). This combination gives the audience a sense of the fast,
overwhelming city environment, and supports the filmmakers goal of portraying the city
environment as unwelcoming. All of these examples show how the direct choices of the
filmmakers to portray the city environment along with unappealing images and sounds, along
with very fast, unpleasant video clips, force the audience to look at the city environment
undesirably.

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Without question, Happy conveys that living simply will lead to happiness. Through
various rhetorical techniques, such as the use of pathos and certain audio and visual choices, this
message is clear. This film shows that choices made by filmmakers, even subtle ones, greatly
affect the perceived theme of that film. An audience cannot fall victim to believing that
everything seen through photography is true, so they must notice these decisions and be aware of
them when analyzing the film. As people become more aware of these truths, they will begin to
ask more questions and understand the choices filmmakers make.

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Works Cited
Happy. Roko Belic, Wadi Rum Productions, 2011.
Herrick, James A. The History and Theory of Rhetoric, 2nd ed. Allyn and Bacon, 2001.
Lancioni, Judith. The Rhetoric of the Frame. Western States Communication Association,
1996.
Literary Devices. Literary Devices, 2016, literarydevices.net. Accessed 6 October 2016.
Sturken, Marita, and Lisa Cartwright. Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture.
Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2001.