The Hunting Grounds, was created to expose the rape crimes among the college campus in the U.S. This film was produced by Amy Ziering and directed by Kirby Dick, they were able to depict the hard reality of being at college and how unsafe some of them were. In the reviews of The Hunting Grounds, Michael Philips and Thomas Lee could not deny the impact the film had on their emotions and the epidemic that was occurring.
To begin, in Thomas Lee’s review he was able to grasp the emotional appeal that was being displayed. When he described the beginning of the documentary he used the word “epidemic” to describe the assaults occurring on these campuses. Lee also goes into talking about how not only these women had to survive rape but also “the perverted culture of some of the nation’s top college and universities” (Lee). This quote alone shows his emotional side because he focuses on how some colleges treat sexual assault as a joke and not a serious problem. In his review, he seems outraged by this but he applauds them for giving a voice to the rape victims. Farther into his review, he describes the documentary as a “disjointed mess” (Lee). While it did have some great aspects it also had some negative issues, one of them being cramming too much information within that 90-minute slot. Lee mentions that it denied “the women and the audience the full power of their stories” (Lee). In the film that is very true, some of the ladies were cute really short and the audience could not gain the emotional appeal that was intended. Even though he though The Hunting Ground was informative, he thought it was really a heartbreaking film.
Secondly, in Phillips review, he stated the film “Instills a sense of dread that is very, very tough to shake” (Phillips). In this quote, he expresses the emotions he felt towards the documentary. He talks about how the film starts out with footage of girls receiving their college acceptance letters. It started out as a happy film but slowly became something dark and real. In Phillip’s review, he focused more on the Pino and Clark, what they did in the movie to help other girls. Phillips seemed to focus more on the women involved in this film and how they contributed to this documentary. Phillip’s described the women as “exhibiting true heroism” (Phillip). Many would agree with his review because these women were very courageous to go through and relive their trauma for a film. Phillips did a good job of showing the emotional appeal from The Hunting Grounds. In his review, the audience can witness how it affected him and his outlook on colleges.
To conclude, The Hunting Grounds was created to expose the sexual assault cases being hidden by some elite colleges and universities. This film also unraveled what it means to be a star athlete and how some of these gentlemen got away with raping these women. In both articles, Thomas Lee and Michael Phillips could not ignore the impact the film had on people’s emotions. Even though both writers had some negative topics about the documentary they were still impacted emotionally.
Work Cited
- Lee, Thomas. “Review: ‘The Hunting Ground’ squanders it powerful story.” SF Gate, https://www.sfgate.com/movies/article/The-Hunting-Ground-squanders-its-powerful-6127814.php. Accessed 13 February 2018.
- Phillips, Michael. “Review: “The Hunting Grounds.” Chicago Tribune, ww.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/movies/chi-hunting-ground-20150319-column.html. Accessed 13 February 2018.
