EL PORVENIR DE UNA EMOCIÓN: DOCUMENTALES “INCRUSTADOS” DE LA GUERRA DE IRAK Y FUNCIÓN POLÍTICA DEL CONSENSO EMOCIONAL
Vicente J. Benet
This article looks at the function of emotion as a rhetorical device in film whose purpose is to create consensus at the social level. It focuses specifically on two productions in which the filmmakers are embedded in military units stationed in Irak. Emotion in this analysis is taken as a compositional technique that determines film structure and which enables the films to be then projected in the new media. Through emotion we are given a close up view of the experiences of the American soldiers, and empathy is used to create a consensus in the public sphere that goes beyond analysis of causes for the war and beyond specific political issues concerning the occupation by the United States army.