respone 2: TVTV "Four More Years"

After watching the first few clips of "Four More Years" I thought I was only going to see one side to the campaign: the Republican side. Then as the tape rolled along, I saw people of different demographics, ages, and parties. This video was not going to be like any other media that was biased like Cronkite said about different news sources. When I saw so many young people at the convention screaming "four more years" it pretty much opened my eyes to how much young voters back then cared for how the election turned out. Unlike now, young people are not really that enthusiastic as they were for Nixon in 1972. The documentary style of the video really showed what the convention was like for people out on the floor and outside where the protestors were. It was like a raw news coverage that we see on the news today, except that I felt it was fully covered and therefore more raw. It was a good way of showing the American people what really goes on in conventions and showing the people sitting at home watching it on television what they need to do more of.

Even though this video merely just looks like a documentation of the 1972 Republican Convention, I think that it shows many points to the American audience. For one, it shows that media does not always have to be biased; it can be a documentation that shows all sides of the campaign. Another point is that the young voters are serious about what they are doing and are not being put to work. The campaign brought the young and old together to agree on one thing: "four more years." The video also showed the reality of the protests of the war by Vietnam veterans. Kovic especially made a powerful statement to American viewers that the government needs to "tell the truth to the American people" and to "stop killing human beings." We can relate this now to the War in Iraq and the Bush presidency, which shows how a documentation of three decades ago is still relevant to the American viewer today.

The video as a whole has a visual impact all on its own. By just being a documentation so raw and real, the impact TVTV gave to Americans was pretty big, not to mention the sound accompanying the video, which gave it more impact. Replaying the chant of "four more years" can get stuck in anyone's head who watches it. I think that it is really amazing that by being just a documentary film, it can create an enormous impact on someone. I think it is just the reality aspect of the video that makes it seem like they are telling the truth, and that I want to believe it because it is a documentary and not a scripted movie.