Critical Analysis #1: Boston Legal's Alan Shore Delivers a Closing Statement on Euthanasia
In a closing statement of a court case in the 11th episode of the third season of Boston Legal, the character Alan Shore presents a wonderfully constructed speech that displays a variety of public speaking tools. Right of the bat He starts with a diverting and slightly strange story about elephants in Africa. This story gives him an element of the unaccepted and captures the juries attention if for no other reason than they have no idea where he is going with it. From this story he derives his main point, that in times of crisis what is socially expected and accepted is forgotten as people revert to their basic need for survival. While he does a beautiful job describing and highlighting his argument, what holds the audiences attention throughout his address is the way he manipulates his tone, inflection, and pitch to provide emphasis and stimulate the jury’s thoughts. The icing on the cake is when at the end the elephants are brought back to tie into his conclusion answering the audience’s questions about just why he used the story. The speech was not perfect however, as a distracting mannerism, touching his jacket button, did manage to creep its way into the speech. Alan’s masterful use of his voice mixed with the brilliant structure of the speech makes Shore’s performance extremely memorable and effective.
Episode 11 Season 3: http://www.free-tv-video-online.me/player/gorillavid.php?id=6o3el15ftck1
Episode 11 Season 3: http://www.free-tv-video-online.me/player/gorillavid.php?id=6o3el15ftck1