Building Jerusalem is a documentary that follows the story of rugby in England developing from the amateur era to the professional game. This is done through the journey England went through to become the first northern hemisphere team to win the world cup in 2003.

The first rhetorical tactic that is used is appeal to ethos. I think that ethos is used in two ways: firstly being simply the credibility and respect that the interviewees have within the rugby community. If a rugby fan is asked who are the best players ever to play the game, names like Jonny Wilkinson, Lawrence Dallaglio and Martin Johnson are often mentioned due to what they achieved in the early professional era of rugby. Their achievement becoming the most successful northern hemisphere team has resulted in them being hugely respected members of the rugby community that people aspire to be like. Secondly, the documentary also appeals to ethos through the honesty of these players when they are being interviewed. Through all the interviews the players don’t just talk about how great and successful they were. Instead they are honest about the struggles and hard times the team went through. An example of this is when the documentary talked about Jonny’s first international start, where he played badly and got benched. The appeal to ethos throughout the documentary helps the audience feel more connected and engaged with the story the documentary tells.

Another rhetorical device utilised is multiple uses of flashbacks within the documentary. The documentary starts with Jonny talking about how he grew to love the sport. The audience is then taken back to Jonny as a child playing with people talking about his character growing up. Flashbacks into Jonny’s early days are used throughout, but I think the most significant is at the end of the documentary when he has just kicked the winning drop-goal there is another flashback to Jonny learning to kick at a young age thereby emphasising his level of discipline and desire to be the best. This inspires the audience by showing that Jonny is a normal human but his dedication resulted in him being a world class player.

Overall I think this is a good documentary because it provides a new perspective on how the team became successful, showing a behind the scenes look into the team. However I think it could be improved by changing the ending to be more exciting and celebratory of winning the world cup to really highlight how significant this win was.

I give Building Jerusalem 4/5 stars