Analysis

The lottery episode is similar, though opposite in many ways, to the 'Charter Celebration'. The two are connected stylistically as well as in their content. Both attempt to gain the audience's sympathies by showing children and the two very difficult circumstances they are in. What's more, is that these are not the episodes in which Guggenheim throws numbers and statistics at his audience. These are the two episodes in which he reaches for the viewer's heart. Both express data but do so vaguely. In the first “charter celebration” episode, there is an unscaled graph showing academic success by income level (Time vs Success with three lines: above poverty line, below poverty line, and charter schools below poverty line). The focus is on the children. Other episodes, often the cartoon scenes of the film, worry about numbers, figures, and raw data that support the film's claims. These are the episodes that put numbers to faces. This is incredibly powerful as it reminds viewers of what a high stakes game this issue is. This is their children and grandchildren in peril.

The ways in which these episodes are technically different are of equal importance. For example, the lottery episode uses almost exclusively close – ups of the crying children which really makes viewer's sympathize with the denied applicants. The prior episode has lots of long shots. As mentioned before, this distant effect suggests that the classroom shots are natural and real. The sounds of the two episodes are also very important to obtaining the desired emotional responses from the audience. Both utilize dramatic music, but while the lottery music is slow, minor, and sad, the “charter celebration” music is inspiring and upbeat. There are also no cheering children in the lottery and no narration. Other than the music, the audience is only able to hear the voices of the administrators conducting the lottery and crying children. Contrastingly, the excited voices of teachers and children accompany the music in the “celebration” episode. In summation, the specific similarities and differences in which these two episodes are stylistically constructed is of critical importance to accomplishing the goal of the two episodes: to make viewers remember the children who are begging for a better education not as a number or statistic.