Charlton Heston Did It (Bowling for Columbine (DVD))

Member Name: Ophelia

Product:	Bowling for Columbine (DVD)
Date:	01/08/03 (458 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Interesting, witty

Disadvantages: None

This is not so much a film as an extended documentary but, upon the hearing the word ?documentary?, you might conjure up associations such as: boring, dull, tedious, educational. While this film is certainly educational it could never be described by any of the previous adjectives.

This documentary made by Michael Moore is extremely informative, gives a great deal of food for thought but also manages to raise numerous laughs and more than a few smirks.

So, what is the subject of this documentary? Moore sets out to discover why the US has the highest number of gun related deaths in the world. Is it due to the nature of the citizens, is it due to mixed ethnicity, is it due to the availability of guns? Moore investigates and sets out to answer these questions while presenting the information in an ironic and amusing fashion.

The most obvious reason for the gun related death rate seems to be the availability of guns and the attitude towards the right to gun-ownership. However, Moore points out that Canada has an equally high number of guns owned per capita and yet their gun-related deaths are very low. He visits Canada and it is stunning to see the difference in attitudes of the people interviewed. There is no fear of crime and people leave their doors unlocked (which Moore decides to test by trying a whole street?s front doors ? they were unlocked and he had to make many apologies and thanked one man for not shooting him!) When he interviews three teenage truants, even they seem to have a responsible and mature attitude to guns and dispute resolution. I tell you, I want to emigrate to Canada! (Lyla, perhaps you can confirm whether your country really is this idyllic?)

So, if it isn?t the availability of guns, what is it? Could it be the mixed ethnicity and the background of slavery within the US? Moore talks to Matt Stone, of South Park fame, and they examine the possibility. With a short animated interlude the history o
f gun ownership in the US is illustrated (just imagine South Park but with the pilgrim fathers, the Ku Klux Klan and the National Rifle Association). Interestingly the day that the KKK was outlawed was the same day that the NRA was established. Coincidence?

One of the most enlightening discoveries made by Moore is the difference in the media focus between the US and, for example, Canada. In the US the television is filled with programmes containing cops doing busts (and I don?t mean pottery), real-life high speed chases, gun crimes are highlighted and the news is filled (on a regular basis) with how the President has invaded yet another country. In Canada the news seems more sedate, the scheduling does not seem crime orientated and even the politicians seem to tell the truth! Perhaps the media is to blame for the high death rate?

Moore illustrates his investigation with the incident that occurred in 1995 at Columbine High School, where two teenagers walked into the school (after playing two games of ten-pin bowling) and executed some 11 pupils, 1 teacher and injured many others before turning the guns on themselves.

Who was to blame for this horrendous massacre? The media seemed mystified and aspersions were cast at pop legend Marilyn Manson (to whose music the perpetrators used to listen). And yet the fact that they were able to buy the rounds of ammunition from a Wal-Mart store in the town seemed irrelevant. Moore interviews Manson who comments that the President is in the news after launching missiles on another country; could this not be a bad influence on the boys? Who has more influence, a pop star or the President of the US? Goodness, even ten-pin bowling could have been blamed, as that was the last thing they did before carrying out their crime!

Moore achieves one real success during this film. He takes two of the victims of the Columbine tragedy to meet a Wal-Mart representative to ask why they stock handgun am
munition. At first they are passed from pillar to post but after some perseverance Wal-Mart announce that they will cease selling such ammunition! Quite a victory.

Next Moore turns to the National Rifle Association and one of their greatest supporters, Charlton Heston. Heston agrees to be interviewed by him and handles his questions with good grace, even though Moore just turned up at his Hollywood home and announced himself over the intercom! (You could almost see the surprise when Heston immediately agreed to an interview and the air deflating rather rapidly from Moore?s sails). Having established that Heston himself keeps loaded weapons on his property, as is his right under the US constitution, he continues to badger him demanding to know why they have to be loaded, and waving a photograph of a dead 6-year-old girl under his nose.

Having produced some quite strong evidence that the media has a part to play in the high gun death rate and having intimated that the US government has some degree of responsibility, it seems strange that he does not follow these lines of enquiry further, rather than singing at the gate of a Hollywood celebrity (who sadly has aged considerably since the days of Ben Hur). I am quite certain that it is not Charlton Heston acting alone who perpetrates the 11,000 odd gun killings per year in the US.

The US obviously has a problem. With their 11,000 deaths per year compared with Britains 68 and Australia?s 65, this certainly cannot be denied. Moore examines several possibilities and ultimately leaves the decision to us, the viewers.

You will laugh, you will get a lump in your throat, you will be entertained, you will be horrified but, more than anything, you will not be able to stop thinking about what you have seen until you have come to some conclusions of your own.

A highly entertaining and thought-provoking film.

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