Thought Provoking (Bowling for Columbine (DVD))

Member Name: tommy7

Product:	Bowling for Columbine (DVD)
Date:	05/11/03 (145 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Thought Provoking, Insightful

Disadvantages: Perhaps One Sided

"Bowling for Columbine" is a film I have wanted to see for a while but never quite got round to. After picking up Michael Moore's "Stupid White Men" it reminded me that I had still to see it.

The film is Moore's scathing take on gun control and modern day America in general. It is a more of a documentary than a feature film. It contains a lot of facts and figures and commentary from Moore. If this is not your thing then it is best to avoid it. The documentary mainly features on gun control and safety in America but touches on a host of issues from racism to

There is a lot of humour over the course of the film but never at the expense of making a point. You almost feel guilty laughing at a film of this seriousness. Having said that most of the time it is an incredulous laugh at the ignorance of the people involved. For example in the very opening scene Moore walks into a bank and says he wants to open an account to get a free shotgun. The teller then proudly shows him the range he can choose from and he leaves the bank with his new shotgun over his shoulder. Genuinely incredible.

Moore uses a variety of methods to get his point across. There are cartoons from South Park right through to voiceovers of actual 911 calls made from the scenes of the tragedies. This is very effective and stops you from becoming desensitised to the overall message.

The National Rifle Association (NRA) feature quite heavily. This was an organisation founded the same year the Ku Klux Klan were made illegal, surely a coincidence? This organisation supports the use of guns and seems to set a tour schedule following tragedy. They had a rally at both Columbine and in Flint (where a six year old child shot dead a classmate) within days of the tragedies. This provokes a lot of anger from the residents and produces very unsatisfactory answers from the NRA. When Moore eventually interviews Heston at his home you see th
e real root of the
problem when he talks about exercising the right passed down from those wise old white guys. He then goes on to blame the ethnicticity of the USA!!

Moore concentrates the majority of his time into asking questions. Is music to blame? So he interviews Marilyn Mansion. What about the NRA? So he speaks to Charlton Heston. Should K-Mart be selling handguns and bullets? So he takes some of the surviving victims of Columbine to the K-Mart headquarters to discuss it with the K-Mart president. This journey to K-Mart represents the biggest achievement of the film where the store announce that following Moore?s discussion they would be withdrawing all guns and bullets within 90 days. Moore and the kids are visibly shaken that they have achieved so much.

The facts make difficult reading for an American, the number of gun related deaths in a year are as follows, Germany 381, France 255, Canada 165, UK 68, Australia 65, Japan 39, USA 11,127. Moore visits Canada to see what the cultural difference are. The strangest thing is the total difference in views between Americans and Canadians. Moore went in search of a Canadian murder and found there had been one in three years in the city he visited. The murderer was a visitor from Detriot!


A visit to the Columbine High School reveals a student who was number two on a suspected bomb list. The student admitted to making napalm and expressed his disappoint not to be the top threat on bomb list. This is the kind of mentality that is prevalent throughout the movie.

I think the most poignant moment in the whole film is a clip which plays to Louis Armstrong?s Wonderful World. It shows facts and figures for American atrocities over the last 30-40 years from supplying arms to Iraqis through to training Bin Laden.

On 20 April 1999 we see a defiant Bill Clinton stating how a bombing campaign in Serbia would free the people from oppression. This bombing
campaign included hits
on a school and a hospital. One hour later we see Bill Clinton address the nation talking of the tragedy that was unfolding at Columbine high school. This is one of the most thought provoking moments in the whole film. Those two short clips saying so much about so many different aspects of American society and views.

The most disturbing scenes involve the actual CCTV footage from inside from Columbine high school with a voiceover of real calls from parents of the children inside. This is another effect method of conveying his message. Once again the effectiveness is not in Moore?s commentary but rather from the chilling images and real life calls.

Although you could argue that the documentary is a little one sided it is refreshing to see the other side presented for once. Moore doesn?t force his views upon you. He is too clever for that. He merely asks the questions and lets you see the painful answers. I would thoroughly recommend this movie to anyone. In light of yesterday's tragedy it asks a lot of questions where tragically we may be looking for answers soon.

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