Film maker Michael Moore is an American academy award winning film maker, author and . He has directed and produced all his many documentaries, including “Bowling for Columbine” which won the , the , and the . In the documentary “Bowling for Columbine” Michael Moore suggests the causes and reasons behind the Columbine High school massace of 1999, as well as exploring other acts of gun violence and the influence of guns on American culture.
There were many thought provoking moments throughout the film, the first most prominent was when Moore discovers a bank in Michigan that would give its customers a brand new gun if they made a deposit of a certain size into a time deposit account. The scene continues as Moore fills out a form, one of the questions asking “are you or ever were mentally unstable?” then allowed the customer to answer without any evidence or anything to prove that the answers are truthful. Then the woman in the bank presents Moore with a new Weatherby Rifle, however before leaving Moore says “don’t you think its dangerous to hand out guns in a bank?”, as someone could easily purchase a gun, then use it against the workers and rob the bank! Especially as the form they just filled out doesn’t have to be checked properly and officially, how do you know the man who “apparently” has no physcological problems and seems quite fine isnt a convicted criminal who’s using a fake name and is lying? Perhaps the 2nd ammendment of the United States Constitution, saying that is every Americans absolute right to carry and posses a weapon, needs to be re-thought…I mean, would you feel comfortable knowing a physcopath, in your area, has a gun-- just because its his right to?
Another scene that had great effect on me was the one where Moore got into contact with two Columbine high school massace victims, Mark Taylor and Richard Casavo, and they went to the K-mart headquarters to get a “refund” for the bullets that were fired at them in the school, as they were purchesed from a K-mart store. These same bullets that were still stuck in the bodies of the two young men, one man in a wheel chair as one bullet was lodged in his spine, resulting in paralsis from the waist down. After a number of attempts to evade the determined trio and camera crew, a K-mart representitive states that the firm will stop selling ammunition. However, the representative gave in only after Moore and the two boys were dismissed from the headquarters and bought the entire contents of all ammuntition in the nearest K-mart store and returned with the media the next day. After the representative gives them what they wanted, Moore says in disbelief “We’ve won. That was more than we’d asked for.”. This just shows that if you feel enough passion for a subject, and you stick it out for long enough, you will eventually get what you wanted.
A very sad moment in the film is when Moore starts talking about how a little boy got hold of a gun and shot another little girl in a primary school in Flint, Michigan- Michael Moores childhood home town. Then, on a black screen we heard the emergency phone call to 911, with subtitles to make sense of the panicked voice we heard, speaking shakily about the little girl lying in the classroom, dying. This was particularly effective as there were no pictures on the screen to distract us, so all of our attention was on the horrific phonecall and the equally horrific description of how the little girl came to be and what was happening at that moment.
Then, Moore started telling us about an event that shocked everyone watching. The NRA (national rifle accossiation) came to Flint, to have a gun rally and to basically celebrate the fact Americans have guns. But hang on, only a couple of months ago, a girl in primary school was shot with a gun by a fellow young child, and the record; youngest shooting in school, was broken. If having guns in America is so good, why is there always so much tragedy surrounding gun ownership. What possessed Charlton Heston (head of NRA) to come and do a gun rally there after such an awful tragedy? Residents were appalled and said they felt that Mr Heston was “just rubbing their noses in it [the shooting of the primary school girl]”.
But one of the most disturbing and effective moments in the documentary was when the actual CCTV footage of the Columbine High School massacre was being shown. Mixed with emotional aftershock recorded by the media of the survivors, and actually watching students shooting their fellow school mates on CCTV, this was, for me, the most emotional part of the film. As we saw the silent CCTV footage of the action, then cut to the emotion of the students who made it out alive, describing how their friends were killed in front of them, it created a very surreal and disturbing effect.
After the horror of the Columbine High school massacre, Moore informed us that everyone was looking for someone to blame for all this violence. Then a montage is shown of possible causes of gun violence that are stated by television persona; at the beginning some blamed violence in television, some in computer games, but by the end they were saying Marilyn Manson. So, the media started lynching Marilyn Manson, saying that his songs encouraged gun violence. Michael Moore interviewed Marilyn Manson and ultimately Manson shared Moores ideas on America’s fear based society, citing adverts like Colgate that promise “if you have bad breath, [people] are not going to talk to you” and Clearasil (and other spot “curing” brands) that promise “if you have spots, no girl will **** you”, proving that even commercials have fear based messages, that create fear amongst Americans, and almost threatening them into buying guns, just to protect themselves.
Comparing this documentary to others I have seen, I have to say that this is about a million times better than any other I have seen before. Its funny and informs me about things that are very important. Its also very controversial, and many critics have slated the documentary, saying it lacked purpose and was very biased. One critic; A.O. Scott of the went so far as to say this about the film: “The slippery logic, tendentious grandstanding, and outright on display in Bowling for Columbine should be enough to give pause to its most ardent partisans, while its disquieting insights into the culture of violence in America should occasion sober reflection from those who would prefer to stop their ears.”. But then, everyone likes a bit of controversy! Think how much more interested you would be if David Attenborough started talking about how Seals were commiting incest when they spawned with their siblings, or if the mother seal commited adultery and went and spawned with another mate. But that’s because everyone likes a bit of drama, it makes anything more interesting if there’s something bad or daring about it. My first response to watching the film that I was actually very worried about gun crime in America…but at the same time glad I wasn’t living there, at least in England we don’t have shootings in schools on a regular basis around the country! Many times throughout I laughed outloud at the obvious sarcasm Moore was radiating, and that the Americans he was speaking to had no idea he was being sarcastic! But also many times in the documentary I felt like I might cry, as many parts (especially when a parent of a deceased Columbine Massacre victim did a anti-gun speech) were very emotional and touching. But perhaps it’s not only the content that makes “bowling for Columbine” such an effective film, it could be the different types of documentary style used in it. As Moore clevery switches from a reflexive/interactive documentary mode (when the camera crew are fully acknowledged- e.g the bank scene), to footage with voiceovers, to interviews. This makes the film even more interesting to watch, as it’s varied and not all the same format.
To conclude, “bowling for Columbine” is definately the best documentary I’ve ever watched, and my Dad’s a fan of David Attenborough…so I’ve had my fair share of nature documentaries, but I haven’t seen a documentary like this, about human nature. The film is for anyone, as it has everything in it! Humour, drama, tragedy and, of course, knowledge. Moore cleverly weaves each issue into context, changing fluidly from each point to another, but between the serious aspects of the film, sparkles with humour and sarcasm. You’re seriously missing out if you don’t watch this film.
