The most effective visual that has been used in this scene is the clip of the dead child lying on a hospital bed. The text below it reads: ‘U.N. estimates 500,000 Iraqi children die from bombing and sanctions.’ This clip evokes a sad image as children are considered innocent and pure, which straightaway causes the audience to side with Moore, as there is no reason as to why the US should have caused the deaths of so many children. The number ‘500,000’ itself is hard to cope with and since the U.N. is considered trustworthy, as it is a governing body, the audience will trust this source.
Michael Moore also uses irony to persuade his audience as this portrays the US as very dim-witted and insensitive. The use of humour from this irony will mean that when the audience laugh along, they subconsciously agree with Moore’s ideas. Moore uses implicit criticism to display the actions that America has enforced on other countries. These criticisms are both subtle and not-so-subtle in place of this scene. The clip showing the bombing of an alleged ‘weapons factory’ which turns out to be making aspirin is very sarcastic which is an extreme form of irony. It makes audience wonder how a powerful nation such as the US could make a mistake like that causing the deaths of these workers. It causes the audience to speculate whether this country should be allowed to hold possession of weapons of mass destruction.
The judgements that the US have made in the past are also strongly criticised in this movie. There is a clip within this scene which shows America supporting and funding Osama bin Laden, and at this time Americans considered him a ‘freedom fighter’ rather than a ‘terrorist’. This is very ironic as the money used to train and to fund Osama bin Laden was used against America on the twin towers terrorist attack. Apparently America agrees with terrorism as long as it is not against their own nation.
Moore is very biased and uses opinionated clips and details within this scene. Most of his clips however, are backed up with solid statistics from reliable sources. On the other hand, the statistics used are extremely selective as it portrays America in a very negative light. Only the failures and negative consequences of America’s actions are displayed, with only clips that are an extreme case of America's effect on other countries. The visuals are selective and Moore has edited these videos by eliminating certain parts of information that reveal America as a saviour and liberator. The numbers that are used are deplorable and overwhelming. Moore also creates irony within the background music. There is positive and jolly music played in the background while destructive visuals are displayed on the screen. Another way in which Moore uses audio to persuade the audience is in the last scene. As the music dies out, the audience is shown a famous footage of the terrorist attack on the twin towers. The music is dimmed down and the voice of the recorder is heard screaming and shouting in hysteria along with others. This is extremely effective as it accentuates and brings the viewer into the seen as if they were watching the terrorist attack on September 11th.
Throughout this scene Michael Moore uses a variety of techniques to persuade the audience into viewing America through his point of view. Through humour, irony, sarcasm, Moore is able to convince others to side with him and to laugh at America’s stupidity as a nation. There is also a mixture of seriousness in the scene such as the solid statistics used. This is the first scene in the film, where Moore’s voice is not present and he is able to express his views solely through the visuals that he displays along with the texts used.
The techniques that Moore uses in the ‘A Wonderful World Scene’ are similar to the techniques used in the ‘CCTV Footage’. Before the audience are shown the CCTV footage, the scene previous to it, shows news footage of the US as a violent nation. The audience is shown a clip of a hospital and school, blown up by US missiles, while back in the US, the American President claims that the US is aiming to ‘minimise harm to innocent people’. This shows the kind of hypocritical attitude the US government is founded upon, which leads the American audience to wonder, whether or not they can trust their own government. Immediately after the clip of the bombing is shown, the film launches into the CCTV footage; however this transfer is very subtle.
The audio in background is very mournful and the music played is very sombre. There are no voices in the music, and the tune is constantly repeated. This technique is persuasive as it heightens the tension of the audience. They begin to feel depressed and feel sympathy for the children who died in the massacre at Columbine High School. Along with the mournful music, there are voices in the background. The voices are overlaid with each other to create confusion and hysteria. There are 911 calls in the background which had been recorded during the incident. From these calls that are made to the police, specific calls have been targeted and replayed in this footage. We hear calls from parents who are searching for their sons and daughters within the school. The tones of their voices accentuated and add to the chaos and confusion of the scene. There is one specific audio, where the father of one of the shooters is heard talking to the police. The father seems calm, almost as though he is uncertain of what his son is doing to others. As well as hearing 911 calls, the media is heard broadcasting the news as it occurs. This shows how insensitive Americans have become to gun crimes and how the news reporters are immediately looking for sources that will provide them the details they will need for their story. They are not interested on the well being of the students as much as the actual success of the story and portray American news reporters as being exploitive.
After a long scene, where Moore’s voice is unheard, and the story is told through the CCTV footage and the 911 calls his voice breaks the silence. The tone of his voice serious which is the first time in the film that he expresses this tone. The words he uses are very formal, and to the point and uses a variety of statistics to portray his message across. ‘Over 900 rounds of ammo were fired’ shows the seriousness and disaster that occurred at this school. Moore does not need to use any persuasive techniques to show the enormity of the situation.
Although the music is mournful at the beginning, the visuals that are shown are peaceful and calm. There is a recording of the school while it is empty which evokes a lonely imagery. The camera is slowly moving around the school, highlighting the route through which these two boys had taken on the day. Each visual lapses into the other as they gradually fade out.
The first visual that is shown and focused upon is the schools sigh board which reads ‘home of the rebels’. This is slightly ironic as it appears as though the school itself is promoting violence and the ownership of guns, yet it cannot deal with two children who decide to kill their own school pupils. Further into the scene, the actual CCTV footage of the shooting is shown. The two killers are highlighted with a ghostly aura, which has been done by the police and not by Moore. This is very effective, as the audience immediately focus their attention on these two kids, which is very ominous and it enhances how frightening these kids are.
Chaos and confusion is constructed in this scene where Moore uses multiple screens up to four, showing different parts of the school. This is very effective as the audience are unable to focus on one scene, but are lost in confusion. They can see from all angles the shooting occurring along with the sound of gunshots in the background.
After the CCTV footage, there are clips of mournful members of the family crying over their lost loved ones. There are students who have been a part of the shooting, shown crying over this distraught encounter which they had to face due to the lax gun policies within America. Moore focuses mainly on the emotional girls and women, mothers in particular. This is very effective, as it reaches out to parents who watch the film, to force them to consider what it would be like if it was one of their children who had died due to gun crimes. The emotional students are very effective as the audience immediately sympathise with them as they are only children who have had to go through this ordeal. Moore uses simple facts and numbers, which have a devastating effect upon the audience the moment they hear it. ’12 students killed’ may not seem like a lot to the audience, but through the use of other statistics it emphasizes the tragedy.
Straight after this scene, before anything is shown, the voice of Charlton Heston is heard. His first words are ‘From my cold dead hands’, with a rifle in his hand lifted above his head in pride. This immediately triggers the audience to feel hatred for this man, who is able to neglect all these deaths and still be able to face the public and to host a pro gun rally. Moore has manipulated the footage, as Charlton Heston does not say these words after the Columbine incident and is a clip from a different rally that occurred. However it still shows how Heston is able to come to a city in mourning over the deaths of many students and still has the heart to hold a rally. What makes Heston sound worse is that the tone of his voice is very confident and conceited as if he has no emotions. This is very effective as it marks a significant change in the film. The film changes from a sensitive issue to a man shouting in pride, the power he has when holding a gun. This sudden change in tone causes the audience to react in the way Moore hopes. That the audience will begin to understand the damages that guns can cause to society, which is the main purpose of this film.
Throughout this scene, the dominant tone has been serious, with no or few humorous clips. However within the ‘Cartoon Scene’ Moore uses a very controversial approach towards the issue of gun crime. The overriding tone of this scene is comic and amusing.
Before the cartoon scene, the audience is given a few statistics to show the diversity of number of gun crimes between the rest of the world and America. The tone is very mocking, which is accompanied with ridiculous and comical footage in the background. The figures from each country gradually decrease starting with Germany and ending with Japan with the figure 39. The US flag is then shown but the audience is expecting a country that will have a lower gun crime as Moore is following a pattern however the number of gun crimes in the US is 11,127. This is very effective as it gives very contrasting and different sets of numbers given ending with an enormous figure. It shows how many more deaths that will occur in the US. Moore stresses this figure by heightening the tone of his voice to emphasize the size of it.
The animated cartoon outlines the way racial fear from white men who feared everything from the first time the pilgrims arrived to America has shaped their beliefs and attitudes towards violence. The cartoon is simplified to make its points and is also very manipulative with history giving factually incorrect information. One of Moore's major themes in Bowling for Columbine is that people mainly white people kill each other over illogical fear of dangers that do not really exist. This was not the case with the Pilgrims, so Moore has to lie by turning the Pilgrims desire for freedom into stupid, laughable paranoia.
The cartoons that Moore uses to demonstrate white American is very noticeable and obvious. They have large foreheads with wide eyes and are portrayed as dim-witted people. This is helped by the tone of the voice as the white folk have a very strong southern accent and the words used are slurred and basic, suggesting that these Americans were very thick. When the boat arrives to the new world, the narration says "they were greeted by savages" over a shot of the Indians calmly walking toward the Pilgrims trying to shake hands only to be met by screaming white people who pull out their guns and shoot down all the Indians. This yet again exaggerates the conflict of racism within America and this is historically inaccurate as we are told, regarding what the Pilgrims did to the Indians: ‘They killed them all’ and then ‘You would think that wiping out an entire race of people would calm em down.’ That is two lines telling the audience that Native Americans were made extinct by the Pilgrims but this is untrue.
We are told that white people were afraid of work so they came up with brilliant idea of slavery. The cartoon again shows peaceful Africans being attacked by the white folk as they capture them with nets and cart them off to America. All these historical inaccuracies are effective as it promotes Moore’s view on racism within America which is tied in with gun crimes. By providing false information the audience is tricked into believing what Moore has to say, which is masked by comic cartoons so the audience do not have time to dwell on these facts to see if they are accurate or not.
Irony is also used within this scene as the animation which is providing the audience with the history of America is a talking bullet. The final clip of the cartoon scene shows that the NRA and the KKK were allegedly founded at the same time; ‘the same year that the Klan became an illegal terrorist organisation’. Moore is trying to portray a depiction of a racist NRA beginning to emerge. By linking the NRA and the KKK together, Moore is able to display the NRA as evil and as a terrorist group in a way. This sequence is attempting to create the impression either that the NRA and the Klan were parallel groups or that when the Klan was outlawed its members formed the NRA. Both are completely wrong however this is effective as it illustrates that since the KKK was evil, that the NRA is also evil as it is made up of the same members or that both groups have the same belief.
Moore is able to use a number of persuasive techniques in the three scenes from Bowling for Columbine to express his views on gun laws. The moods of these three scenes vary considerably, from humour, to serious to sarcasm and irony. By appealing to different types of emotions, the audience is able to connect with Moore effectively. As well as this, by feeling humorous or sad when Moore intends the audience to be, the viewers immediately, whether intentionally or unintentionally side with Moore’s view.