Discuss the persuasive techniques used by Michael Moore in three scenes from his film Bowling for Columbine

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Discuss the persuasive techniques used by Michael Moore in three scenes from his film ‘Bowling for Columbine’

        Michael Moore produced the film Bowling for Columbine with the intention of persuading the viewers that gun laws are too relaxed in the United States. He believes that these laws have both contributed and added to, what he describes as a state of perpetual paranoia and a culture of fear amongst all of America’s citizens. Although Moore himself is not against guns since he is actually a member of the National Rifle Association (NRA). He does hold the opinion that the fear mongering and trepidation encouraged by both the media and politicians, intensifies the potential dangers of individual gun ownership, by reducing the nationwide threshold with regards to violence with firearms, and thus exposing many innocent people to violent attacks.

          Moore uses an array of persuasive techniques through the course of his polemic; with the most effective being irony and satirical humor, scene sequencing and sound effects and finally intelligent manipulation of background music.

        The first key scene A Wonderful World rebuts the conception that the US is a benevolent force around the world and that it does not use its military strength to physically impose and cause deliberate harm.  In confrontation to this view, Moore is attempting to show that the USA’s propensity for violence overseas contributes to the growing levels and intensities of violence in America. The scene is enclosed by sequences shot in Littleton, Colorado is compliant with Moore’s overall objective of the film: to expose America’s misguided love of guns and violence.

        The preceding scene to this key scene is typical of Moore’s persuasive style and is a polemic in its own right, the direct paradox between supplier and victim along with the juxtaposing music is another example of satirical humor. The preceding scene is of the Lockheed Martin spokesman: Lockheed Martin is America’s largest producer of inter-continental ballistic missiles (ICBM). The conversation between Moore and the spokesman is ironically positioned in front of an ICBM and the spokesman’s words undermining America’s proclivity for violence especially before the scene at hand is another example of ironic scene sequencing and irony.

         The actual scene contains many emotive visuals, as it is a newsreel of many atrocities involving America in the previous fifty years. The effect of the posters displaying unity and the visuals allow us to humanely connect with the scene and the individuals as Moore allows the observer to come to their own conclusion on their stance. The irony of the Wonderful World song is another example of satirical humor and indirectly creates an eerily awkward tone, which magnifies the emotional impact on the observer, thus making the scene more effective. The subtitles throughout make the scene appear more official: as it makes us interpret the statements as facts in our minds which is just a human tendency, again adding to the effectiveness as it describes the monstrosities that the pictures display. However emotive language is used in the subtitles instead of actual facts as they are more interesting to the audience: Moore distorts factual evidence with his own opinions of events but this is almost undetectable due to the speed at which the slides are changing which is again limiting the audience chance, indirectly, to think independently. The vast flow of information throughout creates a negative impression of America as it shows the vastness of support for Moore’s motion, however it also allows very little time to actually think about the points he is making and any other in-depth attempts of analytical observation are barred by the repetitive sound of gunfire which is another persuasive technique. However, arguably the most affective technique in this scene is not what Moore includes but what he decides to selectively omit. The scene appears to show historical accounts of what America has done in the years previously, however history is the story of both sides and rather than give information on presidential leaders they are immediately classed as dictators, this is very effective as it makes no room for sub-conscious objections.

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        The scene itself starts with a picture of a frail leader with the caption Mossadeq overthrown again this is opinionative suggesting that it was not America’s duty to intervene. Also the most emotive part of this scene is the visual itself as it depicts an old, frail man whilst the word overthrown is very strong and again indicative of unnecessary and disproportional violence. The following scene again uses emotive visuals and language as it shows the replacement that America subsequently installed. However the subtitles are biased in that they call Shah a dictator and display him and Iranian soldiers marching ...

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