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Bowling for Columbine

With the recent replay of the Columbine school shootings that happened on the Virginia Tech University campus last month, Michael Moore’s documentary seems even more appropriate.

Moore’s film analyzes the “whys” and the aftermaths of the shootings that killed 12 students and a teacher on April 20, 1999 in a Colorado school. But don’t expect an easy answer. In some parts, Moore even questions himself about the right way to follow.

Punctuated by several animations, songs, and well chosen statistics, the movie spans through several nations, looking for an answer to why America has the highest number of firearm killings of all developed nations.

His quest doesn’t stay only focused on Columbine, he also investigates several other cases of accidental shootings, bumping several times to the National Rifle Association.

Moore was himself an excellent shooter in his youth and a member of the NRA. He was born in the state of Michigan, which he describes as “a gun lovers' paradise,” where you can buy bullets even in a barber shop.

Moore’s provocative style often puts the people being interviewed in very embarrassing situations; he confronts, questions and engages some theater shows, like when he takes two survivors of the Columbine shootings to Kmart. With the 17 cent bullets bought at Kmart by the shooters, still in their bodies, Moore takes them to a store to “return the merchandise.” Kmart’s reaction can be more surprising than you imagine.

The motive of easy access to weapons in America soon falls, when Moore finds that Canada has an equal amount of guns per inhabitant. So what causes the increased number of victims in America?

Violence in entertainment? Marilyn Manson? South Park? All of these reasons were raised after the Columbine shootings. But if the killers shot everybody because they listened to Marilyn Manson, why don’t we blame the bowling too? After all, they played two games of bowling at six in the morning, just before they attacked the school.

Moore’s answer to this tough question is fear—fear proliferated on media. His most disturbing statistics were that while the murder rate is down 20 percent in America, TV coverage of violent crime is up 600 percent.

Moore’s quest will lead him to a final confrontation against Charlton Heston. The last interview is also the most disturbing and embarrassing of all. Not knowing anything about Moore’s research, Heston’s questions are simply pathetic, and make us all ask ourselves what he is thinking when he speaks loudly, “You’ll only take my gun from my cold dead hands.”

Written by: Edward Olivier

Reviewers Rating: 9
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