Bowling for Columbine

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• What is the film about?

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http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0310793/
Plot Summary for Bowling for Columbine
The United States of America is notorious for its astronomical number of people killed by
firearms for a developed nation without a civil war. With his signature sense of angry humour,
activist filmmaker Michael Moore sets out to explore the roots of this bloodshed. In doing so,
he learns that the conventional answers of easy availability of guns, violent national history,
violent entertainment and even poverty are inadequate to explain this violence when other
cultures share those same factors without the equivalent carnage. In order to arrive at a
possible explanation, Michael Moore takes on a deeper examination of America's culture of
fear, bigotry and violence in a nation with widespread gun ownership. Furthermore, he seeks
to investigate and confront the powerful elite political and corporate interests fanning this
culture for their own unscrupulous gain.

Bowling For Columbine

McHugh and I were sitting in O'Rourke's one day when a guy we knew came in for a drink.
The guy pulled back his coat and we could see he had a handgun in his belt. "Why are you
carrying a gun?" McHugh asked. "Because I live in a dangerous neighbourhood," the guy
said. "It would be safer if you moved," said McHugh.

Michael Moore's "Bowling for Columbine," a documentary that is both hilarious and
sorrowful, is like a two-hour version of that anecdote. We live in a nation of millions of
handguns, but that isn't really what bothers Moore. What bothers him is that we so frequently
shoot them at one another. Canada has a similar ratio of guns to citizens, but a 10th of the
shooting deaths. What makes us kill so many times more fellow citizens than is the case in
other developed nations? Moore, the jolly populist rabble-rouser, explains that he's a former
sharp shooting instructor and a lifelong member of the National Rifle Association. No doubt
this is true, but Moore has moved on from his early fondness for guns. In "Bowling for
Columbine," however, he is not so sure of the answers as in the popular "Roger & Me," a film
in which he knew who the bad guys were, and why. Here he asks questions he can't answer,
such as why we as a nation seem so afraid, so in need of the reassurance of guns. Noting that
we treasure urban legends designed to make us fearful of strangers, Moore notices how TV
news focuses on local violence ("If it bleeds, it leads") and says that while the murder rate is
down 20 percent in America, TV coverage of violent crime is up 600 percent. Despite
paranoia that has all but sidetracked the childhood custom of trick or treat, Moore points out
that in fact no razor blades have ever been found in Halloween apples.
Moore's thoughtfulness doesn't inhibit the sensational set-pieces he devises to illustrate his
concern. He returns several times to Columbine High School, at one point showing horrifying
security-camera footage of the massacre. And Columbine inspires one of the great
confrontations in a career devoted to radical grandstanding. Moore introduces us to two of the
students wounded at Columbine, both still with bullets in their bodies. He explains that all of
the Columbine bullets were freely sold to the teenage killers by Kmart, at 17 cents apiece.
And then he takes the two victims to Kmart headquarters to return the bullets for a refund.
This is brilliant theater and would seem to be unanswerable for the hapless Kmart public
relations spokespeople, who fidget and evade in front of Moore's merciless camera. But then,
on Moore's third visit to headquarters, he is told that Kmart will agree to completely phase out
the sale of ammunition. "We've won," says Moore, not believing it. "This has never happened
before." For once, he's at a loss for words.
The movie is a mosaic of Moore confrontations and supplementary footage. One moment that
cuts to the core is from a standup routine by Chris Rock, who suggests that our problem could
be solved by simply increasing the price of bullets--taxing them like cigarettes. Instead of 17
cents apiece, why not $5,000? "At that price," he speculates, "you'd have a lot fewer innocent
bystanders being shot." Moore buys a Map to the Stars' Homes to find where Charlton Heston
lives, rings the bell on his gate, and is invited back for an interview. But Heston clearly knows
nothing of Moore's track record, and his answers to Moore's questions are borderline pathetic.
Heston recently announced he has symptoms associated with Alzheimer's disease, but there is
no indication in this footage that he is senile; it's simply that he cannot explain why he, as a
man living behind a gate in a protected neighborhood, with security patrols, who has never
felt himself threatened, needs a loaded gun in the house. Heston is equally unhelpful when
asked if he thinks it was a good idea for him to speak at an NRA rally in Denver 10 days after
Columbine. He seems to think it was all a matter of scheduling.
"Bowling for Columbine" thinks we have way too many guns, don't need them, and are
shooting each other at an unreasonable rate. Moore cannot single out a villain to blame for
this fact, because it seems to emerge from a national desire to be armed. ("If you're not armed,
you're not responsible," a member of the Michigan militia tells him.) At one point, he visits a
bank that is giving away guns to people who open new accounts. He asks a banker if it isn't a
little dangerous to have all these guns in a bank. Not at all. The bank, Moore learns, is a
licensed gun dealership.
Note: The movie is rated R, so that the Columbine killers would have been protected from the
"violent images," mostly of themselves. The MPAA continues its policy of banning teenagers
from those films they most need to see. What utopian world do the flywheels of the ratings
board think they are protecting?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowling_for_Columbine#Summary

Summary
The film's purpose is to explore what Moore suggests are the reasons and causes for the
Columbine High School massacre, and other acts of violence with guns. Moore focuses on the
background and environment in which the massacre took place, and some common public
opinions and assumptions about different particular points. The film takes an informal, artistic
and up-close-and-personal look into the nature of violence in the United States, focusing on
guns as the controversial symbol of both American freedom and its paradoxical self-
destruction.
In Moore's discussions with various people, including South Park co-creator Matt Stone; the
National Rifle Association's president, Charlton Heston, and musician Marilyn Manson, he
seeks to answer, in his own unique style, the questions of why the Columbine massacre
occurred, and why the United States has higher rates of violent crimes (especially crimes
involving guns) than other developed nations, in particular Germany, France, Australia,
Japan, the United Kingdom, and especially Canada.
Accusations of editorialism
Critics of Moore claim it is deceptive to call this film purely a "documentary;" they say it is
more accurate to describe it as selective documentary, or as Moore has at times called another
of his films, an "op-ed" piece [4] that displays his own views. Moore's critics say the film
omits key facts while stringing together other facts to lead to a conclusion, they say, is
blatantly untrue, or at the least somewhat deceptive. [5]
For example, an early scene has Moore visiting a savings bank which had advertised a
complimentary firearm upon the customer's creating a bank account. Moore records his
completing of the savings account application, then the film's next scene shows him wielding
a gun (specifically, a rifle) in front of the bank. This sequence may lead one to believe is that
it is possible to obtain a free gun immediately upon signing an application and without
background checks/investigations. What actually occurred between the scenes is that a
thorough background screening over the course of weeks was performed on Moore before he
was allowed to receive a gun (also not given at the bank). Moore filmed disparate occurrences
and strung them together to persuade viewers to conclude the gun was received shortly after
opening the account. While the use of free firearms as a marketing ploy may be legitimately
questioned, Moore's critics question the means by which he makes this argument. [5]
Criticism from pro-gun groups
The gun-rights lobby believes that Moore unfairly portrayed lawful gun-owners in the USA as
a violence-prone group. While few dispute that the gunshot homicide rate is higher in the US
than in other countries, Moore's critics claim his statistics as presented in the montage of other
countries sequence are ambiguous [6] on two counts: first, they maintain Moore's statistics are
not adjusted for smaller population of other countries; second, his critics claims most of the
other countries' numbers do not include accidental deaths and shootings performed in self-
defense, while the US figure does include these. Finally, Moore's opponents argue that other
types of violent crime (such as assault with knives or other deadly weapons) were not
mentioned, which tend to take the place of gun violence in countries where guns are not
prevalent. [7]
Another criticism of Moore has to do with his editing of several Charlton Heston speeches.
He juxtaposes Columbine pictures with footage of saying "from my cold dead, hands" and
says that Heston held a rally ten days afterwards, then shows footage of Heston saying that he
is refusing demands that he "don't come here" because "we're already here". Critics charge
that this juxtaposition implies that Heston deliberately held a rally after Columbine. The NRA
however cancelled all Denver events (except for an annual meeting required by the group's
bylaws, which NRA officials say is enforced by a New York State law mandating that the
Colorado event could not be cancelled).[11] The "cold, dead, hands" remark was from a
different meeting a year later, and the "we're already here" remark was edited in from a
different part of the speech, while Moore edited out lines where Heston says he is cancelling
the events.
Conservatives also accuse Moore of misleading editing when he says "Just as he did after the
Columbine shooting, Charlton Heston showed up in Flint, to have a big pro-gun rally." He
does not mention that the rally was eight months afterwards rather than immediate, nor that
the rally was a "get out the vote" rally done at a time when Bush, Gore, and Moore himself
were at rallies.[14] Moore also shows a web page saying "48 hours after Kayla Rolland was
pronounced dead" which, critics charge, implies that Heston had the rally 48 hours after the
shooting, when the full quote from the web page refers to Bill Clinton appearing on The
Today Show, not to Heston. [15]
Moore's opponents also accuse him of omitting facts about Kayla Rolland's shooter, saying
that "no one knew why the little boy wanted to shoot the little girl" without mentioning that
the boy had already been suspended once for stabbing a student with a pencil, that his father
was in jail, and that his uncle (from whose house he got the gun) was a drug dealer and the
gun had been stolen and exchanged for drugs.
Criticism from anti-gun groups
Moore argues that high gun ownership is not responsible for violence in America, and instead
attempts to argue that there must be something about the American psyche that makes the
nation uniquely prone to high rates of murder and shootings. Gun control advocates argue that
it is the higher rates of gun ownership, especially handgun ownership, that are to blame for
the higher gunshot homicide rate in the US.
In support of his claims, Moore argues that Canadian gun ownership levels are as high as the
U.S. However, Moore's critics instead claim that high gun ownership in Canada and some
other countries is mainly related to hunting rifles, which, they say, are stringently regulated by
the government, and mostly owned by people in small towns and rural areas.[citation needed]
By contrast, gun deaths in the U.S. are generally related to handguns in inner cities. It is easier
to legally purchase a handgun in the United States than in any other industrialized nation. In
Bowling for Columbine, Moore claims that it is easy to buy guns in Canada too, and attempts
to prove this by buying some ammunition. Conservative opponents of Moore rebuke this,
claiming the purchase of a hunting rifle is well regulated in Canada, and that obtaining a
handgun is even more difficult.[citation needed]

Bowling for Columbine

http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Bowling_for_Columbine

Bowling for Columbine is a film directed by and starring Michael Moore. It won an Academy
Award in the category of documentary film and has received both praise and criticism, both
for the genre which it occupies (creative documentary), as well as what it claims. The film
opened on October 11, 2002, and internationalized Moore's previously cultish American
status.
The film won the 55th Anniversary Prize at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival, and received a 13-
minute standing ovation at the end of its screening at the festival.
Summary
The film's purpose is to explore what Moore suggests are the reasons and causes for the
Columbine High School massacre, and other acts of violence with guns. Moore focuses on the
background and environment in which the massacre took place, and some common public
opinions and assumptions about different particular points. The film takes an informal, artistic
and up-close-and-personal look into the nature of violence in the United States, focusing on
guns as the controversial symbol of both American "Freedom" and its paradoxical self-
destruction.
It also looks at the claims and beliefs attributed by some to the perpetrators, Eric Harris and
Dylan Klebold, and their ideological associations, as well as the progress of the surviving
victims and relatives in dealing with their personal tragedy. Aside from the political points and
jabs, the film is about the healing of the nation in the wake of "Columbine" in coming to an
understanding of the event and its meaning for the culture at large.
The film draws heavily from self-incriminating clips from gun advertisements, corporate
training videos, news clips, and political speeches. Depending on perspective, the clips chosen
either represent disastrously common American archetypes, or they simply catch a few people
unexpectedly. For example various talking heads who carelessly spouted out their verdicts for
why the massacre was the fault of everything from "Satan" (Jerry Falwell), to South Park
(Byron Dorgan), eventually many agreeing to villainize heavy metal music, and Marilyn
Manson's music in particular, which some claimed was an influence (though reportedly Harris
and Klebold disliked Manson's music). Another clip shows a local Michigan TV journalist
reporting on the death of a child by gun violence, who seems more concerned with his
cosmetic appearance and being syndicated on national networks. The apparent dichotomy
between those who care about common people and those who do not, and how these
categories tend to line up with socio-economic status, is a central focus in Moore's films.
There are three parts in the movie when Michael Moore goes up to a person to take an
interview but they walk away. The first person was a cop in LA (who when asked about the
pollution didn't say anything), the second was Dick Clark (who was in a car leaving when
Michael Moore came up to him and asked him about welfare problems. Dick Clark told others
to shut the door and then the car drove away.) The third person was Charlton Heston, the head
of the NRA, who let Michael Moore take an interview with him because Michael Moore at
first sounded like an NRA fan (he told Heston that he was a member, which is true), but when
the interview started and Moore started asking about Columbine-related events, Heston got up
and walked away (bizarrely, in his own home).
Bowling for Columbine also features what is intended as a simplified satirical cartoon about
North American history and Moore's discussions with various people, including South Park
co-creator Matt Stone; the National Rifle Association's president, Charlton Heston, who
suffers from Alzheimer's disease and was allegedly interviewed under false pretenses; and
musician Marilyn Manson. Moore seeks to answer, in his own unique style, the questions of
why the Columbine massacre occurred, and why the United States then had higher rates of
violent crimes (especially crimes involving guns) than other developed nations, in particular
Germany, France, Australia, Japan, the United Kingdom, and especially Canada. (Note: crime
rates change from year-to-year)
Culture of fear
The film explores the idea of a "culture of fear", in which citizens are kept frightened about
the world around them and thus turn to guns and other weapons for security. He specifically
pillories the media for excessive and overly dramatic coverage of violent crime as a leading
cause of this culture.
He argues this is an important difference between US and other cultures. For instance, he
shows that many Canadians leave their doors unlocked when they are at home. The film
includes footage of him testing some doors and finding them unlocked.
Gun homicide
Moore argues that the higher gun-related homicide rate in the United States is not due to the
number of guns there, since, Moore states, Canada also has the same number of gun per capita
and yet has fewer gun related homicides. Moore then inquires, if it is not the number of guns
in American society, what else could the cause be? He makes suggestions, such as the nation's
violent past in subjugating the Native Americans, but he argues that other nations with violent
histories, such as Germany and Japan, nevertheless have many fewer murders than the United
States does. He also examines American militarism, and takes a personal look at the ways that
American society has a smaller "social safety net" to take care of its citizens, compared to
other countries. He also suggests a relationship between America's supposed fear of its Black
population and the rate of gun ownership and violence.