 |
Michael Moore's 'Bowling for Columbine' takes a frank look at gun control |
Although the film has not yet made it into most major theaters (it is doubtful that it ever will, considering that the holiday movie season has arrived), it is quickly becoming a sensation on the art-house theater circuit with the intellectual crowd buzzing about it from coast to coast.
So what’s the big deal? The big deal is that this film takes an unapologetic view of the violence in America that strikes at the heart of what it means to be an American. As this is a Michael Moore documentary, the film often employs healthy doses of ironic humor that both entertain audiences and punctuate the serious issues being addressed.
The movie’s title derives from the fact that the perpetrators of the 1999 Columbine High School massacre apparently attended an early morning physical education class at a local bowling alley before they headed to school to shoot and terrorize their classmates. Moore points out the irony in this.
More specifically, Moore tackles the issue of gun control in the United States and how gun related violence has become so prevalent in recent years that young children feel compelled to commit the most heinous of crimes.
Moore first explores the issue of availability. In America, it is almost too easy to purchase a firearm. He graphically highlights this fact in the opening scene of the documentary in which he visits a bank where new account holders are given a complimentary rifle upon opening a new checking or savings account. The absurdity of the scene sets the stage for the exploration that follows.
Moore talks with a broad range of people. He interviews victims that survived the Columbine shooting itself. He tracks down world-renowned movie star, Charleton Heston, who is the president of the National Rifle Association, a group with a strong lobby in national politics. Moore even pays a visit to the brother of Terry Nichols who, along with Timothy McVeigh, was convicted in the 1995 truck bombing in Oklahoma City.
Through these interviews, as well as through incisive questioning, Moore uncovers what he perceives to be a dangerous trend in American culture: Fear. Irrational fear that inevitably leads Americans of all walks of life to violent overreaction.
Whether it’s a kid shooting up his high school or a U.S. president authorizing the bombing of another country, Moore sees fear as the foundational source of America’s violent dysfunction.
To prove his point, Moore compares America to other developed nations. For instance, in Canada gun ownership is more prevalent than in the United States, yet gun crime is minimal. Japan produces a majority of the world’s violent video games and violence in entertainment is quite common, yet Japan’s murder rate is dwarfed by the annual kill-fest in the United States.
For Moore, it is an engrained fear of other people that makes America such a violent place. He points to the evening news, where the principle of “if it bleeds, it leads” makes the evening newscast a nightly excursion into the morbid. He points to the fact that Americans lock their doors and spend inordinate amounts of money on personal home security. And, of course, he points to the American love affair with the gun.
In all, this film is one of the best to debut this year, bar none. There are graphic scenes in it; however, they are real scenes of real events that punctuate the violence that seems to have overtaken American society.
If there is one film to see this year, <i>Bowling for Columbine</i> is it.
|
