Bowling For Columbine DVD

Average Rating:

There are moments of high comedy (South Park's history of America is in the film and it is a hoot) and moments of feelings that go deep (footage from Columbine) and moments of great irony (the quote given by an interviewee just before a rather gruesome list (and footage) of America's history of use of bombs is displayed). Moore has assembled a tapestry that amazingly weaves in and around Flint, Michigan (and, oddly, bowling) and he has talked with a great many people, from the creators of South Park (students of Columbine) to Charlton Heston, to the father of a child killed at Columbine to gun totin' militamen from his home state, for a diversity of points of view of the issue.

It may seem to some that he is provoking a desired response by his questioning but the reality is that the answers given by those he interviewed speak freely and it is their words, spoken with conviction and sincerity, that ultimately leave the viewer mystified.

The interview with Charlton Heston left me speechless. The man who boldly proclaims 'from my dead hands' reveals another side of himself.

All in all, the movie is disturbing but it is not brashly so. It merely reveals to us all the various absurdities in the freedom we so cherish. This film should be viewed by everyone who is troubled by the violence in this country.

When anybody uses a gun in self-defense and in so doing protects an innocent life that is a good thing- and makes the case for private gun ownership. Every suicide is a tragedy. But people will commit suicide with or without guns. Moore obscures the facts by citing aggregate data.

For evidence, Moore relies primarily on anecdotes that depict illegitimate uses of guns. Sure, there are people who will commit violent crimes. That is why having guns legal is a good idea. Honest people who want an effective means of self-defense need guns, and handguns in particular.

Moore interviewed the weirdest gun owners he could find. It is no surprise that, in a country of close to 300 million people, Moore could find five or ten gun owners who were very strange. So what? There are millions of gun owners who are just normal people.

Moore took on Charelton Heston in this movie. Heston is just an actor and a spokesman. Moore could have taken on John Lott instead. Lott is a scholar who did a county by county study on guns. What were his results? Private gun ownership leads to less violent crime and makes honest people safer. Of course, not everyone is safer- criminals are significantly less safe when states adopt concealed carry laws. This is what the statistics show. Lott is the leading scholar on this issue. Moore could have interviewed him, but he is not interested in the real facts.

Moore contends that fear is the reason for Americas' gun death rate. Supposedly, we are all scared, so we get guns and then as we panick from all of this fear, we shoot each other. He emphasizes the fear that white Americans supposedly have for black Americans. Does he list data from any study or survey? No. He shows us a cartoon instead. Anyone over the age of eight who takes this seriously should seek professional help. He claims that the government is scaring us. He claims that the media is scaring us. He claims that 9-11 is scaring us into shooting each other too. Where is his proof? He has none. He makes these claims without substantiating them.

He claims that Canadians, have guns but not fear. How does he prove this? He asked several Canadians. He also found several Canadians who did not lock their doors. Assuming that he did not stage these things, what does this prove? Are we supposed to infer something about entire nations simply because he talked to a couple of people and opened several doors?

There is fear at work here. Moore finds the creepiest gun owners to scare us. Moore uses a few tragedies- Columbine and Flint in particular- to scare us. Never mind about the millions of murders, rapes, beatings, thefts, and other crimes that private guns prevent. He uses the absolute worst examples of private gun use and the strangest gun owners to scare us- and then has the nerve to claim that gun violence derives from others who try to scare us.

There is more than fear mongering in this movie. Moore is also a shameless demagogue. Moore takes two victims from Columbine to KMART. He does this in order to pressure this company into ending its sales of handgun ammunition. He also shows the father of one who died at Columbine. Never mind about the victims of violent crime in places like NYC and Washington DC. These places ban guns, thus leaving decent people at the mercy of violent thugs. Never mind about the thousands who get murdered or brutalized in these illegal gun/high crime areas. Never mind about the facts. Never mind about the truth. Moore is out to play upon people emotions and fears, and will stop at nothing to do it. He could look at the general statistics on gun ownership and crime, but he prefers to exploit the suffering of two Columbine victims. His aim clearly is to evoke strong emotions while suppressing critical thought.

Moore also ignores a major source of violent crime in American. There was an increase in gun violence during the prohibition of alcohol. This gun violence ended when The war on alcohol ended. Now the war on marijuana has gangs shooting it out with each other and the police again. We can end much violent crime and greatly reduce that 11,000+ death statistic figure he cites by legalizing marijuana. Moore ignores this fact.

Bowling for Columbine is a shallow and shameless attempt to demagogue the gun issue. He uses selective, misleading, and anecdotal data to provoke fear of guns and anger against gun rights advocates. He evades the strongest advocates of gun rights so as to avoid having to deal with real arguments and data. He flails at straw men because the facts are against him. Moore sets a new standard for shameless demagoguery and misinformation with this movie. In fact, he is so brazen in the way he tries to scare and manipulate his audience that only closed-minded ideologues will take him seriously. Thinking people will see through his charade easily.