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Bowling for Columbine
Alliance // R // October 11, 2002
List Price: Unknown
There is a strong desire in American for a change. But there may be an even bigger desire for more of the same violent tendencies or even something on the darker side. Why does America have a much higher statistic for gun violence than any other country on earth? This question is the focus for the documentary, "Bowling for Columbine"
I have to applaud anyone that can make a man like Charlton Heston look like a heartless, frightened coward right before your very eyes. This comes as a refreshing splash of truth in an age where celebrities are worshipped by the mindless masses who also devour without question, the heavy diet of gun violence and killing on TV. Old Charlie comes off like the poster boy for rednecks of America. In this interview Michael respectfully asks Mr. Heston about his immediate presence at 2 of the highest profile gun related incidents in America where he spoke as representative for the NRA. Perhaps if he spent as much time being compassionate about people and less time thinking about guns, he might have a clue as to what Michael was talking to him about. I suspect Michael knew exactly how Mr. Heston would respond, and made it one of the highlights of the film. Michael does a respectable job at making the K-Mart corporation look equally foolish by challenging their decision to sell guns and bullets in their stores. I will stand up and cheer the day I see any corporation motivated more by people and less by the all-mighty dollar.
The basic message Michael is showing us with this film is that here in America we have a certain unique thirst for violence and fear coupled with a dangerous lack of intelligence and a short attention span. A large part of the blame for this he places on the media and rightly so in my opinion. The media feeds us what we desire to see which keeps us fearful of evil-doers despite the skewed portrayal of society this delivers. I suppose to a large degree the success of this film will depend on how much you agree with Michael Moores politics, but one can't help but pay attention to what he is showing us to be true in many of his scenes. While I found some of the comparisons to past world events hard to form an opinion on simply for lack of knowledge, most of it was very telling of a certain angle most people won't see in America without this film. I certainly found things that I did not agree with in his opinions, but overall I can relate fully to most of what he shows us about American attitudes.
How many people would have thought that a Bank would be giving out guns as an incentive to opening a certain kind of account with them? This is the kind of absurdidty that pervades middle America, and only a small taste of the kinds of things Michael has brought to the table to get people to think a little deeper about what is happening today. We are at a crossroads right now with the atttack on America at the World Trade Center and what seems to be imminent war in the middle east. America is the only superpower and we are struggling with moral questions and responsibilities that seem to bewilder our government and people. Bowling for Columbine is a successful vehicle for getting us to look a bit deeper into our own sensibilities and motivations about ourselves and world around us.
Michael takes us on a trip around the country to visit various places and people with a certain higher-than-average tendency for paranoia and belligerence. While some may consider this to be a skewed and twisted representation of average American values, I think it can be taken in context with many of the things we already see amongst our own media circus that is splashed across the boob tube 24/7. When I reflect on the things I have already seen and experienced in my own life and then spin it into the web with "Bowling for Columbine" I began to see a bigger picture.
I have read a great deal of negative opinion on this film and in it's own irony would prove the very thing this film works to show us. Its about attitudes, morality, fear, and most of all it's about gaining insight into our own perceptions of the real world. The reciprocal nature of our relationship with the media is also on stage to show us how powerful and invisible this cycle gets in cultivating violence in America. Michael does a wonderful job at staving off the typical arguements with proven facts and statistics about other countries who have similar numbers of guns, but not nearly the amount of gun violence that America has.
Summary: I am looking forward to seeing this film emblazoned onto DVD and added to my own collection. I certainly don't agree with everything Michael is showing here, but there is no doubt it is a provocative look into American violence and the underlying psychological motivations for it. If you get a chance to see this film, don't let it pass by. It's well worth a look.
I have to applaud anyone that can make a man like Charlton Heston look like a heartless, frightened coward right before your very eyes. This comes as a refreshing splash of truth in an age where celebrities are worshipped by the mindless masses who also devour without question, the heavy diet of gun violence and killing on TV. Old Charlie comes off like the poster boy for rednecks of America. In this interview Michael respectfully asks Mr. Heston about his immediate presence at 2 of the highest profile gun related incidents in America where he spoke as representative for the NRA. Perhaps if he spent as much time being compassionate about people and less time thinking about guns, he might have a clue as to what Michael was talking to him about. I suspect Michael knew exactly how Mr. Heston would respond, and made it one of the highlights of the film. Michael does a respectable job at making the K-Mart corporation look equally foolish by challenging their decision to sell guns and bullets in their stores. I will stand up and cheer the day I see any corporation motivated more by people and less by the all-mighty dollar.
The basic message Michael is showing us with this film is that here in America we have a certain unique thirst for violence and fear coupled with a dangerous lack of intelligence and a short attention span. A large part of the blame for this he places on the media and rightly so in my opinion. The media feeds us what we desire to see which keeps us fearful of evil-doers despite the skewed portrayal of society this delivers. I suppose to a large degree the success of this film will depend on how much you agree with Michael Moores politics, but one can't help but pay attention to what he is showing us to be true in many of his scenes. While I found some of the comparisons to past world events hard to form an opinion on simply for lack of knowledge, most of it was very telling of a certain angle most people won't see in America without this film. I certainly found things that I did not agree with in his opinions, but overall I can relate fully to most of what he shows us about American attitudes.
How many people would have thought that a Bank would be giving out guns as an incentive to opening a certain kind of account with them? This is the kind of absurdidty that pervades middle America, and only a small taste of the kinds of things Michael has brought to the table to get people to think a little deeper about what is happening today. We are at a crossroads right now with the atttack on America at the World Trade Center and what seems to be imminent war in the middle east. America is the only superpower and we are struggling with moral questions and responsibilities that seem to bewilder our government and people. Bowling for Columbine is a successful vehicle for getting us to look a bit deeper into our own sensibilities and motivations about ourselves and world around us.
Michael takes us on a trip around the country to visit various places and people with a certain higher-than-average tendency for paranoia and belligerence. While some may consider this to be a skewed and twisted representation of average American values, I think it can be taken in context with many of the things we already see amongst our own media circus that is splashed across the boob tube 24/7. When I reflect on the things I have already seen and experienced in my own life and then spin it into the web with "Bowling for Columbine" I began to see a bigger picture.
I have read a great deal of negative opinion on this film and in it's own irony would prove the very thing this film works to show us. Its about attitudes, morality, fear, and most of all it's about gaining insight into our own perceptions of the real world. The reciprocal nature of our relationship with the media is also on stage to show us how powerful and invisible this cycle gets in cultivating violence in America. Michael does a wonderful job at staving off the typical arguements with proven facts and statistics about other countries who have similar numbers of guns, but not nearly the amount of gun violence that America has.
Summary: I am looking forward to seeing this film emblazoned onto DVD and added to my own collection. I certainly don't agree with everything Michael is showing here, but there is no doubt it is a provocative look into American violence and the underlying psychological motivations for it. If you get a chance to see this film, don't let it pass by. It's well worth a look.
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