Running time: 120 minutes
Starring: Michael Moore, Charlton Heston, Matt Stone, Marilyn Manson
Rating 9 out of 10
Bowling For Columbine is a chilling and humorous documentary from the provocative Michael Moore. Having tackled corporate expediency in Roger And Me, Moore has turned his focus to the issue of gun violence in America; not a subject that appears laden with laughs. It's a testament to Moore's irrepressible pluck and mischievous sense of irony that Bowling For Columbine is as hilarious as it is tragic, and why it fully deserved the accolade of being the first documentary to be accepted into competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 46 years.
Moore's satirical slant is evident from the very beginning when he opens an account at a Michigan bank that offers a gun to new customers. That the bank's employees saw no anomaly in this is symbolic of the fact that too many Americans refuse to make the connection between the prevalence of guns and the 11,000 people killed by them every year. In Bowling For Columbine Moore sets out to discover what it is about American society that compels its citizens to pull the trigger so readily.
The film's title relates to the massacre at Columbine High school in 1999 when 12 students and one teacher were murdered by two students whose day had begun with a bowling class. What makes the film so effective is Moore's broad approach. While recognizing that guns are responsible for the carnage, Moore is less interested in why so many Americans own guns than why they are so prone to use them. In search of answers he visits Canada, where guns are as readily available as they are south of the border, and discovers its citizens are not only prone to leave their doors unlocked but, with a population of more than 31 million and only 165 gun deaths, less inclined to shoot each other.
It's Moore's fearless guerrilla approach that provides the film with many of its more memorable moments. His brazen confrontation of a frail Charlton Heston at his home contrasted starkly with footage of the National Rifle Association President making a forceful speech at a NRA rally. In his quest, Moore also interviewed less likely figures. Matt Stone, creator of South Park, attended Columbine and talked of it being "painfully normal", while Marilyn Manson, who was considered by some as being indirectly responsible for the massacre, provided some of the film's more poignant comments.
Inevitably, Moore was unable to arrive at any simple solution for such a complex problem. Every avenue he ventures down, from the culture of fear fuelled by the American media, to racism, to the constitution, proffers a viable cause, but what makes Bowling For Columbine so compelling is not the conclusion it draws at the end, but the journey it takes to get there.
Moore's satirical slant is evident from the very beginning when he opens an account at a Michigan bank that offers a gun to new customers. That the bank's employees saw no anomaly in this is symbolic of the fact that too many Americans refuse to make the connection between the prevalence of guns and the 11,000 people killed by them every year. In Bowling For Columbine Moore sets out to discover what it is about American society that compels its citizens to pull the trigger so readily.
The film's title relates to the massacre at Columbine High school in 1999 when 12 students and one teacher were murdered by two students whose day had begun with a bowling class. What makes the film so effective is Moore's broad approach. While recognizing that guns are responsible for the carnage, Moore is less interested in why so many Americans own guns than why they are so prone to use them. In search of answers he visits Canada, where guns are as readily available as they are south of the border, and discovers its citizens are not only prone to leave their doors unlocked but, with a population of more than 31 million and only 165 gun deaths, less inclined to shoot each other.
It's Moore's fearless guerrilla approach that provides the film with many of its more memorable moments. His brazen confrontation of a frail Charlton Heston at his home contrasted starkly with footage of the National Rifle Association President making a forceful speech at a NRA rally. In his quest, Moore also interviewed less likely figures. Matt Stone, creator of South Park, attended Columbine and talked of it being "painfully normal", while Marilyn Manson, who was considered by some as being indirectly responsible for the massacre, provided some of the film's more poignant comments.
Inevitably, Moore was unable to arrive at any simple solution for such a complex problem. Every avenue he ventures down, from the culture of fear fuelled by the American media, to racism, to the constitution, proffers a viable cause, but what makes Bowling For Columbine so compelling is not the conclusion it draws at the end, but the journey it takes to get there.
