“Bowling for Columbine” is the Academy award winning documentary film; written, directed, produced, and narrated by Michael Moore. Through the tragic Columbine High School shooting, Moore’s film explores the highly debated question; why does America have such an extraordinarily high rate of gun violence compared to the rest of the world? The film question’s the Columbine shooter’s motives through the media, important figures of American society, and the country’s relaxed gun laws. Bowling for Columbine is a very persuasive film.
Michael Moore uses extreme bias throughout the documentary to sway the viewer’s opinion to match that of the one being stressed throughout its entirety. A very luminous example of this happens at the first scene during the sequence of which the song “What a wonderful world” is played. Dreadful scenes of violence and unnerving facts are shown throughout the time of which the song is played. This is a very effective way of drawing in the audience and viewing America and its violence negatively.
The music is calming however when played with brutal scenes of violence, it takes on an eerie feeling that causes the viewer to perhaps be fearful of the society they thought for song was safe. Many other techniques are used throughout the film to display Moore’s overall message. American citizens are viewed in this film as generally unintelligent and unknowledgeable. Figures of authority are displayed as moronic racists, and cartoons much like “South Park” also are used biasedly to show America’s overall obsession with guns and violence.
Overall the film is very effective in projecting Moore’s message, through the use of bias, music and factual accuracy. A common theme that revolves around many of Michael Moore’s films, including Bowling for Columbine, is politics. Throughout the film, Michael Moore interview many Americans, many of which state that they would not feel safe without their guns. The film also shows the side of Americans who despise guns and want them gone, mostly through protest.
The gun association is a major part of American society, as shown through the documentary. Therefore America’s politicians feel obliged to meet the needs of the majority of Americans, which for some odd reason is to have guns in society. This proves that associations are what truly have the power in American society. This movie enlightened me somewhat on American politics and that it is not what is right for the people, but what the people want or inevitably do not want.
This film stimulates interest in politics for the average person as it shows that there is a serious gun control issue in America that needs to be addressed. Overall this film effectively enlightens its viewers that there is an issue of gun violence in America, and one that has been building since America’s formation, and greatly increased after the tragedies of 9/11. I highly recommend this film to anyone as it is very interesting and knowledgeable, one of Moore’s greatest films and perhaps the greatest documentary in recent history.
