Bowling for Columbine

Rating:
Summary: Important and well-made, though not the whole picture
Review: As ever with Moore, he makes important points in this film and does a lot of good in alerting people's attention to this particular issue. He also makes them in a dryly humorous style which makes it easy to watch. However, we must remember that Moore is a populist and not an analyst. He does not always go into depth or the full picture. Admittedly he goes much closer with this film than he does with his recent books, but those interested in the subject should not just take Moore's word for granted. By and large, I agree with him, but he is selective with his filmaking. Nevertheless, the good of the film outweighs the bad and its funny and entertaining to boot. 4 stars.

Rating:
Summary: I am SO disillusioned
Review: When I saw this movie in theaters, I thought it was great. It didn't try too hard to give you easy answers, and watching people with power squirm made for fun viewing. It left me feeling empowered.
Now, however, I'm a little wiser and more skeptical. People who haven't visited and read the site bowlingfortruth.com are being duped by this film-making mastermind. Almost every topic or incident in the film contains manipulations and misleading (sometimes even flat out FALSE) information.
Off the top of my head, I can tell you that:
- the interview with Charleton Heston was heavily edited, and the details of the NRA rallies are not given full and proper explanation; Heston is not at all the bad guy Moore makes him out to be
- Kayla Rolland's 6-year-old killer was violent in school almost everyday, and the uncle's house he had been abandoned at and where he found the gun was actually a 'crack house' (among other omitted facts this segment should have featured)
- the cartoon segment, giving a brief history of the USA's colonization and the founding of the NRA, is remarkably misleading

The fact that I came away from the movie, initially, moved and entertained says a lot for Michael Moore's movie-making abilities and infectious underdog enthusiasm. But the way I see it, the guy must be in it for the money. I do feel that violence in America is a worthy topic of exploration, but this entire movie is full of deceit. Please see the website
www.bowlingfortruth.com
for more info.

Rating:
Summary: Can't be any less than a 5
Review: I'm not sure how you could rate this film as anything less than a 5. Put aside the Oscar win. Put aside all the press it's gotten. When you see this movie, you will rethink your values. You will rethink what it means to be an American. Chances are, you will feel more compelled than ever before to rise up and voice what you believe in. After seeing this movie one time, you might not even have to see it ever again. The FACTS found in this movie will stay with you for as long as there is a Bush in the White House.

Rating:
Summary: Commentary a bit annoying...
Review: This is a great movie, to begin with. I have to agree with many of the other reviews that say that special features almost aren't needed for this film. The commentary provided by the interns, assistants, secretaries, etc. is interesting at times, but there are too many people involved in it talking all at once. It becomes a screaming match at times, to the point where I was forced to turn it off just to protect my sanity. Buy the DVD, but bypass the commentary, it's not worth your time. Check out the other special features, however.

Rating:
Summary: distorted correlation
Review: I found it sad that a person can blame the entire world of problems on white men and guns. Terribly simplified and terribly wrong. Conflict exists in man - all of mankind. It is transient of gender, race, and yes.. even hobbies. Conflict exists within man - and will be present as long as man exists. That in no way excuses conflict nor does it mean that attempts should not be made to resolve such conflicts. But blaming the entire history of earth on such simplistic terms is rediculous. Moreover, slavery does not only encapsel that single period of time in U.S. history - nor does it only refer to those peoples of Africa. To make such a judgement is absurd. For all the education this film attempts to relate - it really comes of quite idiotic.

Rating:
Summary: Bowling for Columbine
Review: Documentaries are probably the hardest types of film to review, primarily because it all comes down to whether or not you agree with the filmmaker or not. Style helps, but you can't recommend a documentary you disagree with, can you?

To come out with the truth before I get too far into this review, I will say that I totally disagree with Michael Moore on almost all subjects. To call him a liberal is an understatement -- so from a Republican's standpoint, it's very hard to give his film a good rating.

"Bowling for Columbine," like most of Moore's films, is seriously flawed. He presents a lot of information as truth when it is clearly not so. As entertaining as the History of the US cartoon was, it was also quite incorrect in many ways, and guess what -- killer bees DID come to America through Texas, even though he states that they never did.

He doesn't bash the Bush administration as much as I thought he would, or any real political issues. He basically bashes American culture for allowing guns to flow so freely into the grasps of criminals and children.

Moore is a lifetime member of the NRA, but he thinks guns should be handled with more caution. America has the highest rate of weapon-related deaths in all the world, and as this documentary shows, Britain, Canada, and other closely related countries have the exact same films, videogames, weapons, and so on. Why is America's gun crime so high?

The film is centered on the Columbine shooting a few years back, when two students walked into Columbine high school and shot students, killing and injuring a large number of innocents. It was a wake up call for most of America, and Moore's real point of the documentary is to explore the reason America is so obsessed with guns.

From a critical standpoint, the documentary is well made, probably deserving of its Oscar. It's touching and funny, disturbing and outrageous. Sometimes it's a bit too politically correct -- the whole exploration of African-Americans getting arrested more than Caucasians on the television show "COPS" is not only incorrect but sort of a laughable attempt on Moore's part to gain the respect of black viewers. I've watched "COPS" before, and a lot of white guys get arrested -- I can think of many arrests off the top of my head. I don't think that it's a valid point at all. America's reported fear of blacks is not why there are more shootings.

Two survivors of the Columbine massacre accompany Moore towards the end of the film when he visits the Wal-Mart headquarters and requests that they stop selling 30-cent weapon ammunition -- the same ammunition bought by the Columbine shooters. Wal-Mart agrees, which is why you will no longer see gun ammo in Wal-Marts across the country.

When "Halloween" came out in 1978, the six-year-old killer, Michael Myers, seemed even more evil and scary because he murdered at such a young age. Nobody thought that there could be a child like that. But, in "Bowling for Columbine," we are informed that a six-year-old school kid shot another young girl of the same age in a school cafeteria one day -- by accident, or so they say. That's when the documentary starts to become a horror film as opposed to an informative film. And it's better for it, too.

It is our right as Americans to decide whether or not we should carry guns. I think the restrictions on letting guns fall into the wrong hands could be a bit more strict, but the criminals on the street will achieve weapons irregardless of whether or not Wal-Mart stops selling hunting rifles. In that sense, Moore's documentary is almost pointless. By the end, he never reveals why America is infatuated with guns. But his unresolved insight into why our nature is so influenced by violence is the highlight, and the remaining image of the little girl shot to death by a six-year-old boy will stay with you for a long, long time.

Another problem with documentaries is that they can be twisted around and edited into whatever the filmmaker wants -- such as Moore's interview with Charleston Heston at the end of the film, or Dick Clark's refusal to speak to Moore, and so on and so forth. We don't know the background story on these things and we don't know what else was said before Moore fiddled around with the footage and crafted it into what he wanted. Splice together images of Heston saying, "From my cold dead hands!" and anything can look bad.

"Bowling for Columbine" is a very good film, and though I do not respect Michael Moore in any way, even I have to admit that he's made a good -- if flawed -- documentary about violence in America. He handles the content with care -- the way it should be handled -- and it can be both hilarious and saddening at the same time. I don't agree with everything in this film, but some of the real facts are pretty haunting. It's definitely one to check out.

Rating:
Summary: Misleading
Review: I watched this documentary and was surprised by many of the things Moore claimed. It was hard for me to believe much of it, especially the things Charleton Heston said. I found out why these things were so hard for me to believe by visiting the site: http://www.hardylaw.net/Truth_About_Bowling.html

Rating:
Summary: looking for lies
Review: If you buy this you will regret it. He arranged the facts like the Waco tapes to meet his agenda. I am from Michigan and I am ashamed that he is. He is not like any Michigander I know. If you want to own a gun, fine, be responsible, if you don't want to own one then don't. When the twin towers fell we were told not to blame all Muslims, just the terrorists. People like Michael Moore think just the opposite, blame all gun owners not the criminals......

Rating:
Summary: Moore Vs Moses
Review: michael moore will certainly go to hell for making fun of moses (chuck heston). i thought the interview was funny as hell. i thought the entire movie was funny as hell. michael moore is the liberal rush limbaugh.....only with out the 100's of oxycontin. he is very brave to take on such an organization.

jack e. jett
the jack e jett show

Rating:
Summary: it is also a dangerous thing...
Review: While there are some merits to this documentary, I got to ask: if Charlton Heston didn't want the interview to be shown, and Michael Moore got away by throwing the roll of film out the gate to his coworkers and telling them to "flee the scene", and make it against the will of Charlton Heston, isn't it also "me, me, me" which is an attitude Michael claims to be against?

Also, does he have to broadcast the message that Bush is not the majority elected president... it was, at least, close enough... there is hard to always get absolute fairness in the world, but it is quite close; he doesn't need to bash it. Also, bashing the Democratic party? It is purely his personal view. Columbine is one thing, but his political preference is another thing. When he thinks he is 100% or 99% right, it is also a dangerous thing... just like...