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Bowling for Columbine

Bowling for Columbine

List Price: $14.95
Your Price: $11.21
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Effective entertainment, not fact
Review: This is a useful piece of propaganda, not a documentary. Just cuz the Oscar committee awarded BFC the award for Best Documentary, doesn't mean the film actually was or was meant to be a documentary. He is a FILMMAKER, not a journalist or policy maker, it doesn't matter that he says every fact in there is true and it's not. It would be wise to view Michael Moore the same as one should approach Marilyn Manson -- unless you're an idiot you don't take every bit as the real deal. It'd be insane to trust a guy who did "Canadian Bacon" and writes books titled "Dude, Where's My Country" for unspun fact.

He made several good points. People's fears are exacerbated by media and the administration and our govn't is heavily invested in defense and arms. The animated history of the US was hilarious; even more so considering how many websites take issue with the "inaccuracies" in it. There are tear-jerkers I didn't appreciate (such as when the portrayal of the Michigan town as some sort of freak spawning ground and the attempt to interview Dick Clark) and ploys that were downright bad (the attempt to show the picture of Kayla Rolland to Charlton Heston, the doctoring of the Bush / Quayle ad, the claim that suburban white kids commit more gun crimes than inner city black youth), but some liberties I don't begrudge him (the NRA rallies, the editing of the gun-from-bank footage).

The portrayal of Canada as some sort of a haven is more amusing than poignant, though it only goes to show that Canadians seem just as biased about Americans as Moore is about Canadians.

The movie's worth watching even if you don't agree with Moore's politics.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A funny but disturbing Oscar-winning documentary
Review: Bowling for Columbine angered a lot of people, and with good reason. Michael Moore wanders into a dozen different places to talk to a variety of people about guns. Why do Americans kill each other so much, he asks? The film builds steadily to a sensible conclusion: We're scared.

Whether he's talking to the father of a teenager killed at Columbine, Marilyn Manson, Charlton Heston, or a schoolteacher in Michigan, the same themes return: Fear, consumerism, racist scapegoating, and mixed messages about guns and violence. As Marilyn Manson says, "Keep them scared and keep them buying stuff. It's a cycle." The mixed messages come in the form of overseas bombing by the US military and weapon-building at Lockheed Martin. (The Lockheed Martin plant made nuclear missiles but, by the time the documentary was shot, the missiles were converted to peacetime use to launch satellites. Then again, those satellites are part of the US military, so the point Moore makes in the missile plant still makes sense.)

These themes are not wrapped up at the end into a final, definitive answer. Moore is smart enough to leave the issue open-ended. This film is the beginning of the story, not the end.

The extras on this DVD are not necessary --- the documentary stands on its own, as Moore says in the introduction --- but they add a lot of worthwhile commentary. One of the best parts is the interview on the Charlie Rose show, where Moore makes a strong case against the Bush administration, the invasion of Iraq, and the so-called war against terrorism. This feels like a teaser to his next film. His 15-minute talk about his Oscar speech is also very good. Instead of showing the speech, he sits at a picnic table in someone's yard, holding the Oscar statue as he explains what happened and what he said. These extra pieces add a lot to an already brilliant documentary. I highly recommend it.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Left-wing propaganda
Review: Michael Moore is no better than Bill O'Reilly.. he distorts facts to suit his agenda just like O'Reilly does. Moore also uses the veneer of a documentary style to disguise lies in narration and editing. Watch this movie.. but don't accept any of it's "facts" or conclusions.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: LIES & DISTORTIONS - MOORE IS A FRAUD! MOVIE MANIPULATES U
Review: This movie is actually work of FICTION. It is the delusional work product of a malcontented Maoist director - Michael Moore. Moore works perverse a "magic" by cutting and pasting unrelated video clips to create scenes that never happened in reality.

Sadly, Moore never lets the viewer know when he his making up scenes with his editing tools. The viewer, therefore, is left believing falsehoods.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: An Honest Appraisal from a Man with a Heart
Review: The night Moore won his Oscar and also attacked President Bush on the stage I promised I would never watch any movies by him. Personally I found his outburst very repulsive. But then I've watched by chance a short interview with him on a TV channel that showed his more thoughtful humane side.

After many months of resistance, I made my peace with my earlier bias and forced myself to watch this powerful documentary the other day. And am I glad I did.

Despite Moore's less-than-polished antics in public, I think there is a very tender and sensitive heart in there who really cares about shooting victims (especially the children) and who gives his adversaries the benefit of doubt.

During his interview with Charles Heston (something you have to watch in its entirety to believe it) I really thought that the NRA President would have the fortitude to hold his own against Moore's very simple and logical questioning. Instead, to my complete shock, Mr. Heston just preferred to stand up and walk away from the interview. What a disappointment...

After all is said and done, after all the comparisons are made between the USA and Canada and other countries, Moore's conclusion boils down to this: we are the ones who are creating this pervasive atmosphere of fear and suspicion in this country which then turns around and bites us in a cycle of self-fullfilling prophesy.

His analysis of the way in which the media pumps up the rhetoric of violence and crime (as a good business practice) is worth thinking over.

Moore does not offer any solutions to the gun-related crime epidemic in the United States but raises many honest and intelligent questions. And I think that is the best that one can expect from any good documentary.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Opened my eyes! Amazingly Simple Movie!
Review: I'm sure I'm only adding to the scores of reviews that rave about this incredible movie. Opened my eyes to the problem in USA with attitude and guns. Love the animated part of the film. I do indeed rate it as a documentary and it deserved the awards. Michael Moore himself is pretty unassuming but his thoughts and direction are most most thought-provoking.

You must see this film, if only to argue all the points that you thought Michael was wrong about!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Lack of balance leads to lack of credibility.
Review: In short, the film does a fairly good job of getting the message across as it should do in making people aware of the high crime rate in the USA and the fact that this is in great part due to all the weapons that are out there. At the same time, however, it does not provide a balanced examination, which only weakens the very effect it is trying to create.
Lying about being a member of the NRA to get an appointment in order to play "tricks" on Charlton Heston in an attempt to humiliate one of America's best actors is neither witty nor wise when trying to carry out a "noble cause".
A more balanced and objective approach with less bias and closed mindedness would have made the film more effective and therefore, more successful. The ultimate goal is good, but the method used is not necessarily the correct one.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: a joke
Review: Unless you are a liberal socialist who hates Bush don't waste your time with this trash.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Very Funny
Review: Whats so creepy about this movie is that it ISN'T staged. That bank really does give away rifles with a new checking account, and yes those militia folks are kinda wierd.
Moore in his rather droll presentation seems to have less criticism for America and more curious analysis of why Canada is so darn NICE. I can't figure it out, the Canadians look like us, talk like us, they love our movies.
Michael Moore is funniest as a "fish out of water" american who wanders the streets of canada wondering why people are so courteous. Does he come to any conclusions about why America is so violent.....well, actually no, but he does ask some really hard questions that Americans don't really want to even hear much less acknowledge. I felt kind of sorry for Chuck Heston, but hey he's got all those guns to defend himself with, I'm sure he could easily hold off the rather portly, slow moving Moore if need be.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Southern white gun nuts with small woodys
Review: Southern white gun nuts with small woodys are the only people who don't like this movie.
"Come on pa there's a coon that go hang him,yip,yip,yip,yippy"
Who knows where small woodied men would be without guns?


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