Bowling for Columbine

Rating:
Summary: It Will Blow Your Mind
Review: No Pun Intended. This expose from controversial director Michael Moore will get you thinking and wondering. It's a great documentary and I totally recommend this to anyone who wants to be informed.

Rating:
Summary: Crap
Review: The movie was about Michael Moore making money of others suffering.

Rating:
Summary: Trying again
Review: I guess we know the stance this website takes (far to the left) as this is the second review ive written about the piece of socialist garbage (the first one has not been admitted to this site) and i doubt this one will be allowed either. Perhaps if children were guarded as closely as the media, columbine may not have occured.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting, for a variety of reasons.
Review: Okay, Moore is indeed a clever and sometimes humorus guy. And, he really covers a heck of alot of ground in this film. Where do I begin! I mean, according to Moore, the NRA is just an offshoot of the KKK, the media has been busy frightening the average American with stories about invading killer bees, a corporate white collar crime reality show would be really alot more interesting than "COPS", America's past is tainted with more blood than Stalin's Russsia, we can't forget ENRON,white folks are armed to the teeth because they are scared of the black community, America is in grave economic decline, air pollution is killing us and we can't even arrest anybody for it, and Canada is really a much better place to live than America! Phew! That's quite a few topics to try to cover in just over two hours.

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I should note that I am a proud member of the NRA. When I decided to view this film, I was expecting a tirade against the right to bear arms. Sure, Moore delivers plenty of that, but I was suprised by what else I saw - and how Moore continued to contradict himself. Throughout the film, Moore admits that as handgun ownership increased in communities, crime rates actually went down. He also notes that in Canada, despite high rates of firearm ownership, there is a much lower homocide rate than in the US. So it isn't the guns. Yet, despite these admissions, Moore continues to go back and indirectly blame the "gun nuts" at the NRA.

Or does he? Just when I was sure that Moore was blaming guns for EVERYTHING, he does go on to make a few points that I do agree with. First of all, I agree with Moore in his contention that the mass media continually pumps the American public full of fear. A quick look at the nightly news confirms this to be true. So, for a time I'm finding some agreement with Moore.

But then he just goes off on another tangent about welfare, the greedy "rich", the defense industry, Bush, and of course the NRA.

If it sounds like this review isn't ordered and coherent, it's not. And that's because the film wasn't either. Moore just bounces around from topic to topic with no real direction - and, perhaps more importanly, without any meaningful conclusion. I don't agree with Moore on most of his issues, and quite frankly, I think he's a rather dishonest guy. But I do think there is SOME glimmer of insight here . . but Moore blows it.

Rating:
Summary: Bowling for Gun Control
Review: Watching Michael Moore grill an aged Charlton Heston in one of the final segments of BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE makes the viewer want to squirm in their seat. Granted, as you see in this film documentary WHY Michael Moore went all the way to Hollywood to put Charlton Heston on the spot makes all the sense. However, asking a movie icon for the wisdom on why Americans like to kill each other was, in a way, a sad image for someone who has had some great screen moments in cinema history. The rest of the film is brilliant and deserved its best documentary prize at the Oscars (which somehow was tarnished when Michael Moore shot off his mouth during his acceptance speech which generated a round of boos from the audience). BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE is a brilliant film entrancing from beginning to end. The caustic wit and humor of the film asks the age-old question of the violence in America and its comparisons to Europe, Japan, and neighboring Canada. Some classic moments in the documentary; Michael Moore signs up for a bank account which, if approved, gives the applicant a brand new shotgun right on the bank premises. There is a hilarious cartoon sequence about the history of America summing up the supposed white people's fear of the black race coinciding with the birth of the NRA, the Ku Klux Klan, and its obsession with consumerism. One interesting segment is his interview with shock rocker Marilyn Manson who comes off more intelligent than any politician clamoring for an explanation for youth violence. Moore asks him what he would say to the kids at Columbine, and Manson say's "I wouldn't say anything but I would listen to what they have to say!" Lastly, Moore gets results in one of his efforts after accompanying two surviving victims of the Columbine shooting to K-Mart headquarters to show executives their wounds (Apparently, the shooters bought their ammo at a nearby K-Mart). K-Mart agrees to stop selling bullets at all their stores in a public announcement with Moore at the forefront and his cameras rolling. Other highlights; Moore's interview with the brother of Oklahoma bomber accomplice Terry Nichols, James Nichols. Moore's failed attempt to get an interview with Dick Clark regarding his "All American Cafe" (a women who was forced to work there to pay off her welfare bill as part of the state's new program. As a result she wasn't at home to supervise her small son, who ended up bringing a loaded gun to school and shooting and killing a fellow classmate... a lttle girl.) as he drives off in his limo leaving Moore to eat dust. Lastly Moore's visit to a Canadian suburb where people don't lock their doors and have no fears about anything. Moore does not want to solve or answer the 'why's" and the film does not go into too much dark territory. However, he just wants America to take a step back and take a closer look at itself, the condition of this country and it's conditioning to fear,violence, and pursuit of the dollar bill.

Rating:
Summary: This is a social commentary, one person's opinion
Review: Over six hundred reviews strong and nothing gained, just opinions upon opinions. Sure Michael Moore has distorted the truth in some ways to get his point across, but can you think of anyone who doesn't use rhetoric and propagandist tactics on a daily basis to gain support for their own particular cause? I loved this movie, regardless of whether or not he distorted some of his facts. The reason for this is Michael Moore is trying to communicate to us, everyone, liberal or conservative, that there is something inherently wrong with the society we live in. To denounce him with comments like "Michael Moore is a big fat idiot" only strengthens a persons ignorance and narrow-mindedness. This is not about Conservative or Liberal bashing. It is a statement concerning the social dilemnas we all watch on our biased television screen, then forget about once the evening news is over. WAKE UP!!!!! What do think this government is doing as we speak? You speak about a distortion of the facts? PLEASE!!!! It's time to get rid of this whole liberal-conservative system and start focusing on solutions, not the juvenile slander of people like David S. Rhodes, whose other review praising a conservative book states "overall, liberals are going to hate Laura (the author) like they hate most things that are good and decent and true." GIVE ME A BREAK! If that is not the most generalizing, ignorant, statement I've heard in some time! It makes me sick (I am neither a liberal nor conservative, merely a person that chooses not to live under a label) that people believe they have to be on one side or the other. Americans aren't competing for title of "Political affiliation of the Year," are we? Just be content that whether you agree or disagree with Michael Moore, he is up there fighting for what he believes in, which is more than I can say for us, who just argue about his little movie.

Rating:
Summary: And then came Moses...
Review: A film deserving of all the praise it received & then some. I won't reiterate much of what you've probably read, but Moore's most succesful feat is raising consciousness (whether you agree with his view or not).

He addresses the NRA, racism in current America, and the government & media's perpetuation & affirmation of fear in our national mindset.

I believe everyone should watch this film at some point, regardless of political stance.

A very admirable undertaking.

Rating:
Summary: A Sad Era Hopefully Past...
Review: This is simply one of the most powerful, most poignant, and important films of our time. Moore is as human as any of us, but this film renders him, at least temporarily, as a sober voice of reason in an age of fear, paranoia, and shallowness. A tasteful, heartfelt, earthy documentary that takes apart the underbelly of an increasingly terrifying America. It reaches outside of the insular fantasy land that most Americans live in and dares to compare our country to others. The resulting comparison renders us as poor, ignorant, racist, paranoid savages who defy logic itself in favor of reactionary and unrealistic solutions that only generate more and deadlier problems. It directly addresses the breeding ignorance and poverty that is steadily growing in suburbia. Beware, everyone, the most dangerous place is no longer the city. Having your children live in white suburbia may just be an invitation of disaster, and of death. Hopefully, with films like this on the rise, the white trash, hollow, deadly, ignorant, slimy late nineties are over... if it doesn't stop, I may just move to Canada. America has grown into a PARANOID illogical wasteland of ignorance (thank the exploitation of the working man by the GOP).

Rating:
Summary: A great film about domestic problems...but...
Review: This film was a fantastic expose on the sort of domestic problems within the United States placed on a level that the average person can understand. Michael Moore, surprisingly, does not merely address gun control. For example, he touches on the endemic problem in America concerning the African American underclass and what is and is not being done to remedy the situation.

However, he spoils his work by inappropriately, (sometimes inaccurately ie/Bosnia) discussing international affairs. Moore seems to believe that bad moves by the U.S. government corrolate with the domestic issue of gun control. He wags his finger at overseas military action, that is not always unwarranted, as if it is the reason that the Columbine shootings occured. Simply because the U.S. military has guns and has the tendency to act aggressively overseas does not mean that is why an American civilian will buy a gun and start schooling (Lee Harvey Oswald being an obvious exception). The Canadian military has firearms too and has been involved in nearly every conflict the United States has been involved in for the last century excluding the Vietnam war and the recent war on Iraq. This was a poor attempt by Moore to put his views on American foreign policy in this film that should have rightly stayed on U.S. soil.

"Bowling for Columbine" gets minus one star for the shameless plug of international views and minus one point for inaccuracies and misleading statements on that point.

Rating:
Summary: Still Michael's best
Review: Those who read my review after I saw this at the theatre know that I think it's Moore's best. But I think the general consensus, that it's about gun control, misses several points.

The film had a few weaknesses I'll start out with to appease those who think Michael is a step up from the anti-Christ. First, I think he oversimplifies the race issue. He did so in his little cartoon about the history of guns in the US. He did so too in his comments on COPS, which I've never seen and have no desire to, so I may be wrong in my comment there.

And a weaker weakness occured to me only after I saw the film the fourth time: while commenting (appropriately!) that the welfare-to-work program is a sham, one of the program's participants is gabbing into a cell phone as she hops onto the bus to take her to her welfare-to-work job. I find cell phones to be the ultimate frivolity, seldom needed. So a person in such a low-income situation should think of a better place to spend her money.

Now, onto what's good about the film:

First, as to the gun control issue, I think that's among the issues he discusses. An even bigger one is FEAR! What DID happen with Y2K? Where did the killer (African!) bees start killing us? And that's two of countless other issues he mentions. And even more, it's the commercialization of fear. There are companies--and certainly MEDIA--who make a living off of fear! Why is it we Yanks tend to be so much more fearful than most others in the world?

Another one he covered when he said, "It sucks to be a kid," then shows the schools throughout the US who passed students through the metal detectors, or suspended and expelled them for the color of their hair, or for the anarchist organizations they purport to be creating. The school's administrators wallow in the horror they anticipate, as if they'd never been young and felt alienated!

Then there's the history. Several politicians are proclaiming that Marilyn Manson is responsible for our social turmoil, while Michael covers stock footage of the US's take over of Iran, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and our funding of Osama bin Laden and others, including one scene with our president, who doesn't even need reasons for his actions. That was well done. In the meantime, he's talking with someone at Lockheed Martin, the world's largest military contractor, and an economic backbone of the US economy--perhaps the largest employer in none other than where Columbine High School is located.

And then there's the issues of media in general. When the six year old shot the six year old girl in Moore's home town of Flint, the local media missed the point. While keeping their hair in place for the camera, they discussed how cute she was and that she loved pizza. But they said nothing of the HISTORY of the area (see "Roger and Me," on how there used to be well-payed jobs there, and there aren't any more) and the economics, i.e., moms going to work for 70 hours a week plus transportation, and still not being able to afford rent.

Some of the critics took it too personally that a few of those to whom Moore spoke were a little ill-prepared. I didn't take that so seriously. And I think he treated Charlton Heston with reasonable respect--even after Heston spoke within days after the Columbine incident AND the one in which the six year old was killed, defending our ostensible right to shoot whatever we like.

There were amusing portions, particularly Michael's suggestion to the producer of COPS that he have a show with white-collar criminals being manhandled after their mega-thefts. What, do some critics think that's disrespectful of the powerful? It's about time somebody is!

I've always said that one of the better things about the film is that Michael doesn't make up our minds for us. He gives us these scenarios and we are free to conclude what we will. That's another invaluable element of the film.

Was Michael biased? Hmmm. Some critics talk of Moore's obvious slants. Well, often that's the point of art, to make a point. I don't know Moore would call himself "objective."

Oh, and the DVD has the little extras, e.g., Michael discussing his academy award reception speech, and a speech he gives at, I think, the University of Colorado, and others. They make the DVD even better than merely seeing the film at the theater (and they are, I guess, the point of a DVD!)

God knows there's other great points of the film that don't cross my mind now. So buy this one, see them yourself. Show it to everyone you know. Discuss it, and use it as a tool to change.