Rating: 
Summary: The Best Documentary You Will EVER See
Review: Michael Moore has done it again! Roger and me has shown us all how indifferent the "priviledged are and what lengths us middle class people must go to in order to survive. As a laid off manufacturing Engineer, I know. Just get your tissue out for the ending. This man knows what he is doing and he deserved that Oscar!!! We don't have a president. We have an idiot running this poor underpriviledged country while the Bushes and Enron Folk have the caviar. All I can say is every DOG has his day.
Rating: 
Summary: intentionally misleading
Review: If you give this movie anything more than a one star rating you obviously have not done your homework on what happened at Columbine and how Moore intentionally distorts the truth int this movie. There are to many examples to list on how much Moore distorts the truth in everything to fit his own political beliefs let alone Bowling for Columbine. Larry Elder who is libertarian not conservative has done his homework. Look at his website and read everything carefully on this subject. It will disgust anyone who has a high reguard for the truth nomatter your political beliefs.
Rating: 
Summary: A Fictional Documentary with Slipshod Evidence
Review: Admittedly, in our society, there is nothing criminally wrong about being a hyper-leftist focused on advancing one's agenda. Michael Moore, a college drop out, decided to create a film exploring the "root" causes of the Columbine disaster, which exploits to advance a political agenda he held before the crime occured. The irony is that Michael Moore provides ample evidence a nation of "gun nuts" (his term, not mine) is not to blame for the Columbine disaster. For instance, he admits that Canadians have lots of guns, and, considering their low murder rate, that is not to blame for the high murders in America. Thus, it is a bit of irony that he tried to pick on Charlton Heston, president of the NRA, a man who was just trying to have a nice conversation with an apparent "reporter." Michael Moore's apparent conclusion as to why murder rates occur in the United States has to do with a lack of socialism--"free health care"--in the U.S. If Moore wanted to seriously consider the gun argument, he would have called John Lott Jr., author of "More Guns, Less Crime." He is an articulate spokesman for the notion that more guns will result in less crime due to the way criminals use incentives to control their behavior. Michael Moore also makes many irrelevant connections between items that have absolutely no connection to other items. Lockheed Martin, a defense contractor, is apparently near the Columbine High School site. So? Moore brings up this connection without providing one single shred of evidence that one is connected to the other. He thinks that by saying a defense contractor is near the school that it will result in one thinking that defense contractor sites encourage children to kill. In fact, they do not. If that were the case, we would at least see national statistics suggesting that such correlations exist. I'm sure Michael Moore would be happy to show them. But he did not.
Rating:
Summary: Michael Moore Delivers His Message
Review: This Academy Award Winning film by Michael Moore says what a lot of Americans don't want to say. The film in itself explores the possibility that we as a nation don't know what is really going on. From gun control, to school shootings, to K-Mart bullets, to the effect of music on our youth. He covers it all. He states facts about our own government giving support to the very terrorism we are at war with today. He walks right into a bank and opens an account and is awarded a gun as a free gift for joining. A FREE GUN, IN A BANK. I could not believe that. The special features are a big part of why I bought this DVD. He has an exclusive interview on his oscar inwhich he resites his speech almost word for word. He was unable to show the clip because he was not granted permission to do so. He talks about why he did it and why he is glad he did. "Return to Denver/Littleton" featurette
Interview with Michael Moore by former Press Secretary Joe Lockhart. Audio Commentary by receptionists and interns
Teacher's Guide
Segment from "The Awful Truth II: Corporate Cops.
Michael Moore's Action Guide
Film Festival Scrapbook
"The Charlie Rose Show" with Michael Moore
And a Marilyn Manson music video These are some of the special features available if you purchase the DVD. The film is 119 minutes in length and riveting throughout. This film was on over 160 top-ten lists of movie reviewers and critics. This is a wonderful purchase and I recommed it for all Americans. I think the canadians might get a kick out of it also. This film was released in it's original widescreen format.
Rating:
Summary: Fair and balanced Thought provoking!
Review: Bowling for Columbine isn't a movie I planned on watching, much less owning, in large part because of how Mr. Moore has come off in media interviews I have watched. He often makes me wince. But I wanted to be fair, so I got the movie and while there are parts that bothered me, overall the movie is excellent!! What I liked or appreciated about the movie, was the overall fairness, which I will note the TV and print media hasn't shown very much. Which is one reason I assumed it was an anti-gun movie, which it is not. The movies value for me was or is, the historical over view of how fear is used to scare Americans into thinking that people with darker skin, or some unseen bad person is waiting outside our homes for the right time to hurt us. And how mythical fear is used to sell goods from guns to security systems, to selling candidates who then sell the citizens on some unseen boogie man who wants to rob us of our country. Thing is, its the people doing the selling that are also doing the robbing. Sort of like the arsonist who then runs to help put out the fire they started that has hurt and killed people. One positive piece in the movie is the segment on K-Mart. I applaud K-Mart for meeting with Mr. Moore and the two young men from Columbine who were shot and maimed (one disabled for life), and for making the wise decision not to sell guns and ammo anymore. William Hares review is one I agree with too. And I was shocked at how Dick Clark treated Mr. Moore who was being so nice and simply wanted to know how this squeaky clean image of Dick Clark is so foreign from what I see as reality. He owns a string of big business restaurants and pays lousy wages and demanded take breaks to boot, because he hired poor single welfare mothers who had to travel sixty miles one way to work, and for pay that didn't support their family. Often getting home late and unable to pay for childcare. One of Dick Clarks workers was a young mother whose child was killed by another child. Had Clark paid a decent wage the mother would have been home when her child was home. And its a great movie for anyone who wants to be reminded of how America has bred guns and violence outside our own borders and how we may have a great Constitution and Bill of rights but our leaders have not or are not the peace loving people they may want us to believe. And YES Mr. Moore was/is critical of G W Bush and his war in Iraq. But Mr. Moore is also very hard on Clinton and his wars while in office! So no one can say that Mr. Moore is being unfair or not balanced. He is simply a man who dares us to think outside the box. The DVD has a segment where Mr. Moore is sitting at a picnic bench somewhere in Michigan with the Oscar he won, and is explaining how the movie came to be, and the path that took him to the Oscars and the speech he gave when he won. Hearing the speech spoken in such calm terms gives it more meaning and is something I hope viewers who watch the DVD take the time to listen to.
Rating:
Summary: Don't trust the people that hated this movie
Review: I've noticed almost all the reviews on here of people that hated the movie probably did not actually see it. Anyone who wrote something about "gun control" probably did not even watch a trailer. There is no way you can come out of this movie thinking about gun laws. There are plenty of mediocre reviews of this movie from people who actually watched it and who like to nitpick everything to death, but basically this movie can change your whole outlook on life for the better if you are smart enough to understand the message. The NRA should love this movie, it gives no reasons to change gun laws, but plenty of reasons to change their spokesman.
Rating:
Summary: If only every American saw this film.
Review: When reading the reviews, you'll notice tbat this film rarely provokes a lukewarm response. You'll either love it, or hate it. As an Australian, (an outsider's view) I thought the film was stunning, and long overdue. It's about time that a film such as this was developed to educate Americans about the dangerous and naive path that America all-too-often seems to been taking. The "What a Beautiful World" clip was shocking. Critics cannot deny the facts that were presented in this clip. It makes you realise what a global bully the US is, and how the US has created many of the monsters it faces. For example: In the 1980's the CIA trained Bin Laden and fellow terrorists to kill the soviets. CIA gave them $US 3 Billion. In 2001, armed with the training and financial backing the CIA provided it launches devestating attacks against America. In 1982, the US provides billions in aid to Saddam for weapons to kill Iranians, including WOMD. In 1990, Iraq invades Kuwait with weapons provided by the US. In 1983, the White House secretly gives Iran weapons to kill Iraqis. The list is just endless. Well worth seeing. If only every American saw it. Perhaps there would be a better world.
Rating:
Summary: Appalling in its disregard for the truth...
Review: ...this movie is one of the greatest pieces of distorted disinformation ever made. The infamous Nazi and Soviet propaganda film makers or even Oliver Stone have nothing on mike moore. What's really scary is that plenty of Americans think that this movie is factual.
Rating:
Summary: The Truth is out There
Review: Michael Moore is a very brave man.Not since Bill Hicks did an American dare to speak out loud and directly about what he/she thinks is wrong with their society. While Hicks did it through his stand up routine, Moore is doing it through docu-films and books.After finding a comfortable niche on TV with TV Nation and The Awful Truth, Moore crowns the fruits of his more than decade labour with a docu-film, the core of which is about the tragedy of the Columbine High School massacre and the gun control debate that ensued long after,but is wider in scope to include the much more complex issue of finding or trying to explain the roots of the violence in US society.
There are several points of interest in the film.
The statistical comparison of the crime rate he made between the US and other developed country is something that baffled him and many of his interviewees, even Charleton Heston who was the cherry on Moore's cake (pardon the pun!),securing the interview that ends the film. I was really surprised by how little information and facts Heston has on the crime rate issue.I would have imagined the president of NRA would be more informed and learned about a debate that he has come across a zillion times,and not just repeating the same old diatribe and cliches!.
Of course we get no answers, either from the Columbine tragedy, because the two kids responsible shot themselves and the reason they decided to commit their horrendeous act died with them, nor we get any answers about the roots of the wider crime problem.
Gun ownership seems one, but then we get the impression that in Canada there are millions of guns out there, with a European crime rate.The emphasis on Canada in my opinion was a bit long, and the fact that Canadians do not lock their doors was over emphasized and a bit naive and unrepresentative of the core problem.
Another very interesting angle in Moore's film, is the fearmongering he talks frequently about,the 1984-ish atmoshpere of fear mainly instigated by the media. While, there are conspiracy undertones to his theory which I am not very comfortable with,it does present some valid points to ponder on.
The political angle of the film is typical Moore.His anti Bush, anti American involvement in the foreign wars and the innocent lives that were lost as a result, is in my opinion something which he should be praised for, not because I agree with what he says or not, but simply because like Hicks he has the courage to highlight hypocrasies that many people know about but ignore.And to that end, no matter what the subject is ,it is stance and a rare courage that I applaud.
I know a lot of people attack Moore for being unAmerican and unpatriotic for (as they say)trying to hang a dirty laundry that should remain buried especially to the rest of the world because the world out there does not need more ammunition to critisize/attack/hate America,a very sensitive area especially post 9/11. But I believe that Michael Moore is a true patriot.Patriotism is NOT about pride, but rather about love,care and concern for your country. Moore is concerned about the violence, the high rate of crime, the things that he alledges are done by the politicians in the name of the ordinary people, and this is where the source of his frustration and the need to go out there and film it or write about it come from.
The important issue about Moore is not whether you agree with him or not, it is rather about somebody who has a lot of interesting things to say in a democratic environment. Voltaire once said: I am against you till death in every word your say, but will defend till death your right of saying it.(roughly translated).So for those who think Moore makes sense, and is brave in saying what he says,it is good to know that there is actually someone speaking for many,and for those who think he is damaging his own country by what he says and believes in, then they should thank God for living in a democracy, when if a different opinion is voiced, it is not a sign of unpatriotism or dissent, but a platform for debate and exchange of ideas.
So Bowling for Columbine is as a result a very important film.It not only discusses issues that you may or may not agree with, but it makes you think.This is what Bill Hicks strived to put across, and this is what Michael Moore is now doing.
Rating:
Summary: Kinda makes you think, don' it?
Review: Love him or hate him, Moore asks the kind of questions that, once you've heard them, you can't ignore. Is the NRA an association for good guys or bad guys?
Is Charlton Heston a bigot or a man with strong personal opinions?
Was the Columbine massacre inevitable or avoidable?
Does Marilyn Manson actually make more sense that the people who hate everything about him?
Is Canada, so different from America, and if so, what's the real, deep down reason?
Are gun laws alone the root cause of all of America's social problems? These look like very worthwhile questions to me, and it's my belief that Moore does us all a favour by getting us to think about them.
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