Bowling for Columbine

Rating:
Summary: Oscar Worthy
Review: Moore does a fantastic job of dispelling the widespread myths about why there are so many gun deaths in America evey year. Contrary to what an earlier reviewer called misleading facts, Moore uses actual stats to back up his claims. The reviewer who suggested the number of U.S. gun deaths are disproportionate because of population is completely ignorant. Even when taking the 'readjusted stats' into consideration the new, COMBINED total is still 41% less than the U.S. total alone. Moore does a fine job making points why still using humor. The Parker/Stone cartoon history of the U.S. used in the film is worth the price of the DVD itself. See this film today.

Rating:
Summary: Awesome, funny and tragic documentary!
Review: What a great way to get America to "WAKE UP" about gun violence. Many aspects of the film, I already knew regarding how many deaths from guns are in this country compare to other countries. What I was not (or maybe I was) the expecting was the blatantly racist views of Mr. Charlton Heston and others regarding gun violence due to "skin color". Also the surprising moments, the free gift of a gun from a bank! Michael Moore, is a NRA member and does believe in defending one self, but he just thinks which I agree that the US has gone too crazy with owning a gun which can lead to dire consequences. Great job and effort!

Rating:
Summary: There are several things about this...
Review: Hello

I would like to make a few points, not directly related to the documentary, but otherwise. Many people have seen this and said "we need gun control." YIKES!!! George Washington just rolled over in his grave. I can't understand the position where you -must- question the government all the time, and then not have a backup to enforce the social contract (no guns to fight with). The second amendment isn't about hunting, it's about being able to fight against tyranny. Many of you liberals out there call Bush the tyrant, and all this stuff like that. If he really took control, how would you get rid of him?

Secondly, if all these americans can't be trusted to follow the current gun laws, how can they be trusted to follow future gun control laws?

Rating:
Summary: What Heston really said in Denver
Review: Moore's fabrication here cannot be described by any polite term. It is a lie, a fraud, and a few other things. Carrying it out required a LOT of editing to mislead the viewer, as I will show below. I transcribed Heston's speech as Moore has it, and compared it to a news agency's transcript, color coding the passages. CLICK HERE for the comparison, with links to the original transcript.

Moore has actually taken audio of seven sentences, from five different parts of the speech, and a section given in a different speech entirely, and spliced them together. Each edit is cleverly covered by inserting a still or video footage for a few seconds.

First, right after the weeping victims, Moore puts on Heston's "I have only five words for you . . . cold dead hands" statement, making it seem directed at them. As noted above, it's actually a thank-you speech given a year later in North Carolina.

Moore then has an interlude -- a visual of a billboard and his narration. This is vital. He can't go directly to Heston's real Denver speech. If he did that, you might ask why Heston in mid-speech changed from a purple tie and lavender shirt to a white shirt and red tie, and the background draperies went from maroon to blue. Moore has to separate the two segments.

What Heston really said:
"NRA members are in city hall, Fort Carson, NORAD, the Air Force Academy and the Olympic Training Center. And yes, NRA members are surely among the police and fire and SWAT team heroes who risked their lives to rescue the students at Columbine.

Don't come here? We're already here. This community is our home. Every community in America is our home. We are a 128-year-old fixture of mainstream America. The Second Amendment ethic of lawful, responsible firearm ownership spans the broadest cross section of American life imaginable.

So, we have the same right as all other citizens to be here. To help shoulder the grief and share our sorrow and to offer our respectful, reassured voice to the national discourse that has erupted around this tragedy."

Rating:
Summary: This documentary is more self promotion than anything else.
Review: I am a huge fan of documentaries, I have watched hundreds and bought the ones that told there stories with the most skill and passion. A Documentary is a subject put on film to tell a true story, to educate the viewer and to bring the subject to light. That is Why when you watch one you never see the person that is making the film, because that person cares about the subject they are telling and not about making themselves look good. This is not the case for Mike Moore, his name is over the title as if this is a action movie and he is Arnold or Sly there is a picture of him on the cover as if he is the subject and that is pretty much the case. If you go to any store and buy 100 or more documentaries including both of his. His will be the only ones with the film maker on the cover. That's because the other film makers are promoting the subject matter and not themselves. if you watched them all you would see that on all the others you never see the film maker, butt with Moore's film that's almost all you see. The mans ego gets in the way of the story he is trying to tell. Which tells me that like always in Mike Moore's case promoting him self is more important to him then the subject at hand and that is not a documentary. A extremely poor film.

Rating:
Summary: Best Fiction
Review: I give it 1 star because zero is not an option. Moore's colection of out of context and out of sync "quotes" does a disservice to the idea of a documentary. He started out with an axe to grind and when the facts did not line up with his preconceptions, he simply made things up. I do not recommend buying it, but should you actually watch it, just notice how the clips are broken up. Then notice that the speaker is dressed one way at the beginning, and another after the break. Pieces are spliced together to portray something that never actually happened. Actually, Minus 5 would be an appropriate rating.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating study of America's obsession with guns
Review: Outspoken documentary filmmaker Michael Moore's "Bowling for Columbine" is both an outrageously funny and a profoundly sad look at gun violence in America. Our nation has the highest homicide by gun rate in the world, and Moore tackles this issue with his usual free-wheeling style. The movie has few answers to the questions it raises; indeed, Moore often seems perplexed by his subject matter. That doesn't matter much because the movie stands as an invaluable documentation of a particular moment in our history. It also promotes debate on why we, citizens of the richest, most powerful nation on earth, seem hell-bent on shooting one another.

As a kid growing up in Flint, Michigan, Moore learned to hunt with a rifle. He has been a member of the NRA for decades. I mention this to assure viewers who firmly believe that that all Americans have the right to own guns that Moore doesn't necessarily disagree. The message I got was that he, especially after the massacre at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999, now questions just how much we really need all these firearms. He demonstrates how television news today is geared to keeping us scared, despite the fact that crime has declined. He takes us to Canada where there are also lots of guns but where the murder rate is much lower. [Many Canadians don't even lock their doors!] He takes us to Japan and Great Britain where kids also grow up on violent movies and video games. Homicide rates in those countries are also exceedingly low.

Some of the funniest scenes show Moore at a bank that offers a free gun for opening an account. Some of the most poignant involve two young men who were wounded at Columbine. They accompany Moore to the corporate headquarters of K-Mart, where they attempt to get refunds for the 17 cent bullets still lodged in their bodies. [The bullets used in the shootings were bought at a Denver K-Mart.]

At times, Moore seems to be all over the map. I think this is because he trying to cover as many angles on the subject as he can. The result is one of the most fascinating documentaries ever made. Highly recommended to everyone on both sides of the gun issue.

Rating:
Summary: Land of the Brave or the Fearful
Review: "And I thought, 'You know what? This is about an American mental problem. About our culture of fear and paranoia'." ~Michael Moore

In this documentation of the questions Michael Moore asks about gun violence, I found very few answers. You can compliment him on his discussion about free speech, encouraging people to get involved in politics and bringing an awareness to how we are consumed with materialism to the point of losing our souls. We do need to become less selfish. It is not a bad idea to remind ourselves of how American can become a kinder nation. This "documentary" just has a lot of finger pointing and few answers.

This entire presentation is actually based on feelings and reaction. Michael does present various situations, discuss some of the problems and takes a look at the Columbine High School massacre in April 1999. He visits a Michigan bank and receives a free gun. He attempts to interview Charlton Heston. Marilyn Manson says something I actually agreed with. While you can agree that listening to kids is important, it might be a bad idea to brainwash them with lyrics that don?t exactly promote sanity.

From the statistics given, you would imagine the situation is much worse. I did some of my own research and in 2000, there were 3,761 American children and teens killed by gunfire. 2,184 were murdered by gunfire, 1,231 committed suicide, 262 died from accidental shootings, 609 were under 16 years of age, 179 were under 10 years of age 83 were under 5 years of age. (Children's Defense Fund, 2002)

"How are kids getting guns?" Apparently 2/3 of students in grades 6-12 say they could easily obtain a firearm in 24 hours. According to the ATF, there are a group of problem gun dealers that supply the "suppliers" who then funnel guns out to the nation. Closing down various criminal operations would be advisable for long-term success.

To fight this battle, you need intellectual ammunition. It is not good enough just to make America feel bad about the situation. What are we going to do about it?

We need to know why this occurs. Michael presents what the media believes the problems are. These range from violence in movies to Marilyn Manson's music.

While Michael doesn't seem to be against policeman going in and saving the lives of children in school shooting incidents, I have to ask him why he is against a government taking out a dictator who is killing their own people? I also found that he seems to confuse the aggressor with the protector.

Michael makes Europe and Canada look like paradise. He doesn't mention that European suicide rates are much higher than U.S. suicide rates. He doesn?t talk about taxes. Nor does he mention that Europeans and Canadians have given up many of their freedoms.

Basically Michael Moore presents a variety of numbers that didn't seem similar to ones I found, however many of the basic statistics on gun violence are in disagreement and you could really prove any point just by looking up a different source. The countries he compares the U.S. to have smaller populations. You can't compare the amount of murders betweens a country with 285 million and a country with 19 million and make your point in an honest way.

What some do seem to agree on is that U.S. deaths have declined since 1993 and that most gun deaths in America are the result of suicide. Most of the people "murdered" with guns seem to die due to disputes between people who know each other on some level. He also doesn't mention that crime victims are more than twice as likely to walk away from an assailant unharmed if they are using a gun to protect themselves.

As far as the NRA goes, I don't blame Heston for walking out on the interview, especially if the NRA did cancel several days, but they could not change their annual meeting due to corporate law and notice would have to be given to 4,000,000 members.

Michael Moore's obsession with "the rich" being evil struck me as a little odd. There are people who do evil in all classes of our society. Class envy can only make matters worse. He seems to have a variety of goals. One is to encourage parties to join together to defeat Bush. He blames the government for causing various problems. $245 million was not given to the Taliban, it was given to International organizations for humanitarian aid.

So why are we growing little terrorists right in our own communities? According to The World Health Organization (World Report October 3rd, 2002), youth violence cannot be isolated from other problem behaviors.

The risk factors for youth violence seem to include a history of early aggression, antisocial behavior, hyperactivity, attention problems, nervousness, poor levels of concentration, low levels of achievement, treating animals cruelly, setting fires, use of alcohol or drugs, bullying children or being the target of bullies, poor supervision by parents, exposure to violence in the home, parental drug or alcohol abuse, poor emotional attachments to family, poverty, antisocial parents, low commitment to school, academic failure, access to firearms and family disruption.

Perhaps we should add watching violent TV shows to the list. The average person between 8 and 18 years of age watches 10,000 violent acts a year on television. Michael is right when he advises us to turn off our TVs.

The problem is obviously not "guns." The problem seems to be how we are raising kids and how we are not taking personal responsibility for gun safety.

Teaching children to respect and love people of all races would be a good starting point. Realizing we are responsible to a higher power would bring some sense of connection to a life beyond our planet earth. Love can overcome fear. If Fear is the Problem, Is Love the Solution?

"We refuse to live in fear." ~George W. Bush, October 7, 2002.

~The Rebecca Review.com

Rating:
Summary: Beneath the shock value, he makes a good point.
Review: As with all good reviews, I should note some of my bias. I don't like George Bush, and I believe he's creating a bad reputation of America as the world's bully nation with his attack on Iraq based on what I call Magic 8-Ball premonitions of possible actions against America in the future. That said, I am also a gun owner and wouldn't consider for a moment giving up my guns.

This movie's facts in regards to the number of gun murders in the United States versus the other countries of the world should make anyone step back and ask themselves "Why?" Michael Moore takes us on a tour of what fuels the fears of Americans to motivate them to purchase weapons. We visit Colombine High School in Littleton, Colorado in the film, and Moore gives us some examples of extremes people go to in the efforts to prevent another massacre. We visit Flint, Michigan, and we learn about one 6 year old boy shooting a 6 year old girl in their classroom. Granted, most Americans find it inconvenient to think about the social aspects of our culture that do not help these stomach turning consequences, we must recognize how abnormal our relationship with violence and "preemptive strikes" truly are.

I'm proud of Michael Moore for researching and showing us these events, though he may emphasize shock value a bit too much here and there - for example, the Great Lakes Crossing Mall is in a wealthy county in Michigan, but it is more or less an outlet mall in a very middle class/GM factory worker town. In a democracy, we can still love the USA and support our troops while questioning what we do - to call such questions unpatriotic is vitriolic and similar to an authoritarian view. Until we're forced to wear Chairman Mao hats in this country, Michael Moore reminds us that we need to step out of the routine to recognize what has changed around us.

Rating:
Summary: Michael Moore's talent cannot be denied
Review: Regardless of your political stance, Michael Moore has become a force in this country, and beyond. To attempt to minimize his film by saying that this is NOT a documentary is very shortsighted, misleading, and just plain untrue. Moore really chucks away at Americana in a way that no one is able (or willing) to anymore in the cinema. Most of the American movie directors of today are scared to make subversive, thought--provoking films. They figure that Unviersal, Columbia, or 20th Century Fox will not supply them with some 100 Million bucks to throw away on some lousy Hollywood action or other fomula movie. With rare exceptions, all of those cookie cutter films are a waste of time and people's money. On the other hand, Mr. Moore is a real film maker, as he stated clearly at this year's Academy Awards. Bowling For Columbine has a few flaws (which is OK), and it makes a lot of people uncomfortable, and that's the way it should be. I hope he makes 50 more films!