Bowling for Columbine

Rating:
Summary: Amazing! Humerous, Touching, and Real!
Review: This is the first documentary that I have ever seen and I was blown away. The movie had so much reality to it, it had so much humor, it had so much.....seriousness to it. It had everything a big Hollywood movie has except more real.

After director/writer/producer Micheal Moore was blasted at the Oscars for his verbal attacks on America I just knew that I had to see his film on the topic of gun control. When I finally saw it when it was on it's last breath in Manhattan I was really glad that I payed ten dollars to see it.

It starts off with Micheal Moore going into a bank. The bank says that if you open a special account you get a free gun. It then rolls off to people opionions about owning guns, using guns for protection, and the 2nd amendement which enables every man to bear arms.We are even treated to a five minute cartoon about American History.

The film had all different kinds of angles. There was Micheal Moore private filming. There were special news reels and footage. What had me interested the most was how when they were talking about the Columbine shootings they showed the actual tapes that the school had. We saw the kids being forced to go under the tables, we saw the two kids responsible for the shootings looking around and mabey even communcating with one another. I was wondering throughout the movie why anybody would want to do that. Who wound get angry enough to kill people who are of a different race, religion, and ethics just because they are different. It was a movie that I was thinking about even after I left the theatre.

We were provided with interviews with people who lived in the area, people in other countries, and celebrites like NRA president and actor Charlten Heston, singing Marilyn Manson, and South Park co-creator Matt Stone who went to Columbine School. We saw the large comparisions between the murders and deaths from guns to our country to the amount of others. In Canada there are 65 people who are killed by guns a year. In America 11,127 people are killed by guns per year. In Cananda, people go to bed with doors unlocked. Moore even opened various doors of houses in Cananda to prove this.

I am just naming a few things that this movie does. Thid movie talks about various other shooting including the death of a six year old girl who was killed by a six year old boy who found a gun in his uncles house and took it. This movie has terrible topics, but it's all true.

Rating:
Summary: Super Fun!
Review: I agree with some of the other reviewers.

I've heard many accusations against this film, and I don't want to hear them anymore. I don't want to hear about...

-- How the missiles referred to in the film were for 'commercial' use not military. It's the same thing. A missile is a missile and all missiles are bad missiles, and Moore would agree with me.

-- How the Heston speech was spliced together from two different speeches, making him look like he's saying something different. Hey, he said those words. Context doesn't matter, and Moore would agree with me.

-- How the bank sequence is staged. That doesn't matter. It's not like this is a documentary, and Moore would agree with me.

-- How the statistics about China's gun record are stellar because China is communist. Of course, that's why they call it a 'police state'. And Moore would agree with me.

-- Canada isn't really that good of a place to live. Yeah, but hockey is still a really cool sport.... Even if Moore doesn't agree.

-- France is socialist. Duh, just like Moore is.
I've heard it all before. I don't care. This was an entertaining movie. I don't go to the movies to learn 'facts' I go to be entertained, and that's what this movie does. Don't confuse me with 'truth' vs. 'error'. Life's too short for all that.

Thank you Mr. Moore for giving us a highly entertaining. It's better than the Matrix!

Rating:
Summary: An important one for thinking people everywhere!
Review: To say this film is about antigun ownership is foolish. The reviewer that wrote that, either didn't watch this film or perhaps understand it.
The film strikes much deeper then that, even pointing out that Canadians love guns but don't have our problems with gun violence. It probes the same question "why" over and over again, while Moore simply allows the extremists to provide the humor. And finally, I believe, the answer comes from the strangest source, M. M.
A great film and an important one for thinking people everywhere!

Rating:
Summary: A passionate, angry film.......
Review: Contrary to what many right-wingers might think, documentaries need not be sterile, dull, "objective" films filled with stuffy talking heads. Non-fiction can have a perspective and (gasp!) even be biased. He's not making a "how-to" video, he's making a film -- and he has the license to do whatever he wants. But what about this DVD? First it had a release date, now it doesn't. Apparently, its release has been postponed indefinitely. How convenient. I smell corporate fear on this one.

Rating:
Summary: [] for sheep
Review: Anyone who does any amount of actual research into the subject of gun related crime knows that this film is manipulative, one-sided, and intentionally deceptive. Anyone who does research into the actual events depicted in this crockumentary know that a little cut and paste of movie reel segments can distort history to however you want it presented.

This miscarriage of cimenatic integrity has two purposes:

1. To further cement the convictions of people who think that America is evil. This movie preached mindlessly to them exactly what they wanted to hear, nothing more.

2. To promote Michael Moore's personal politics by presenting them as facts.

If Michael Moore was really interested in leading causes of death in America, he might look no further than into the unforgiving reflection of a full length mirror. High cholesterol, heart attacks, clogged arteries and rampant obesity are what I suspect Moore will fall victim to long before the receiving end of a Smith and Wesson finds him. If Moore could see the two quivering stumps of errant flesh he calls his feet, he'd see that the scale on which he stands on spells out impending doom in caloric terms, not calibric.

I could write a novel about all the inaccuracies, diversions, and downright lies of this film, but that would be entertaining the thought that it is worthy enough for me to waste my time doing so. Do your own research in a source other than Socialist International or Hustler.

This film won an Oscar. What does that tell you about Hollywood standards nowadays? Did you honestly expect rational thought and artistic credibility to arise from a town in which Alec Baldwin, Barbra Streisand, and Danny Glover are considered intelligent spokespersons? Are we to take seriously the judgement of America-hating, spoiled rich, high school dropouts who's black hearts pump liquid cocaine instead of blood? EVEN STILL, he got booed offstage by his own kind. This just goes to prove that there are pieces of garbage so filthy that even rats won't swallow them.

It's laughable that 5-star reviewers call this an eye opener, a shocking expose, a lighthouse of truth in an ocean of government deceit...blah blah blah. It's the same old tripe. All you need to convince these people is to promote your cause as one at odds with and/or being oppressed by any number of things, to include the U.S. government, the media, the 'establishment', the CIA, Mossad, oil companies, and George Bush Jr. This off-the-shelf conpsiracy flick would've done better as an X-Files episode rather than a "documentary", but that won't stop Moore's crimestopping fans from accepting every minute of it as nothing less than absolute truth.

What's sad is that Moore could've used his hands to turn the pages of a few books, as opposed to lifting donut after sprinkled donut to his grease-slabbed lips, and done some actual research. A documentary can be one-sided, so long as the information presented in said documentary is factual. Bowling for Columbine's lack of such suggests one of two things. Either there are not enough facts to support a credible anti-gun/anti-America argument, or Michael Moore is blatantly inventing facts of his own to further his plight.

And what exactly is that plight? This movie, like all his "works" (so called) revolve much more around blame than they do actually solving the problem he's addressing. But who is to blame for Columbine? Hmmm...Bush wasn't in office yet, can't blame him. The two murderers? Nope, that doesn't make for a fight-the-power progaganda piece. The guns? No, Canada has guns too, and they don't have incidents like Columbine. Charlton Heston? Maybe, but he'll be dead soon, and when the violence doesn't stop, this blame is null and void. Clearly, the blame in "Columbine" goes to American culture itself, and anyone who embraces this culture (or does not actively protest against it) shares part of the blame. So what Moore is selling his audience is a nationwide plot with nearly 300 million conspirators! We're way beyond X-Files now, Mulder.

And what better fight could the do-gooders pick? Bush will not be president forever. Heston will die. Guns can be confiscated. Republicans can be voted out of office. But unless we commit mass genocide on ourselves, our culture will always exist, and therefore provide these self-loathing, planet-saving, conspiracy-exposing, self-appointed messiahs an infinite amount of targets on which to sick their dogs on. The achieved objective of this film is idealistic self-sustainment.

The cinematic exploitation of a terrible tragedy in which innocent children were gunned down in cold blood, some because of their skin color or religion, simply illustrates the shameless depth to which Moore is seemingly more than willing to dive headfirst into for politics and profit. Even the ready-to-read anti-establishment fairy tales mass manufactured by Noam Chomsky for carefully choreographed release do not sink to such lows (though they come close). The fact that anyone would pay money to see this film, knowing it's going to line the pockets of a soulless subhuman who gleefully profits off murdered children, is in itself an abomination and makes me question our society's values, and our idea of quality entertainment. Maybe in a sick, twisted irony, Moore is right about us.

For people honestly interested in uncovering the motives and reasons for senseless acts of murder, there are many more qualified sources. You know, like psychologists and criminologists. Check out books like John Douglass' "Mindhunter" for a PhD-supported work on motive. Douglass doesn't pat himself on the back quite as much as Moore, and he actually has the facts and expertise to back up his claims. Like Chris Rock said, did it ever occur to people that maybe the Columbine shooters were just downright CRAZY???

To Michael Moore, I know it didn't pain you terribly to trade truth for profit. Congradulations on your Oscar. Even the blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then, I suppose.

Rating:
Summary: A work of fiction
Review: From the title on this is a pure work of fiction. Michael Moore rewrites history and edits and splices audio and text freely to portray people as saying things that they never said. He staged scenes and presented them as candid shots. In his attempt to denigrate America he lies about everything from the year that the KKK was founded to the text on a B-52 memorial at the Air Force Academy to the sattelite launch vehicles built in Littleton. It is very telling that he can not make his case based on facts, and is forced to resort to fiction while claiming it to be a documentary. He portrays gun owners as ignorant fearmongers, but ultimately the joke is on his intended audience who accept his fiction as fact and buy into his own fearmongering.

Rating:
Summary: Great Film/Documentary !
Review: I was very impressed by this film, it is very much realistic, it is something to watch with a critical eye, we should be able to criticize ourselves, or we won't be able to progress, if we follow blindly our rulers without questioning them (which is a basic thing in a democracy) we will go nowhere!
If you are so upset about this film tell me isn't it true what Michael Moore is showing? is this the American Dream? do we have such perfect society that cannot be criticized? Or improved? ...I don't think so, I travel the world I have seen a lot...and I believe we should be able to do better then that

Rating:
Summary: Truly amazing, Perhaps the best movie of all time
Review: Moore's Bowling for Columbine is quite possibly the best movie I have ever seen. It explores why America is one of the most violent countries in the world and searches for the real reasons why Kleibold and Harris shot up Columbine High School. Moore makes the connection between the violence America promotes overseas with our military and the fact that we are so violent at home. He asks crucial questions that, for the most part, can't be answered by those who favor the implements used in such violence (Charleton Heston, GOP, K-Mart, etc...). Moore also connects poverty and crime, something that American politicians seem afraid to do. Moore's genuine concern for our nation and its out of control nosedive is clearly evident in this truly amazing film. Moore seeks to answer the question: Why are we so afraid?

Rating:
Summary: Wow, some people really don't get this movie!!!
Review: I've just read a few reviews on the previous pages and I must say that some people really don't apply any thought or have any ability to extract a memory of a given film. However, I do agree with one thing that the naysayers are saying... BFC is not a documentary and never should have been entered into this catagory. It is wholly a single-sided perspective that pointedly asks the question "Why is it that America has the highest gun-related deaths on earth?" A interesting question and it is facinating to see Moore struggle to attain any sort of coherent answer to such a morbid inquiry. A lot of his "murder by numbers" are suspect (where did he get those death-toll numbers?). However, his "gun owned ratio" is quite exact with Canada having more guns per person than America and yet the number of deaths related to that ownership percentage is far exceeded in America (and you don't need to be a statistician to figure that one out - an averaging of newpaper headlines between both national boarders is revealing enough even for the most simple-minded).

The way that Moore trudges on bravely to find his answer is most of the entertainment found within this film, and his conclusion that FEAR is the driving motivation behind the excessive gun-related death is an interesting hypothesis that perhaps bears further investigation (and I suspect that that simple explaination is either letter perfect or not far off the mark).

This was an entertaining film that threw out apparently random statistics in order to pigeon-hole and stereotype militia (although they are a laughable and often simple people) and villify the aging Charlton by re-editing and splicing sound-bytes so that the common person will make unfounded and highly illogical connections between his speeches as the head of the NRA, the time that they took place, where they took place, and the content that they spoke to and of.

If nothing else, it's fun to see people mis-interpret the message that Moore is trying to say which is, at it's most simple... guns aren't bad, it's the society's perpetuation of misunderstanding, stereotyping, and ability to lay blame that creates these complex problems. Oh the humanity!

Rating:
Summary: Please, calm down!!
Review: This is a good, thought provoking film. People reviewing this seem to be as polemically 'all over the place' as what (some of them) are criticizing. There is no need for anyone to get so worked up over a piece of celluloid. Watch, enjoy, and if the need for voicing a vitriol inspired opinion is felt, do so in a restrained, lucid, pithy way. Write a referenced, academic essay, not a losely related littany of libels as is the case with most of the pieces I've seen here. Such important ideas cannot be elucidated 'decoratively'.