Update: I first published this review in the early days of the Bohica blog in 2010. In light of the massacre at Uvalde, Texas, I searched to see if I indeed reviewed it previously. I did and after re-reading the review, I stand by it. Mass shootings in the United States have become so commonplace that we can predict the playbook when, not if, it happens again. There will be pleas for thoughts and prayers for the victims and their families, followed by pleas for gun control reform, then life returns to normal with no meaningful action taken and we bide our time until the next shooting. I hate to sound so cynical, but history hasn't proven me wrong yet. The question is, do the rights of gun owners outweigh the right not to be shot? The answer is an apparent "yes". It is telling how Bowling for Columbine could've been made today and the same questions will still apply.
Directed by: Michael Moore
(Original review re-posted)
Over 11,000 gun-related deaths occur in the United States each year, as per the statistics shown in Michael Moore's 2002 Oscar-winning documentary, Bowling For Columbine. The film focuses on a few of those murders, including twelve students and a one faculty member of Columbine High School on April 20, 1999. Some of the stark and eerie footage provided in this film includes security camera shots of the shooters as they stalk the library and cafeteria in search of their targets, which pretty much included anyone on that day.
What perplexes Moore is that other nations have the same economic issues and accessibility to handguns but yet have only a fraction of the gun-related deaths as the U.S. It's amusing to see how myths about Canada and why they have so few gun murders are debunked one by one. Apparently, Americans think Canadians don't have any poverty or even access to guns, but do they think Canadians don't hunt?
Michael Moore grew up in Michigan and is a lifelong NRA member, so he has no real axe to grind in making this film, except that America is seemingly gun crazy. Oddly, I was watching Capitalism: A Love Story the other day and one depiction is a family being evicted from its home. What were some of the items they took with them? About half a dozen handguns and rifles. Why so many guns? Wouldn't one do the trick if you were serious about using it? The shooters at Columbine had access to an arsenal of weapons, including ammunition sold at a Kmart down the street from the high school. The father of one of the victims holds up the type of gun used to kill his son at school that day and says, "This weapon is certainly not used to shoot deer."
Bowling For Columbine is a film of moving, stark, and enraging images. The NRA held a rally in the Littleton, Colorado area not even two weeks after the shootings at Columbine, with its leader Charlton Heston holding up a rifle and proclaiming, "From my cold, dead hands." The members on hand certainly got a thrill from that, but the town in mourning certainly wasn't amused. It's certainly true that the NRA had a right to hold its rally at that time and in that place, but does that mean they should? Moore has a tense on-camera discussion with Heston later which poses that same question. Seeing Heston fumble along attempting to justify his and the NRA's position made me cringe, but that was Moore's intention. If Heston couldn't come off well, then imagine how the rest of the NRA must look.
The NRA/Columbine incidents are at the heart of Bowling For Columbine. Americans have the right to bear arms according to the 2nd Amendment. But does that mean they should? If those who do can't keep them safely, like the parents of the Columbine shooters Harris and Kliebold, then should they own them? At what point does gun stockpiling become self-defeating and more dangerous to yourself than any outsider?
There are other intriguing aspects of Bowling For Columbine, including a bank that gives away a free gun with every new account opened, and an interview with the brother of Oklahoma City bombing co-conspirator Terry Nichols. It is quite obvious that James Nichols, the brother, is not in any frame of mind to be owning a gun. Also interviewed is Marilyn Manson, whose music some believed was the reason why Harris and Kliebold shot up Columbine High School. Manson comes across as intelligent and thoughtful on the subject in an interview by Moore and is correct to believe that other factors played more of a role in the killers' mindsets.
Bowling For Columbine poses many reasons for gun craziness in this country. Media prodding, fear, and easy access are three legitimate reasons indeed. It is a thoughtful, somber documentary about a subject that most people dismiss as a God-given right. Again, it may be a right, but is it right to do it?
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