SUMMARY

Using the tragic shootings at Colorado’s Columbine High School as a catalyst, documentarian and general gadfly Michael Moore explores the gun culture and the climate of fear in America.

STEVE SAYS:

This represents The Popcorn Chronicles’ first attempt at reviewing a documentary.  Documentaries seldom even get theatrical releases; or at the very least, they will get a token one-week run on a single screen in order to qualify for Academy Award© consideration.  Having created a substantial buzz at the Toronto and Sundance Film Festivals this year, BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE is the happy exception and we’re all the better for it because it happens to be one of the best movies of the year.  While the audience for documentaries is limited at best, the theater where we saw BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE was nearly full of people comprising a very appreciative audience, spontaneously applauding throughout the film and awarding a rousing ovation to the closing credits.

Michael Moore is an unusual talent possessed of the ability to have us laughing hysterically one minute and fighting back tears the next.  His film is a unique take on contemporary American culture as it relates to the fear that seems to shape how we live our daily lives.  With cajones the size of the moon, Moore isn’t afraid to get in just about anyone’s face.  But he manages to do so with admirable restraint and at least a semblance of respect.

Like his earlier effort, ROGER AND ME, Moore puts himself at front and center -- asking, probing, prodding, irritating and generally pissing a lot of people off.  When it comes time to confront National Rifle Association president Charlton Heston, Moore simply buys a movie star map, locates Heston’s home, walks up to the gate and requests an interview.  Perhaps because he identifies himself as a card-carrying member of the NRA (which he indeed is), Moore gets past the gate for a sit-down with the aging matinee idol.  Well, it was a sit-down, until Heston stood up and left.  Moore questions were simple and direct.  (1) Why is our country so much more violent than any other nation?  (Heston answers that perhaps it has something to do with our ethnic diversity, then quickly backtracks).  (2) Why did Heston and the NRA stage a rally in Littleton, Colorado ten days after the Columbine shooting?  (3) Why did he do the same thing in Flint, Michigan in the wake of the tragic shooting of a first-grader by her six-year-old classmate?  (4) Wasn’t this a bit insensitive and doesn’t the NRA perhaps owe the people of these communities an apology?  That was enough to propel the actor up from his chair and out of the room without so much as an answer.  He even refused to look at the picture of the little girl who was killed.

Moore doesn’t actually make people look mean, silly or stupid on camera.  He just provides them with the opportunity and they happily do it for themselves.  (Watch for the segment featuring James Nichols, brother of convicted Oklahoma City bombing co-defendant Terry Nichols).

If you want a break from the usual Hollywood claptrap to spend two hours watching something that will make you both think and feel, you won’t do much better than choosing BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE.  It’s in limited release, so you might have to drive a few miles to see it, as we did.  But you won’t regret the trip.


BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE is a center-line strike.  Five kernels.

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Patty says:

Moore pinned down the anti-gun control, poster children nicely (sorry).  I’ve been known, on occasion, to jest about our President.  I might add that Steve and I have a whole chapter of our joke book dedicated to political humor and it’s virtually burgeoning with Clinton jokes so I’m an equal opportunity zapper.  Generally I get an e-mail or an unsubscribe from some reader, indignant because I’ve made some crack about Dubya’s intellectual prowess or one of his infamous “Dubyaspeaks.”  Well for those of you whose idea of a great stocking stuffer is a new assault rifle,  you’ll hate this film.  If you leave us because we loved it, we’ll miss you, but we’ll just have to console ourselves with BAMBI on video.

Michael Moore is an intelligent, witty, committed, seriously disheveled social commentator.  He’s not content with the commonly accepted justifications for the violence of our culture here in America.  Moore wants to know why we Americans are busy killing one another with guns.  His interviews with militia members, law enforcement, Columbine survivors and the heartbroken father of a son who left for school and never came home, covered the whole continuum of thought on the matter.  Sometimes comical, often poignant, occasionally heartbreaking, Moore’s questions tease out the emotions that are so close to the surface on the issue of gun control.  “Columbine” is the new phrase for describing an act, which is inconceivably violent and destructive, much like the use of the phrase “tower shooter” after the Texas sniper incident of the 60s.  Beyond the question of why children killed other children and then themselves, beyond trying to find out why we are so violent in America, Moore wants to know; why we are all so afraid?

The film was thought provoking.  I suspect that few people seek out this film and will willingly pay eight bucks to see it if they don’t embrace at least a few of Michael Moore’s liberal political views.  Don’t let the “R” on your voter registration card stop you from seeing BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE.  The film seemed to energize its audience.  People hooted in the funny parts and cried, unabashed, as people whose lives have been forever changed by violence shared their pain so generously.  Moore is a sensitive and masterful interviewer.  He asked the hard questions, and didn’t accept faulty logic and rhetoric when offered as substitutes for truth.  I bought it.  The audience bought it.  Go see BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE and, I suspect, you will buy it too.

Paul Wellstone, I’ll miss you.  Rest in Peace.

10/26/02

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