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Wow. Michael Moore’s controversial but exceptional Bowling for Columbine is one of the most disturbing yet necessary movies I have seen. I think it’s more important to show how blind patriotism is these days then to show Requiem for a Dream or Schindler’s List, albeit important for those two to be shown. Most of the kids in my social studies class were pro-war, with no backing, just because that’s what the news tells them to think. How I admire Canada now: their “breaking news” isn’t how our president bombed another country or that another “potentially dangerous” thing will be entering our country soon but never will, but that a new speed bump was installed. Children today are becoming what the government wants us to be, just blind drones who believe what they’re told to be. In case you couldn’t guess so far, during Moore’s Oscar acceptance speech, which I was watching at home, I almost stood up and cheered.
Bowling for Columbine is one-sided, but I’ll bet even the most conservative of people would agree with at least one point that Moore makes on his two-hour crusade to spread the word on how guns are being used wrongly and put into the wrong hands (even though he’s a lifelong member of the NRA). He investigates a bank that gives away a gun if you open a checking account, which is just ridiculous. Moore talks to shock rocker Marilyn Manson (who actually seems to be a pretty decent guy, at least well spoken), who says that he considers the President to be more influential than he is (personally, I’d rather have my children follow Manson than George W. Bush), and an impromptu meeting with NRA leader Charlton Heston (which seemed edited/butchered).
Not only does Bowling for Columbine deal with gun control, but also tackles the issues of racism and the media. During a news report on when a six-year-old boy shot another six-year-old, the news camera never left the school, while about a block away were shantys and what most of America didn’t want to see. It really opened my eyes. Also, he showed how much people just assume that black people do crimes, while rich white folk can blame them for it, and it works. Although it’s a side note, it’s an important one that Moore rightfully wanted to include.
Moore’s Oscar speech sums it all up: we’re living in fictitious times, with fictitious election results, with a fictitious president, fighting a fictitious war. America has had more bloodshed, mostly unnecessary, in the past 250 years than most countries have had for however long they have been around. Canada, with 10 million people, has 7 million handguns, but they don’t feel the need to shoot their neighbors because they didn’t have a cup of sugar to bake a cake for their granny. It’s almost disgusting how vile, brutal, and trigger-happy Americans are.
I just realized that this is less of a review for Bowling for Columbine than a leftist rant by me, but every decent person needs to view Bowling for Columbine, the most important film in the last half-dozen years or so. You’ll learn something, and you’ll come to your senses about what you believe in.
Rated R for some violent images and language.
Review Date: August 20, 2003