Rating:
Director: Michael Moore
Producers: Charles Bishop, Michael Donovan, Kathleen Glynn, Jim Czarnecki, Michael Moore
Writer: Michael Moore
Visit the IMDB page for full cast and crew
Click the photo to buy merchandise from Bowling for Columbine
| BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE Rating: Director: Michael Moore Producers: Charles Bishop, Michael Donovan, Kathleen Glynn, Jim Czarnecki, Michael Moore Writer: Michael Moore Visit the IMDB page for full cast and crew |
Click the photo to buy merchandise from Bowling for Columbine |
Review by: Warren
Curry
10/06/02
Merely the mention of the name Michael Moore should stir some form of reaction from most people at this point in time. Perhaps still best known for his debut film, Roger & Me, Moore has also championed various political and social causes via two television series (The Nation, The Awful Truth) and several books (the most recent being Stupid White Men and Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation). The documentary, Bowling For Columbine, is Moore's latest vehicle to espouse his left-thinking politics, and it's another highly entertaining example of Moore's most vibrant artistic strength: the ability to synthesize his polemics with a biting sense of humor.
In Bowling For Columbine, Moore targets the culture of violence in the U.S., and tries to determine what sets the U.S. apart from far more peaceful nations. He exposes an environment where guns are readily available in just about every town, and where ammunition can be purchased at a local K-Mart for the equivalent of most kid's lunch money. He also focuses on a media-obsessed society that has been conditioned to respond fearfully to any number of perceived threats.
So how does Moore go about making all of this entertaining as well as educational? Well, the filmmaker has certainly built a reputation for his rabble-rousing actions, and in Bowling For Columbine he doesn't disappoint. In an instance of art working to create tangible change, Moore interviews two students who were injured during the Columbine High School shootings. He takes the students, who both still have K-Mart bullets lodged in their bodies, to the company's headquarters in a plea to get the corporation to cease their sale of ammunition. In one of the film's most comic and frightening scenes, Moore interviews the decidedly unstable, gun-loving James Nichols, the brother of Timothy McVeigh-partner Terry Nichols (Terry is currently behind bars for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing), who we learn sleeps with a loaded weapon under his pillow. The movie's climax, however, is the cringe-inducing interview Moore conducts with legendary actor and NRA president, Charlton Heston, in the man's Hollywood Hills mansion.
Moore's humor though is certainly not meant to obscure his more serious concerns. Footage of the Columbine High security tapes and a segment about a six-year-old student who walked into a classroom and shot and killed another six-year-old in Moore's hometown of Flint, Michigan, are just a few of the elements that bring the gravity of the message home. Moore's politics are definitely pointed and, of course, the film is funneled through his firm point of view, but what it thankfully lacks is any feeling of smugness or arrogance. Of course, as is the norm with films that have political concerns, detractors will bring up the dreaded "p" word (preaching) as a criticism, and it's hard to deny that the film doesn't do just that. Again, though, the power lies not only in the message, but also the in the expression of it, and the film, unlike many others that mine the same territory, is completely engaging instead of hopelessly alienating. To phrase it bluntly: even staunch Republicans or apolitical types won't be bored!
Michael Moore's gift is his understanding that the nourishing aspects of his films go down much more smoothly when balanced with the ability to entertain. And what makes it all the more relatable is that the filmmaker seems like a really easy individual to grasp -- he comes across as just an average Joe, albeit one with an enormous social conscience and a burning desire to turn ideas into action. Oh yeah, perhaps the most incredible thing about Bowling For Columbine is that I walked out of this film with a newfound respect for Marilyn Manson. See it for yourself and find out why.
(A United Artists release. Opens
in New York and Los Angeles on October 11. Will expand to more
cities at later dates)
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