Bowling for Columbine

Michael Moore’s documentary Bowling for Columbine was incredibly thought provoking, but in my opinion could have used a more focused message. I kept asking myself throughout the film, “Where exactly is this going?” All of the data that Moore exposed, including America’s staggering statistics on homicidal gun usage, was interesting and educational but the reasons for providing this information were not immediately clear. If Moore’s goal was to present viewers with a comprehensive idea of why gun usage is so prominent in the U.S., he succeeded in the way that quality documentaries often do: prompting viewers to mull it over themselves. But it would have been more effective, at least according to my own viewing preferences, if Moore had made his reasons for making the film clear at the start. This way I wouldn’t have constantly tried to figure them out myself. For example when the tragedy of Columbine was introduced to the film about a half hour into it, I wondered what direction Moore intended to head in. An anti-bullying implication? Why or how parents should be more involved in their children’s lives? After watching the film in its entirety, I believe Moore was looking to Columbine as yet another product of a culture saturated in fear and aggression. The two gunmen were not particularly bullied and their parents were not totally shut out of their lives. But as the film unfolded, I kept thinking that the use of guns was unimportant compared to the rage and evil that results in a killing spree. I see now that the combination of a culture based in fear and access to deadly weapons is the real issue at hand and the one Moore was trying to address.

My time watching Bowling for Columbine was time well spent. Tragedies like Columbine and 9/11 and the many massacres that America has had a hand in are difficult to fully accept, but they are part of a larger cultural narrative. There is a reason why Americans are scared to leave their doors open at night and obsessed with “protecting themselves” from the evil that lurks outside. Moore captured this fear brilliantly, juxtaposing it with a culture that feels inherently safer and more protected: Canada. Through many interviews with a spectrum of different people, some more ignorant than others, Moore brought the issue of gun violence to the forefront of peoples’ minds. His ability to keep calm even when thoroughly disgusted with a situation is admirable, and each scene offered information that was different and new. Bowling for Columbine was disturbing and often uncomfortable, and to me those are traits documentary well done.