Bowling for Columbine

Bowling for Columbine

Michael Moore’s 2002 film Bowling for Columbine is a documentary film that attempts to answer several questions about American society in approximately two hours. This controversial film can easily be perceived as simply taking a liberal standpoint on American media outlets, which are portrayed throughout the film as being counter-productive to Moore’s belief that the media, specifically the media as it pertains to United States culture, centers too heavily on violence in general, and also argues that countries other than the United States have similar violent media (such as violent video games, movies, and even access to guns) targeted at their citizens but that their homicide rate is considerably lower than that of the United States. Moore even switches gears a couple of times throughout the film by stating that television networks focus too much on violent crime carried out by minorities instead of issues that are of greater importance (an example being when Moore walking about in South Central Los Angeles with author Barry Glassner as they discuss how much of the local news stations focus on African American murders and crime. Meanwhile, up north in Hollywood, the famous “Hollywood sign” isn’t visible from their location due to the massive pollution. Moore attempts to ask a police officer if he can arrest anybody for causing such damage to the atmosphere, to which he replies “absolutely not.”). Like all great documentaries, Moore manipulates the viewer by showing the audience only what they need to know, even if there is some manipulation to his “truth”.
Although the title of the film bears the name Columbine, most of the documentary deals with other issues that do not specifically deal with the shooting, however Michael Moore ties all of them up to make his viewers believe that they do, which is why this documentary gained a lot of notoriety and controversy. The title of the movie, “Bowling for Columbine” is in and of itself a MacGuffin....