Bowling For Columbine Review
by Shannon Patrick Sullivan (shannon AT morgan DOT ucs DOT mun DOT ca)November 22nd, 2002
BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE (2002) / ****
Directed by Michael Moore. Running time: 121 minutes. Rated R for controversial subject matter by the MFCB. Reviewed on November 22nd, 2002.
By SHANNON PATRICK SULLIVAN
Synopsis: Early one April morning, two boys from Littleton, Colorado went bowling. Then they walked into Columbine High, armed to the teeth, and started shooting. Three years later, Michael Moore examines gun violence in America. He visits a weapons factory which employs much of Littleton. He drops by a bank which offers a free gun for new accounts. And he takes two Columbine survivors to K-Mart to return the 17-cent bullets now embedded in their bodies.
Review: Michael Moore is a smart man. "Bowling For Columbine" could have simply explored the question of whether guns are bad. But pretty much everyone will concur that that's a largely subjective issue, and so the result would likely have been a banal, rudimentary film. Instead, Moore chooses to explore why the United States has a rate of death by firearm not just double that of other first-world nations, but one hundred times greater. He's no more successful at coming to a conclusion, but it makes for a much deeper, more involving documentary. In the course of Moore's probe, the tenor of "Bowling" veers all over the place. There's comedy, such as a "South Park"-style cartoon history of America which observes that the formation of the NRA occurred in the same year as the outlawing of the KKK (while avowing that, of course, that's a big coincidence, nudge nudge). There are scenes of tremendous emotion, including a searing reenactment of the Columbine massacre itself using surveillance footage. And there are moments that are truly sad and pathetic, including an interview with NRA spokesman Charlton Heston in which the acting icon is unable to coherently explain his own stance on the issue. He retreats into hollow rhetoric and, finally, just walks away. "Bowling For Columbine" will make you think, and keep thinking. This is an important movie.
Copyright © 2002 Shannon Patrick Sullivan.
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