Michael
Moore explores America’s fascination of gun and investigates the organisations
that use guns on a daily basis. The documentary begins with a narrative from
Michael Moore highlighting certain aspects of American life. In a way, he is
mocking the way Americans live, showing a montage of the typical American life.
Moore mentions the date 20th April 1999, which is the main subject
of the documentary - the Columbine High School Massacre. The meaning of the
date soon gets overshadowed by Michael Moore opening a bank account and receiving
a gun for opening one. Michael questions the assistant “Do you think it’s
dangerous to give out guns in a bank?”
The film
cuts to Michael Moore in his early years (archive footage) telling the audience
about his shooting experience he has and how he was awarded the national Sniper
award. Between the footage, American adverts were shown promoting toy guns and
the sequence shows the audience the usage of guns in American films from the
early 40s & 50s. This gives the audience a sense of what the documentary is
about and how gun is part of American culture. This film shows how politicians are
involved of the making of weaponry and how the US has affected different parts
of the world.
What I
observe from this documentary that some of the interviewees are speaking on the
spot as some look very nervous and uncomfortable about talking about a subject.
Mostly the politicians seem to be more nervous than the local people. I really
enjoyed hearing the insight of the local people as they are the main one
affected and have experienced the gun subject by hand. Michael Moore is the
host of the documentary and it seems that he can handle the people in hand as
he seems comfortable talking about the subject. Having the host in the shot interviewing the
people feels like I am just listening to a conversation between two people; I
like that because it feels genuine.
The usage of
archive footage of press conferences, the Columbine Massacre, and news reports
are so effective to convey the message on how Gun culture in America is a
problem. Bowling for Columbine is a depressing reflection of America and how
it is not all beautiful and Hollywood but how bleak United States of America
can be.
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