Review of Bowling For Columbine

I personally find Bowling for Columbine to be Michael Moore's best film, not only because I am interested in the material it covers but also because I think that the small injections of satire into the plot make this gruesome and devastating issue somewhat bearable. I should say that I am absolutely pro-gun control but I think that the fact that Moore himself is part of the NRA and chose to focus on this particular issue of American culture is key to the films success. Having the film, Bowling for Columbine, done by someone who is completely anti 2nd Amendment would have resulted in a completely different picture, it most likely would not have contained the same interviews, humorous cartoon, and overall "take" on the situation.

“Yes our children were indeed something to fear, they had turned into little monsters, but who was to blame?”

One of the most intriguing parts of the film for me was the segment about who is to blame for the school shootings. I thought that what Marilyn Manson offered in his brief opportunity to debate the allegations that he was to blame for Columbine was incredibly well said; “you put on a record and it’s not going to yell at you for how you are dressed, it’s going to make you feel better about it”. I can remember the Columbine shootings quite well. I remember watching the news coverage after the shootings happened and being confused and scared—much like the rest of the American public. However, I remember talking in classes about why we though this had happened and what we could do to keep it from happening again and when Marilyn Manson and other heavy metal or punk musicians came under fire by those in power for being the cause of the tragic events at Columbine. It was even obvious to me at the time, a ten year old girl, that musicians were not the cause of this. The part of Manson’s interview that I was not familiar was the theory that “keep everyone afraid and they’ll consume”. After Columbine my high school in Litchfield, CT went “buck-wild”. They invested limited funding in security cameras, we hired a police officer to be present in the school building at all times that school was in session, they started locking all the doors after the second bell so that one would have to be seen on camera before they were buzzed into the main lobby, and we started having “code white” drills. These drills were bomb and intruder drills where we were instructed to close the blinds, lock the doors, and wait under our desks while the administrative staff came by and checked if the doors were locked and made sure we were silent. This was the first time that I had experienced fear in my school, maybe even in my town—the first time that I felt as though it was possible for something like Columbine to happen in little ole’ Litchfield, Connecticut. I must say, keeping us afraid worked, we all went home to our parents talking about how school had installed new security equipment and such and then parents started wondering, “If the school has it, I should probably have it too, right?” This was the point that our little suburb decided it was time to start protecting ourselves from the “wackos out there” that James Nichols was talking about!  

I think that the conclusion that Michael Moore comes to: “a public that is this out of control with fear should not have a lot of guns or ammo hanging around” is simply wonderful in that it is so obvious! Everyone is busy pointing fingers at who is responsible for the U.S.A’s 11,127 gun related deaths per year that they don’t even realize what is right in front of them, fear. The fear that is engrained in us through American television and other media is at the root of our problem. A great example of this was the clip of Moore in a bar watching the local news in the evening in Canada—Canadians do not watch the same things that we watch—their breaking news is “NEW SPEED BUMPS” while ours is about some person of color who committed a violent crime on a white man. Gerbner’s thesis of the mean world syndrome is clearly alive and well in Bowling for Columbine. Unfortunately, since this film came out there has been little change made in the way of gun control and even less change in the way of violent programming, but that doesn’t mean it’s not possible!