Review #915: 'Bowling for Columbine' (2002)

In the wake of the recent shootings in Virginia by a masked gunman live on air and the seemingly endless mass killings in America taking place in schools, movie theatres and churches, it seemed like the perfect time to re-visit Bowling for Columbine, Michael Moore's breakthrough documentary on gun violence in America. It has been 16 years since the massacre of 12 students and 1 teacher at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado, and 13 years since Michael Moore won the Best Documentary Oscar for his extremely provocative and shocking film. The main question is has anything changed? The answer is a resounding no. In fact, gun violence seems more out of control than ever.

Starting out tongue-in-cheek, Bowling for Columbine begins by telling a few amusing, almost too-ridiculous-to-be-true anecdotes highlighting America's love of guns. Moore opens an account in a bank, only to be rewarded with a rifle for doing so. and begging the question of just how sensible it is to be handing out guns in a bank. We then learn of a couple of men who thought it would be funny to dress up their dog in hunting gear with a rifle strapped to it's back, only for the gun to fall off and shoot one of them in the leg. These early moments are hilarious as Moore interviews the type of crazy-haired lunatics who should have their own soundtrack of twanging banjos, but serve to set up the audience for something more serious and all the more troubling.

Is America's violent history to blame for the amount of gun deaths that occur every year? Most large countries, such as Britain, Germany and Japan, were built on bloodshed and have committed recent atrocities. Is America's love of guns as a way of life the reason for so much violence? Canada is also a gun-loving nation of hunters, but Canadian's leave their doors unlocked when they leave their home. Is it the poverty and mass unemployment? Nope - check out almost any other country with the same social issues but without the same levels of crime. It's when Moore takes a trip across the water to Canada that he seems to have the revelation. He catches a clip of the news, where the breaking story is the introduction of speed bumps. These people weren't being drilled with fear 24/7. Switch on the news in America, and you see young black males being chased down, arrested, and thrown into the back of a police car, or as interviewee Marilyn Manson points out, there are adverts telling you that if you don't brush with Colgate, you'll have bad breath and no-one with come near you.

For the majority of Bowling for Columbine, Michael Moore raises some terrifying questions and makes many very good points, all delivered with powerful, ironic montage's, insightful interviews, and a wry humour. But the last quarter descends into a Moore vanity piece, as he puts himself in front of the camera when he should remain behind it. Moore takes a couple of Columbine's survivors to Walmart to campaign against their sale of bullets and brings the press with him. Although it gets the job done, Moore's ever-presence as a kind of working man's hero makes it come across as a cheap publicity stunt. There's also the climactic interview with NRA president Charlton Heston, who Moore lures in under false pretences and then ambushes with questions of gun-control, a tactic that crosses any journalistic boundaries into sheer rudeness and left me uncomfortable. However, Bowling for Columbine is still an extremely powerful film, and is still shockingly relevant over a decade later. Every week, the news seems to deliver a story about yet another massacre and yet a lot of American's still argue that guns are important for self-defence, which is an extremely depressing thought indeed.


Directed by: Michael Moore
Starring: Michael Moore, Charlton Heston
Country: Canada/USA/Germany

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie