Bowling for Columbine
Filmmaker, author, and political activist Michael Moore trains his satirical eye on America’s obsession with guns and violence in his third feature-length documentary, which gets its title from a pair of loosely related incidents.
On April 20, 1999, shortly before they began their infamous killing spree at Columbine High School in Littleton, CO, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold attended their favorite class, a no-credit bowling course held at a bowling alley near the school, the same bowling alley which would become the scene of a robbery and triple homicide two years later.
Michael Moore’s superb documentary (following in the footsteps of Roger and Me and The Big One) tackles a meaty subject: gun control.
Moore skillfully lays out arguments surrounding the issue and short-circuits them all, leaving one impossible question: why do Americans kill each other more often than people in any other democratic nation?
Moore focuses his quest around the shootings at Columbine High School and the shooting of one 6-year-old by another near his own hometown of Flint, Michigan.
Watch the full documentary now (playlist)
Probably Moore’s best documentary. Mainly well balanced.
****Stars
why bother with Youkou streamed videos? They neveer play correctly
Well… I thought better something than nothing. Hit play, than pause, go and have a coffee break, return, and hit play again. That should solve the problem if you have a “decent” Internet connection, pusspuss.
Ive seen this video discredited. Its not real, he tricked the bank into giving him a rifle on the same day as he opened the account and then made out they do it for everyone.
An excellent documentary with some humour too. In my country, guns are not owned by civilians but the arm forces. Here if a person points a gun at a police officer and shoots, even though officer was not wounded, the shooter would be given a mandatory sentence of death penalty. Drug mules also get death penalty for possessions of a few grams of drugs determined by the state. We have death penalty for murderers and all kindnapers. There is no gun problems here simply because there is no guns nor bullets assessible to civilians. I am only for hunting for survival. But can’t one hunt with cross bows for example? If one needs to use a gun, allow rifles or those bigger types of guns which are huge and can’t be concealed to be licenced for the purpose of hunting. One can even go a step further and have a holding place for such guns at one spot until it is actually used for hunting for example a police station. Or why not have a gun renting club house whereby guns can be rented or housed for the sake of hunting in every town. Thus, only specific licenced people possess guns which are under lock and key. All guns should be outlawed and that is the solution whether in the country or city. This would definitely solve the whole problem because in my country we don’t have this problem at all because there is no guns assessible to cause the problem in the first place! Of course as a Christian, I cannot own nor shoot a gun because Jesus said that they that live by the sword will die by the sword. Either I get God’s protection in a situation or I die for the glory of the Lord. Jesus clearly said that I cannot resist evil but return good for evil. Of course there are many false Christians who don’t obey the Words of Jesus.
Kerenep: Someday we may need guns to protect ourselves from the very government that is supposed to be protecting us! If your government suddenly decides that Y0U are the enemy one day (and me, and they will) as I am a Christian too, then the whole civilian populace will be gunless. Both my guns got “borrowed” by others permanently, but I like being able to get another one if I need it and I will if and when I move back to the U.S.A. permanently. My neighbor was a gun dealer. It was certainly interesting to visit his house.
I got my 30-06 from a former Branch Dividian. I bought the gun about the time David Koresh died, and I commented that the government handled that one poorly and should not have done what they did they could have gotten more people out alive, and he said, “Yeah, I told David not to do something like that!” Turns out he was hiding out from the Dividians in my tiny hometown. He was David Koresh’s former guns supplier. LOL! Nice guns, however. Who would think? I liked him; glad he knew when to hit the road. God bless the Red White and Blue. ;-)
All said and done, I wouldn’t take another human life unless I was absolutely sure it was necessary to save my own or my family. I’m really quite a gentle person.
On the documentary: Michael Moore didn’t give even one solution just two hours of groans and moans about America. Shameful man.
Was he anti “guns” or anti “fear on the news” as he said that Canada has almost as many guns as we do, but without the shooting rates and talked about this and that and this and that, and used Timothy McVey as an example (but he didn’t use guns to kill people), so I was far from impressed with his logic. Mcvey blew people up! Bad example.
I have a friend from Africa, one of my best friends even today, in fact. We met in China when the 2000 election between Bush and Gore took two months to settle. He told me, “I love America” but he’s never been there. When I asked him “Why?” he said that because if that had happened in his country, they would be killing each other in the streets with machine guns! As far as I know, no one was killed in that whole election episode.
The Killings of the 100,0000 Tutsi people by the Hutus was with mostly machetes and clubs, so is Mr. Moore going to start and anti Machete campaign in Africa now? Give me a break!
I think the problem lies not in the guns, but the moral corruption of the nation. Hitler’s Germany had gun control; they killed millions with gas. Where there is evil men, that is where there are evil acts such as killing and murder, with or without guns. Cure the moral failures of mankind, and you fix the misuse of guns as well.
With that said, if we could disarm the truly bad guys without disarming the truly good guys, that would be nice! Might anyone know how to do that now?
I must admit though, that I laughed a lot with the supermodel with the nice abs with the big gun they kept showing! :-)
Charles B. I think you have missed the whole point of this documentary. What I believe the theme of BFC is is “When governments use violence to to solve their problems this sets an example for the populace who then feel justified in using violence to solve their own problems.”
CMcF: I see how that could be Mr. Michael Moore’s point; good call. I had a nightmare about being shot in an argument the night after watching this documentary, so I’ve changed my mind — some restrictions on firearms are ok, I suppose.
There is more to Columbine than we will ever know.
“Dozens of witnesses interviewed by police after the crime claimed that from five to eight individuals participated in the shooting that left 15 people dead, including the killers, and more than 20 injured” (Denver Rocky Mountain News, July 29, 1999). Five to eight individuals? Dozens of witnesses? Something definitely seems to be a bit peculiar here.
“The autopsy reports on the Columbine High School victims will not be released to the public, a Jefferson County judge ruled Friday … Chief District Judge Henry E. Nieto rejected arguments by 18 news organizations … The coroner’s office, district attorney and the family of killer Dylan Klebold joined the 12 families in getting the documents sealed” (Denver Post, May 29, 1999).
Moving on to what is perhaps the most bizarre aspect of the case, we come now to the infamous videotape. You know, the one that was made in 1997, two years before the actual assault, and which “depicts gun-toting, trench coat-wearing students moving through Columbine’s halls and ends with a special-effects explosion of the school.” The one that was co-produced by “the son of the FBI’s lead agent in the investigation” (Associated Press, May 8, 1999).
There’s certainly nothing unusual about that. It’s actually standard FBI procedure to have your son shoot a training film for a high school slaughter a couple of years beforehand. It’s also standard procedure to have your other son on hand to eyewitness the crime. Which is why “(Dwayne Fuselier’s) youngest son, Brian, was in the school cafeteria at the time and managed to escape after seeing one of the bombs explode” (Denver Post, May 13, 1999).
It should also be noted that another “student who helped in the production of the film (was) Brooks Brown…” (Associated Press, May 8, 1999). For those not fortunate enough to be home on the day of the shooting watching the live cable coverage, Brooks Brown was the student enthusiastically granting interviews to anyone who would stick a microphone in his face.
On February 14, 2000, two fellow Columbine students were shot to death in a sandwich shop just a few blocks from the school. The shootings, which lacked any clear motive, have yet to be explained.
In yet another incident, the mother of a student who was shot and survived “walked into a pawnshop in October, asked to see a gun, loaded it and shot herself to death.” (Los Angeles Times, May 6, 2000)
On May 6, 2000, the Los Angeles Times reported that a Columbine High student had been found hanged. His death was ruled a suicide, though “Friends were mystified, saying there were no signs of turmoil in the teenager’s life.” One noted that he had “talked to him the night before, and it didn’t seem like anything was wrong.”
http://web.archive.org/web/20010201073600/davesweb.cnchost.com/littleton.htm
This is actually a mockumentary as it has been easily torn apart for its embellishments, mischaracterizations and lies. What kind of fool would give it 4 stars?
Not a fan of Michael Moore whatsoever, although I have watched most of his ‘documentaries’. Check him out in Alex Jones’ 9/11 & Martial Law documentary, or watch Fahrenhype 9/11 to see this clown debunked.