Premise The writer and filmmaker, a moderately aggressive champion for liberal causes is as always-challenging America's gun culture with his latest endeavor, the documentary "Bowling for Columbine." "Bowling for Columbine," was awarded the Special Prize of the 55th Cannes Film Festival. It had already made history by being the first documentary chosen to be part of the official festival competition in almost 50 years. There is no getting around the fact that "Bowling for Columbine" is a provocative, controversial film that is going to make a lot of people angry. But the work claimed by the author is an honest expression of what he and the general public sees and believes. I am not inclined to soften what I do to appease those whom I must beg for money in order to do my work. "Bowling for Columbine" is my personal view of America at the turn of this new century. It is not specifically about Columbine and, no, it is not about bowling. My favorite quote I read during the festival was, "This film will single-handedly guarantee that George W. Bush will never see a second term." Well, one can only dream. After all, it is just a movie. Micheal Moore When "Bowling for Columbine" was announced as the Oscar winner for Best Documentary at the Academy Awards, the audience rose to its feet. It was a great moment, one that I will always cherish. They were standing and cheering for a film that says we Americans are a uniquely violent people, using our massive stash of guns to kill each other and to use them against many countries around the world. They were applauding a film that shows George W. Bush using fictitious fears to frighten the public into giving him whatever he wants. And they were honoring a film that states the following: The f...
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...so bad, though, shouldn't the media be covering it and don't citizens have something to be afraid of? And if the media is indeed over-covering the issue and America is safer than we think, why did Moore make this film? CONCLUSION All in all penetrating, contradictory gossipy Michael Moore’s "Columbine" a strong and effective yet moralizing castigation of gun violence is an eye opener for all Americans. "I wanted to say something much larger about how society is manipulated by politicians and corporations into being in a constant state of panic and fear," Moore asserted, "and how once you get the population whipped up like that, conservative regimes can get just about anything they want out of the people without firing a shot." Since I'm not pretending to be an objective journalist in this article, I'll just conclude by saying, Amen to that, Brother. Bibliography
The senseless murders of innocent people. Two males. Outcasts. The. Mentally ill. Paranoid schizophrenics.
The documentary format obviously does not allow every person in the population to speak or give his or her opinion, but Moore has a few select people to speak about gun control, and lets the viewer assume that is what most others of that population believe. This use of hasty generalization is a bit difficult to notice whilst watching the film, but once the documentary is over, the viewer may start to realize that the opinions presented in the film may simply not be the general consensus. For example, Moore interviews a small group of teenagers near a fast-food restaurant and asks them if they believe Canada is a less violent country than the United States. Simply because of this segm...
In the documentary “Bowling for Columbine” directed by Michael Moore there are two scenes that share the same idea of questioning the laws they have in the U.S.A. The first documentary that captivated my attention was the Columbine High School massacre, where Michael Moore examines the culture of guns and violence in America. He used archival footage, camera techniques and sound to give authenticity and strength to the disturbing event. Michael Moore uses specific techniques enabling the audience to empathize with the survivors and their loved ones in order for the viewers to feel their emotions.
In the cases of school shootings that took place at Columbine High School, Sandy Hook Elementary, Virginia Tech University and Northern Illinois University, the media highly publicized the fact that the perpetrators were avid video gamers, but why is this important? The media want’s your attention and they are more than willing to say almost anything to get it. They reported that the perpetrators were avid gamers with the implication that there is a well establish connection between the two when there is not. They exploit the fear of parents and concerned citizens by not including relevant corresponding information in order to leave you more interested lea...
Bowling for Columbine, directed by Michael Moore, has been given numerous awards for the best documentary. For many, such as Jim Ferguson of KMSB-TV, he says, “Moore has done it again, the year’s most powerful documentary. An eye opener" (Bowling for Columbine). Yes, a real eye opener to how Moore will rely on fictitious facts and his audience’s sympathy towards certain events to get his message across. Documentaries have many different modes of presenting their material. Mockumentaries define itself as “fictional films which parody the forms and conventions of documentary, often for humorous effect” (Bowling for Columbine). While Bowling for Columbine does not exactly classify as a mockumentary, it does ridicule many of the events or people portrayed throughout the film. However, Moore shapes the viewers’ thoughts about guns during this film by appealing to their emotions with events such as the Columbine shooting, Kayla Rolland’s murder and the issue of how the United States has the most deaths by guns. Documentaries remain neutral and only present information for the audience’s benefit or to tell history. Bowling for Columbine reflects a bias documentary because all “facts” presented are told only as Moore views it. However, these “facts”, false in nature, do not show both sides to the story. Many like Ferguson believe Bowling for Columbine to be an eye opener and true, it does open eyes to the harsh reality of the United States and how people kill each other because of they live in a “culture of fear”; however, it fails to give the complete truth to many of the events given.
Many responders would believe that this movie is a misleading act based on Mike Moore’s self-promotion. When looking beneath the surface however, we can see that the film is trying to say something about America, even though there is no clear answer to the question being asked. This is why the film is a post-structural text. There is more than one answer and texts are interpreted depending on the responder’s context. It is not a documentary however because a documentary is a discussion based on evidence for and against. Although Bowling for Columbine provides facts, it is biased. Mike Moore presents a film that is dialogical in nature. He arranges questions and scenes in the film to get the answer or response that he wants. Also, the camera used is analogous to Moore’s own gun. He targets certain people and appears on the scene so as to make himself seem bigger. His camera is also used to ‘shoot’ people with questions that he already knows the answer to. This happens to people such as the bank employees and youths Bent and BJ and this is why responders may think the film is a reason for self-promotion.
The Techniques of Michael Moore in Bowling For Columbine to Present the Message on Gun Control
The columbine massacre the day where no one is safe in school or out of school. The columbine massacre is about two students named Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris both seniors 17 years old both two weeks before graduating they killed 12 students, one teacher, and 21 injured to their shooting on April 20, 1999. Both Dylan and Eric were some believe they were bullied by the sport teams in their school so they planned to kill the people who bullied them and other mostly anyone who gets in their way but that wasn’t really why the FBI he said that there target was everyone no one in pacify we will not get in to more details now. Dylan and Eric were both intelligent boys with solid parents and a good home and both had brothers younger than them. They played soccer, baseball, and both enjoyed to work on computers. Both boys were thinking on commit suicide on 1997 but instead started to plan a massacre in 1998 a year before it happened. Then the two boys had got into some trouble for breaking into a van on January 30, 1998 trying to steal some fuses and wires for bombs for them to make, but they got caught in trouble. So the court put them in a program called the juvenile diversion program, but even if they were there they were still planning the massacre and the court also put Eric in some angry management classes and people believe it worked but it didn’t he just did it to look like it work and both boys made it look like they were really sorry but they weren’t. Dylan and Eric both really hated everyone in their school and the court as well after they got caught breaking in to that van that’s when they really started to plan the massacre more and that’s when Harris started he’s journals no one really knows way but they didn’t hate a hand...
The United States will not soon forget the rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut that came just two weeks before Christmas last year. This tragic event resulted in the death of twenty students and eight adults. Although the event shocked the nation, rampage shootings are nothing new. Over the years, many families have lost loved ones to these horrific events. As a result, these mass shootings such as the one that occurred at Sandy Hook Elementary caught public attention leading to a push to find the cause of these events. Out of this research a variety of possible causes came to light consisting of arguments stating that high school bullying, availability of guns, mental illness, violent movies and video games are the cause of mass shootings. However, these researchers and debaters tend to ignore the role of massive media coverage in the increase of copycat shootings in the United States.
I believe that one theme of this book is, that you should always watch what you say, how you
When 2 young men, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, went on a shooting spree in Littleton, Colorado, killing 15 people, including themselves, there was a public outcry for censorship of every type of entertainment and changes in gun laws despite Eric Harris’s journal entry titled, “Last Wishes” asking that no one be blamed, other than himself and Klebold, for the massacre (“As You Were”, par. 2). After the 1999 school shooting now simply known as Columbine, a “Newsweek” pole showed that, “about half of all Americans want to see the movie industry, the TV industry, computer game makers, Internet services and gun manufacturers and the NRA make major policy changes to help reduce teen violence” (Alter, par. 1). According to Dave Cullen in his article “Let the Litigation Begin” several lawsuits were filed against the parents of the two boys responsible for the shooting spree claiming that Harris’s and Klebold’s families, “breached their duty of care” by allowing their sons to amass a cache of illegal weapons (Cullen, par. 5). Although the boys’ parents denied such allegations, they settled out of court for $1.6 million (Cullen, par. 5)...
In American society, violence runs rampage throughout the country that cause its citizens to be afraid and discouraged about their homeland. One of the major parts of American violence is from guns. In the documentary, "Bowling for Columbine", a famous filmmaker, Michael Moore addresses the ubiquitous situation in America. He argues that the use of gun in America co-insides or correlates to the recent massacres and that America, as a whole, should have stricter gun control laws. Throughout the film, Moore uses specific references to it and employs rhetorical and persuasive devices to construct his argument in favor of changing gun laws.
On “April 20, 1999”, Littleton, Colorado was forever changed (Larkin 4). Students of Columbine High School, Eric Harris, eighteen, and Dylan Klebold, seventeen, opened fire in the school at 11:19 a.m. (Larkin 4). Thirteen people were killed and more than twenty others were injured (“Columbine High School Shooting” 1). “The crime was the worst high school shooting in U.S. history” (1). The Columbine Shooting was one of the most violent and tragic shootings that could have possibly been prevented if the previous misdemeanors of Klebold and Harris would have been acknowledged by others around them.
Bowling for Columbine depicts the overwhelming gun violence in America. Despite Director Moores efforts to make an informative documentary his bias is evident. With the use of exaggerated facts, emotional exploits, and blatant bias. Moore shares his personal perspective on the availability of firearms in America.
...he death of his friend, but that does not mean he can undoubtedly lay blame to Oliver Stone’s movie. Because, like Marilyn Manson says in his essay, “Columbine: Whose Fault Is It?,” “If a kid is old enough to drive a car or buy a gun, isn’t he old enough to be held personally responsible for what he does with his car or gun?” (730). It is simply put, but it sends a clear message. People should be held accountable for their actions, because no matter how much they claim to be influenced, it is still their decision.