No Moore

As a viewer who does not own a gun, and who is also pretty clueless about gun control laws, I was all ears to what Michael Moore had to say in his documentary Bowling for Columbine. In this documentary, Moore raises awareness for the growing need to have stricter gun control laws. Why does Moore believe that America needs stricter gun control laws? It is because Moore believes that everything that surrounds Americans is supposed to make Americans scared; America is run on a culture of fear. Although Moore’s message is an important one, Moore’s inability to connect his various sub-topics and his use of questionable evidence, ultimately destroys the audience’s understanding, and leaves them confused.

Throughout his documentary, Moore, uses many sub-topics to try to convey his message that America is run on the culture of fear. These include the school shootings, the causes of gun violence, the culture of fear that lives in America, the lack good welfare programs, how he believes that the NRA was insensitive by having pro-gun conventions right after the school shootings, and how Americans segregate and stereotype against blacks, Hispanics, and Latinos, and Canada’s lack of gun violence. All of these sub-topics individually are effective in displaying the reasons for the culture of fear in America, but sub-topics together, they create a random mix of ideas with no clear connection. I was very confused. I had no idea what Michael Moore’s true purpose was. Was it that the Columbine shootings were horrible, and he was trying to raise awareness of the event? Or was he trying to say that Americans segregate people too much? I was not the only one confused. In the article “Bowling for Columbine: Film Asks Provocative questions about US Cul...

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...from Canada’s National Post saying that “’Nearly all of the Toronto murders have been committed with handguns… [and] in the past 115 years, the proportion of all firearm murders committed with handguns has nearly doubled in Canada from just over 1/3 to nearly 2/3’”. Obviously, Moore tries to hide the fact that Canada is actually very much like America, that it is run on the culture of fear.

Moore’s documentary is supposed to inform the people of the growing violence in America, and that America needs stricter gun control laws. Although, Moore has many great topics to share throughout the documentary, I found myself lost in the collection of themes, and not being able to find the purpose. Moore’s inability to connect the sub-topics together, and his use of very obviously biased evidence, ultimately destroys his ethos, and skewing the true purpose of the documentary.