Review Bowling for Columbine

Bowling for Columbine, is a thoughtful documentary in which Michael Moore tackles the issue of Americas unique obsession with guns. Whats responsible for the exceptionally high level of killing in America? Not a lot of guns, Moore points out, because other countries have that. Not a violent history, because other countries have that. Not a love of violent movies, video games, and so forth, because other countries love all that too. Not poverty, unemployment, and ethnic diversity, because lots of countries have more poverty and Canada has as much ethnic diversity and more unemployment. And why do they seem so afraid, so in need of the reassurance of guns?

The film is centred on the Columbine shooting in 1999, when two students walked into Columbine high school and shot students, killing and injuring a large number of innocents. Horrifying images of the security cameras are shown.Moore introduces us to two of the students wounded at Columbine, both still with bullets in their bodies. He explains that all of the Columbine bullets were freely sold to the teenage killers by Kmart, at 17 cents apiece. He takes the two boys to Kmarts headquarters and tells their story, after which Kmart decides to stop the sale of ammunition. This led to a great surprise, as Moore is so used to rejection.To answer the question why America is so obsessed with guns, there are three causes according to Moore.First of all, people are constantly pumped with fear by the US Media. TV news focuses on local violence (If it bleeds, it leads). People dont feel safe, so a gun gives them a feeling of comfort.Furthermore, the government in Washington solves everything by bombing people somewhere. In addition to this, a gun culture has developed, in which people take self-defence very serious and think that if youre not armed, youre not responsible.The camerawork is used in a very smart, manipulative way. Theres a purpose for every camera angle used. For example, a close up shot is taken in an emotional scene to enlarge peoples facial expressions. You can see this in the scene wherein Moore comforts the sobbing headmistress of the school in Flint, Michigan, where Kayla Rolland was shot by her 6 year old classmate. Also the camera jumps from one scene to another and makes it seem like they are happening at the same time.The hand-held camerawork and dizzying camera movement makes the documentary very realistic, almost as if youre with them at that moment.

At one point, Moore buys a Map to the Stars Homes to find where Charlton Heston, former president of the NRA, lives. He rings the bell on his gate and is invited back for an interview. During this interview, Heston is not able to give any good answers to Moores questions. In fact, he doesnt have any at all and walks away which was very funny. He cant explain why America has such a high number of murders compared to other countries, and whether it was a good idea to speak at an NRA rally in Denver 10 days after Columbine. This was a good scene, because it was very amusing to see how Moore kept asking further when Heston didnt know what to say or had no good arguments.I think Bowling for Columbine is a successful, fascinating documentary. It is definitely a must-see.Michael Moore has done a great job in doing research. He wants to involve his audience into taking a new look at the world around them and to consider more possibilities than they did before they saw his film. He documents the content in various ways: an animation, recited statistics with image, and astonishing film clips. This keeps the documentary very interesting and amusing. The content can be both hilarious and saddening at the same time. Moore makes you laugh and feel sad, but most important, he makes you think.

Alice Sanders V4C 596 words

3 reviews I have read in my research:http://www.killermovies.com/b/bowlingforcolumbine/reviews/kwz.htmlhttp://www.thenedpages.com/reviews/BfC.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9d02eedc173af932a25753c1a9649c8b63

I have written for teenagers/young adults. The review contains no difficult language and the paragraphs are easy to understand. The language used is not too informal. I havent written in a particular style of a site of magazine, but I tried to follow the standard form of a review. First, I wrote the introduction, in which I explain what the documentary is about and what Michael Moore tries to find out/explore. Then, I gave more information about the content of the film. And at last, I wrote my final opinion, conclusion.