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Bowling for Columbine
****
Cinema Releases - November 29, 2002
Rated on a 4-star scale. Certificate 15. USA.
120 minutes. Directed by Michael Moore. A documentary featuring Michael Moore,
George W. Bush, Dick Clark, Charlton Heston, Marilyn Manson, Chris Rock,
Matt Stone.
Every now and again I will find a movie powerful
enough to make me physically tremble. "Bowling for Columbine"
is a movie like that. After seeing it at this year's Telluride Film
Festival, I noted that being in the audience was like taking part at a protest
rally. When we stood and cheered as the credits rolled, we not only signalled
enthusiasm, but thudded our hands together with force as if hoping to make
a statement with the aggression of our applause.
The film is a documentary about American gun culture.
If that makes it sound boring, consider that it has been made by Michael
Moore, the camcorder guerrilla behind "Roger & Me" and "The Awful Truth",
who travels with a chip on his shoulder and rips into pet hates with the
best kind of offhand humour. In one early scene, he goes into a bank, opens
the account that gets you the free rifle, and asks a simple question: "Don't
you think it's a little dangerous handing out guns in a bank?"
Sometimes it's not what Moore says, but the way
he says it. The guy plods around in scruffy clothes, speaks in a folksy accent,
and has a knack for leading people into saying certain things, or commenting
on them in a way that makes his reaction obvious to the audience but not
to those onscreen. He makes sardonically observant little side comments,
sometimes speaks innocent phrases with hidden suggestions, and in general
creates the aura of a smart kid in the classroom of a bad teacher, who won't
stop cracking wise or following up on inconsistencies until he has made his
point.
Moore using humour as a weapon is what we have
seen in his previous film and television work, so "Bowling for Columbine"
starts as expected. Archive footage is assembled into a rhythm of provocative
political satire, while Mike interviews such characters as the brother of
Oklahoma bomber Terry Nichols and the members of the Michigan Militia. These
guys drift from logic into nonsense with such conviction that the ironies
of their own speech end up making their cases look bad without Moore having
to say anything.
Moore goes on the road, conducts his discussions,
surveys all the conventional theories about why the United States has a higher
rate of gun-related crime than any other nation. At one point he goes to
Canada, and finds a healthy gun culture in a society where citizens leave
their doors unlocked and people just don't go around shooting each other.
And then we realise something: Moore has stumbled onto debunking the idea
that gun availability is the main cause of gun violence. He doesn't have
all the answers this time. He is not shooting footage to back up predetermined
theories, but genuinely investigating.
"Bowling for Columbine" becomes thrilling as it
keeps asking questions and going off on tangents, delving into the corruption
of United States foreign policy, the nature of violence on its home turf,
the culture of fear generated by its news reports and politicians. I laughed
hard at the film's sarcastic passages, including an animated short tracing
the history of white America's paranoia and aggression from the slave trade
up until today, and Moore's conversations with everyone from Marilyn Manson
to Charlton Heston. We also get the most sombre scenes of Moore's career:
On first viewing, tears were suddenly jetting from my eyes, not only because
of the material's implications, but from scenes of visceral shock, like when
the security tape footage from the Columbine High School massacre came onto
the screen and those anguished 911 calls played on the
soundtrack.
Certain scenes have come under fire, because Moore
is less a journalist than a concerned citizen with the skills of a performer
and the determination to keep on truckin'. In one scene he tracks down Dick
Clark, so he can ask the former TV personality why his restaurant takes part
in a welfare-to-work programme that forces single parents into low-paying
jobs. Some critics have alleged that badgering Clark about such matters is
unfair attention-seeking, but I don't think so: Clark has the opportunity
to answer questions, and he is treated in a respectful manner. It is Clark
who has such shoddy engagement in his own business that it ruins people's
lives, Clark who chooses not to listen, Clark who makes himself look bad.
Moore is not objective, but he is fair.
There is much I have not included, but the job
of a movie review is to suggest the power of an experience rather than recount
every detail. The point to make is that "Bowling for Columbine" runs at breakneck
speed for just over two hours, finding ingeniously entertaining ways of taking
us on its many trains of thought. One could make the criticism that its
demonstrations of a fearful society are in themselves overwhelmingly frightening,
but in a way Moore's material simply argues for common sense: Why does the
NRA feel the need to show up at massacre sites, rubbing salt into the wounds?
Why has American TV news gotten so sick that it actively attempts to warp
society? Why do fat white guys in the West keep on abusing countries of little
brown people, and then get surprised when the chickens come home to roost
in the form of terrorist attacks?
The questions come across as adolescent on the
page, but tangible and urgent on the screen. "Bowling for Columbine" is the
right movie at the right time, and if it were seen, it could change America,
not only because it is full of necessary discussion points, but because it
is so accessible that it makes complex politics understandable to viewers
looking for nothing but energetic entertainment. If you believe in the power
of movies, making sure this one gets noticed should be considered a
duty.
COPYRIGHT©
2002 Ian Waldron-Mantgani
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