Bowling for Columbine (2002)

Director:

Michael Moore

Writer (WGA):

Michael Moore (written by)

Release Date:

9 October 2002 (France)

Genre:

Documentary | Drama | History

Tagline:

Is America a nation of gun nuts? Or just nuts?

Plot:

Filmmaker Michael Moore explores the roots of America's predilection for gun violence.

Plot Keywords:

Gun | Violence | Fear | Firearm | Protest

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 28 wins & 7 nominations

Cast

Jacobo Arbenz	...	Himself, President of Guatemala (archive footage) (as President Arbenz)
Mike Bradley	...	Himself, Mayor of Sarnia, Ontario, Canada
Arthur A. Busch	...	Himself, County prosecutor, Flint, Michigan (as Arthur Busch)
George Bush	...	Himself (archive footage) (as Bush)
George W. Bush	...	Himself, President of the United States (archive footage)
Michael Caldwell	...	Himself, police detective
Richard Castaldo	...	Himself, Columbine victim
Dick Clark	...	Himself, restaurant owner
Steve Davis	...	Himself, deputy sheriff (archive footage)
Ngo Dinh Diem	...	Himself, President of South Vietnam (archive footage) (as President Diem)
Byron Dorgan	...	Himself (archive footage)
Mike Epstein	...	Shopper in Mall
Joe Farmer	...	Himself, superintendent of schools (archive footage)
Mike Fasolo	...	Corporate Criminal (DVD only) (archive footage)
Denny Fennell	...	Himself, home security consultant
Barry Glassner	...	Himself, author of "The Culture of Fear" (as Prof. Barry Glassner)
John Harris	...	Himself (voice)
Dick Herlan	...	Himself (as Richard Herlan)
Charlton Heston	...	Himself, actor / NRA president
Jeremy Hicks	...	Himself, suspended student for wearing kilts (archive footage)
Ernest F. Hollings	...	Himself (archive footage) (as Senator Fritz Hollings)
Jimmie Hughes	...	Herself, principal of Buell Elementary School
Dick Hurlin	...	Himself, former producer of "Cops"
Amanda Lamante	...	Herself, Columbine student
Mary Lorenz	...	Herself, K-Mart official
Marilyn Manson	...	Himself, entertainer
Daniel Mauser	...	Himself (archive footage)
Tom Mauser	...	Himself, father of victim
Evan McCollum	...	Himself, Lockheed Martin public relations
Timothy McVeigh	...	Himself, Oklahoma City bomber (archive footage)
Carey McWilliams	...	Himself, blind gun owner (archive footage)
Gerald Miller	...	Himself, Welfare-to-Work creator (archive footage)
Michael Moore	...	Himself / Narrator
Mohammed Mossadegh	...	Himself, Prime Minister of Iran (archive footage) (as Prime Minister Mossadeq)
James Nichols	...	Himself, brother of Terry Nichols
Terry Nichols	...	Himself, Oklahoma City bombing accomplice (archive footage)
Manuel Noriega	...	Himself, President of Panama (archive footage)
Tamarla Owens	...	Herself, mother of boy who shot girl (archive footage)
Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi	...	Himself, Shah of Iran (archive footage)
Robert J. Pickell	...	Himself, sheriff of Flint, Michigan (as Sheriff Robert Pickell)
Augusto Pinochet	...	Himself, Chilean dictator (archive footage)
Jeff Rossen	...	Himself, FOX reporter (archive footage)
David Satcher	...	Himself (archive footage) (as Dr. David Satcher)
Nicole Schlief	...	Herself
David Smith	...	Himself, Sarah's husband (voice) (archive footage)
Susan Smith	...	Herself, child murderess (archive footage)
Matt Stone	...	Himself, former Columbine student
Mark Taylor	...	Himself, Columbine victim

Also Known As:

Bowling à Columbine (Canada: French title)
Bowling for Columbine (Germany)

MPAA:

Rated R for some violent images and language.

Runtime:

120 min

Country:

Canada | USA | Germany

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) (re-rating on appeal) | Canada:14A (Alberta/British Columbia) | Canada:18 (Nova Scotia) (original rating) | Canada:AA (Ontario) | Canada:PA (Manitoba) | Italy:T | Brazil:12 | USA:TV-MA (cable rating) | South Africa:10V (DVD rating) | South Africa:13V (theatrical rating) | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Denmark:11 | Finland:K-15 | France:U | Germany:12 | Hong Kong:IIB | Ireland:12 | Israel:PG | Netherlands:16 | New Zealand:M | Norway:11 | Peru:14 | Singapore:PG | South Korea:15 | Spain:T | Sweden:11 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Zurich) | Switzerland:14 (canton of the Grisons) | UK:15 | USA:R (certificate #39324) | Iceland:12

Filming Locations:

Auburn Hills, Michigan, USA

Company:

Alliance Atlantis Communications

Trivia:

After two years of trying to get an interview with Charlton Heston, Michael Moore was going to give up. Showing up at Heston's house was totally spontaneous - on the way to the airport, a staff member suggested that they find his house using a star map.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: As Charlton Heston walks away from Michael Moore in the final interview, the scene cuts repeatedly between Heston (point of view from behind Moore) and Moore (point of view from the stairs directly in front of Moore) holding a photo of the slain Flint, Michigan girl and asking Heston to look at it. When the POV is of Moore holding the photo, there is clearly no cameraman anywhere behind him. The same with the POV of Heston, there is clearly no cameraman anywhere in front of Moore. So the two POVs were not filmed simultaneously as the film implies.

Quotes:

Canadian: If more guns make people safer, than America would be one of the safest countries in the world. It isn't. It's the opposite.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Manufacturing Dissent (2007)

Soundtrack:

Happiness Is a Warm Gun

Moore Bowls Gutter Balls in Columbine Film

Moore Bowls Gutter Balls in Columbine Film

by Ari Armstrong

What are we to make of a documentary that claims to discuss violence in America, but fails to even mention a policy responsible for raising U.S. homicide rates at least 25%?

At the end of his film Bowling for Columbine, director Michael Moore bowls a strike. Unfortunately, his film is less successful. He heaves mightily and knocks down a few pins, but he also rolls some gutter balls.

Economist Jeffrey Miron of Boston University found "drug and alcohol prohibition have substantially raised the homicide rate in the United States over much of the past 100 years" by an estimated 25-75%. Why? Prohibition creates violent black markets. It's a simple theory supported by the evidence.

So, in his rambling exploration of many other facets of violence in America, why does Moore completely ignore the domestic consequences of prohibition? Such an omission is inexcusable, and it indicates Moore's social agenda trumps any serious effort to come to grips with the problem.

That said, at times Moore's work is chillingly poignant. During one segment, he shows frame after frame of botched U.S. foreign policy moves. The U.S. helps kill or otherwise remove one leader of a struggling nation, only to see the rise of an even worse leader. The U.S. has supported both Saddam Hussein and the Taliban, though in retrospect that support seems to have been unwise. Moore's critique of American "foreign entanglements" mirrors libertarian concerns.

On the morning of the Columbine murders, Moore points out, President Clinton was on television announcing the latest American bombing raid in Kosovo. Just an hour later, Clinton was back on TV discussing the suburban terror. Is senseless violence on the personal level linked to the mass violence of the state? It's possible, but Moore doesn't demonstrate a causal connection.

Shock-rocker Marilyn Manson continues this theme by pointing out the president has more influence than Manson does. Manson blames the "campaign of fear and consumption" constantly bombarding Americans. However, Manson's suggestion that his music is a healthy "escape" is as ludicrous as his critics' assertions that Manson's music somehow drives people to mayhem.

Moore notes the Columbine killers also attended a morning bowling class, so why not blame bowling? Moore's comparison is silly, but he does raise the excellent point that people shouldn't look for scapegoats following a tragedy.

Which brings us to another of Moore's gutter balls. Scapegoating is precisely what Moore does, only his victim is the American gun owner rather than Marilyn Manson.

At one point, Moore places a picture of the young victim of the Buell school shooting against a ledge of Charlton Heston's house. Moore seems to think Heston is somehow to blame for the death, and he asks Heston to apologize.

Moore also took a couple of Columbine victims to K-Mart and used media pressure to convince the chain to stop selling ammunition. He describes this as an "overwhelming victory." Yet his self-serving media stunt accomplished the same thing keeping Manson out of Denver accomplished: exactly nothing.

In his incoherent badmouthing of corporations, Moore neglects to remind us that his film was released by a large corporation, his equipment was manufactured by corporations, and his work was advertised by corporate web pages and media outlets. This doesn't prove Moore's case is wrong, but it does prove he's not self-reflective.

Moore offers some needed criticism of American media, especially television news programs. One person Moore interviews notes that, even as the American murder rate plummeted, television coverage of murders dramatically expanded, thus giving viewers a false impression of reality.

Moore rightly rails against racism. Many white Americans have an irrational fear of black males, and this encourages a violent mindset. That's a needed criticism. Unfortunately, Moore seeks to replace bigotry against blacks with bigotry against gun owners.

Many of my gun-owning friends are doctors, lawyers, professors, and professionals. Does Moore interview anybody representative of the American gun owner? Of course not. Does he interview any scholar who is an expert on crime and firearms, such as David Kopel, John Lott, Gary Kleck, or Don Kates? Of course not. To do so would be to treat the matter seriously rather than fan the flames of prejudice.

Moore cites the gun-homicide statistics for a variety of countries with lower numbers than in the U.S., but he conveniently omits countries with more stringent gun laws and higher gun-homicide rates.

He also ignores the fact that England's gun bans have been followed by an increase in violent crime there, including gun-related crime. All the evidence that demonstrates lawfully carrying a handgun or keeping a defensive gun in the home deters criminals is totally suppressed.

Moore does wonder why Canada has a relatively high gun-ownership rate yet fewer murders. He concludes there is something wrong with American culture.

He's right about that: there is something wrong. He rightly points to poverty and America's racist past as part of the problem, even though he looks to failed welfare schemes to solve poverty -- whereas libertarians look to repeal the government interventions (such as prohibition) that have perpetuated it.

But Moore overstates his case. He thinks America is a nation of fear and paranoia. But in some ways he feeds into the same media frenzy he criticizes in his film. Yes, some Americans have problems with violence, bigotry, and paranoia. However, the vast majority of Americans, including the vast majority of American gun owners, lead basically responsible and healthy lifestyles. This basic fact seems not to assist Moore in his quixotic crusades.