Cast: Michael Moore, Charlton Heston, Marilyn Manson
Director: Michael Moore
Screenplay: Michael Moore

Synopsis: Filmmaker Michael Moore explores the roots of America’s predilection for gun violence. [1].

Review:

The film “Bowling for Columbine” is a good example of a Michael Moore “documentary”. I have watched all of his documentaries and realize after extensive research on my own that Moore’s documentaries are a manipulation of the audience with half-truths, representing people in false light, and nothing more than propaganda at its best. These films feign ignorance of this manipulation and stipulate for the audience that they are seeking only the truth, but in fact the films take advantage of the audience by editing tricks such as circus music playing during sequences he doesn’t care for, or jump cuts that juxtapose a sequence to show something is related when the core concepts are not. Also, in documentaries, when interviewing people, you will always find yourself retaking scenes as the interviewee gets more comfortable and is better able to articulate their thoughts, but with Moore’s documentaries, he will always take the less favorable, less articulate, edits with interviewee’s in order to make his point with those he does not agree with. In all, Moore jumps around, meandering about never really addressing his main premise, his main question of “why”. I have an answer for Mr. Moore. When he interviewed the creator of “Cops” and basically asked because the creator was a liberal, wasn’t it hypocritical to make a show that exploits certain ethnicities? The creator justified his actions because he was doing the show because “it sold.” Well done Mr. Moore. Your documentaries exploit complex societal issues that you distill down to talking points and cheap editing tricks all to make a few million dollars.

References:

  1. “Bowling for Columbine.” IMDb: The Internet Movie Database. IMDb.com-Amazon.com, 1990-2014. Thurs. 15 May 2014. < http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0310793/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 >.
  2. “Bowling for Columbine.” Rotten Tomatoes.com, 2014. Thurs. 15 May 2014. < http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/bowling_for_columbine/ >.
  3. “Bowling for Columbine.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., 2014. Thurs. 15 May 2014. < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowling_for_Columbine >.