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Bowling for Columbine

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Bowling for Columbine
Theatrical release poster
Directed byMichael Moore
Written byMichael Moore
Produced byKathleen Glynn
Jim Czarnecki
Charles Bishop
Michael Donovan[1]
StarringMichael Moore
Matt Stone
Barry Glassner
Marilyn Manson
Charlton Heston
Edited byKurt Engfehr
Music byJeff Gibbs
Production
companies
Distributed byUnited Artists (USA)
Odeon Films (Canada)
Momentum Pictures (UK)
Universal Pictures (Germany)
Madman Entertainment (Australia)
Release date
  • October 11, 2002 (2002-10-11)
Running time
119 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$4 million
Box office$58,008,423

Bowling for Columbine is a 2002 documentary film written, directed, produced, and narrated by Michael Moore. The film explores what Moore suggests are the causes for the Columbine High School massacre and other acts of violence with guns. Moore focuses on the background and environment in which the massacre took place and some common public opinions and assumptions about related issues. The film also looks into the nature of violence in the United States.

The film brought Moore international attention as a rising filmmaker and won numerous awards, including the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, the Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary Feature, a special 55th Anniversary Prize at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival[2] and the César Award for Best Foreign Film.[3]

Film content

In Moore's discussions with various people—including South Park co-creator Matt Stone, the National Rifle Association's then-president Charlton Heston, and musician Marilyn Manson—he seeks to explain why the Columbine massacre occurred and why the United States' violent crime rate (especially concerning crimes committed with firearms) is substantially higher than other nations'.

Bowling

The film title originates from the story that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold – the two students responsible for the Columbine High School massacre – attended a school bowling class early that morning, at 6:00 a.m., before they committed the attacks at school starting at 11:17 a.m. Later investigation showed that this was based on mistaken recollections, and Glenn Moore of the Golden Police Department concluded that they were absent from school on the day of the attack.[4]

Moore incorporates the concept of bowling in other ways as well. For example, the Michigan Militia uses bowling pins for their target practice. When interviewing former classmates of the two boys, Moore notes that the students took a bowling class in place of physical education. Moore notes this might have very little educational value; the girls he interviews generally agree. They note how Harris and Klebold had a very introverted lifestyle and a very careless attitude towards the game, and that nobody thought twice about it. Moore asks if the school system is responding to the real needs of their students or if they are reinforcing fear. Moore also interviews two young residents of Oscoda, Michigan; Moore suggests a culture of fear created by the government and the media. He says that fear leads Americans to arm themselves, to gun-making companies' advantage. Moore suggests sarcastically that bowling could have been just as responsible for the attacks on the school as Marilyn Manson, or even President Bill Clinton, who launched bombing attacks on several countries around that time.[5]

Free gun for opening a bank account

Michael Moore upon receiving his free gun at the bank.[6]

An early scene depicts how Moore discovered a bank in Michigan that would give customers a free hunting rifle when they made a deposit of a certain size into a time deposit account.[6] The film follows Moore as he goes to the bank, makes his deposit, fills out the forms, and awaits the result of a background check before walking out of the bank carrying a brand new Weatherby hunting rifle. Just before leaving the bank, Moore jokingly asks, "Do you think it's a little dangerous handing out guns at a bank?"[7]

"Happiness is a Warm Gun" montage

About 20 minutes into the film, The Beatles song "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" plays during a montage in which the following footage is shown:

  • People buying guns.
  • Residents of Virgin, Utah, a town that passed a law requiring all residents to own guns.
  • People firing rifles at carnivals and shooting ranges.
  • Footage of Denise Ames operating a rifle.
  • Footage of Carey McWilliams, a visually impaired gun enthusiast.
  • Footage of Gary Plauche killing Jeff Doucet, who had kidnapped and molested Plauche's son.
  • The suicide of Budd Dwyer.
  • A 1993 murder where Emilio Nuñez shot his ex-wife Maritza Martin to death during an interview on the Telemundo program Ocurrió Asi.
  • The suicide of Daniel V. Jones, an AIDS/cancer patient who was protesting HMOs.
  • A man who takes his shirt off and is shot during a riot.

Weapons of mass destruction

Early in the film, Moore links the violent behavior of the Columbine shooters to the presence of a large defense establishment manufacturing rocket technology in Littleton. It is implied that the presence of this facility within the community, and the acceptance of institutionalized violence as a solution to conflict, contributed to the mindset that led to the massacre.

Moore conducts an interview with Evan McCollum, Director of Communications at a Lockheed Martin plant near Columbine, and asks him:

"So you don't think our kids say to themselves, 'Dad goes off to the factory every day, he builds missiles of mass destruction. What's the difference between that mass destruction and the mass destruction over at Columbine High School?'"

McCollum responded:

"I guess I don't see that specific connection because the missiles that you're talking about were built and designed to defend us from somebody else who would be aggressors against us."

"What a Wonderful World" montage

The film then cuts to a montage of American foreign policy decisions, with the intent to contradict McCollum's statement by citing examples of how the United States has frequently been the aggressor nation. This montage is set to the song "What a Wonderful World" performed by Louis Armstrong.

The following is an exact transcript of the onscreen text in the Wonderful World segment:

  1. 1953: U.S. overthrows Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddeq of Iran. U.S. installs Shah as dictator.
  2. 1954: U.S. overthrows democratically-elected President Arbenz of Guatemala. 200,000 civilians killed.
  3. 1963: U.S. backs assassination of South Vietnamese President Diem.
  4. 1963-1975: American military kills 4 million people in Southeast Asia.
  5. September 11, 1973: U.S. stages 1973 Chilean coup d'état in Chile. Democratically-elected President Salvador Allende assassinated. Dictator Augusto Pinochet installed. 3,000 Chileans murdered.
  6. 1977: U.S. backs military rulers of El Salvador. 70,000 Salvadorans and four American nuns killed.
  7. 1980s: U.S. trains Osama bin Laden[8] and fellow terrorists to kill Soviets. CIA gives them $3 billion.
  8. 1981: Reagan administration trains and funds the Contras. 30,000 Nicaraguans die.
  9. 1982: U.S. provides billions of dollars in aid to Saddam Hussein for weapons to kill Iranians.
  10. 1983: The White House secretly gives Iran weapons to kill Iraqis.
  11. 1989: CIA agent Manuel Noriega (also serving as President of Panama) disobeys orders from Washington. U.S. invades Panama and removes Noriega. 3,000 Panamanian civilian casualties.
  12. 1990: Iraq invades Kuwait with weapons from U.S.
  13. 1991: U.S. enters Iraq. Bush reinstates dictator of Kuwait.
  14. 1998: Clinton bombs possible weapons factory in Sudan, which supplied the Sudanese population with vaccines and pharmaceuticals.
  15. 1991 to present: American planes bomb Iraq on a weekly basis. U.N. estimates 500,000 Iraqi children die from bombing and sanctions.
  16. 2000-2001: U.S. gives Taliban-ruled Afghanistan $245 million in aid.
  17. Sept. 11, 2001: Osama bin Laden uses his expert CIA training to murder 3,000 people.[8]

The montage then ends with handheld-camera footage of the second WTC plane crash, the audio consisting solely of the hysterical reactions of the witnesses, recorded by the camera's microphone. On the website accompanying the film, Moore provides additional background information for this section.[9]

Climate of fear

Moore attempts to contrast this with the attitude prevailing in Canada, where (he states) gun ownership is at similar levels to the U.S. He illustrates his thesis by visiting neighborhoods in Canada near the Canada-U.S. border, where he finds front doors unlocked and much less concern over crime and security.

In this section, a montage of possible causes for gun violence are stated by several social pundits. Many claim links with violence in television, cinema, and computer games; towards the end of the montage, however, the same people all change their claims to Marilyn Manson's responsibility. Following this is an interview between Moore and Marilyn Manson. Manson shares his views about the United States' climate with Moore, stating that he believes U.S. society is based on "fear and consumption", citing Colgate commercials that promise "if you have bad breath, [people] are not going to talk to you" and other commercials containing fear-based messages, and that the government-controlled media would certainly far rather point at him as a greater influence on the acts of Klebold and Harris than President Clinton, who ordered more bombings on Kosovo that specific day than any other. When Moore asks Manson what he would say to the students at Columbine, Manson replies, "I wouldn't say a single word to them; I would listen to what they have to say, and that's what no one did."[10]

Statistics

Moore follows up his climate of fear thesis by exploring the popular explanations as to why gun violence is so high in the United States. He examines Marilyn Manson as a cause, but states that German citizens listen to Marilyn Manson more per capita and that the country has a larger Goth population than does the United States, with less gun violence (Germany: 381 incidents per year). He examines violent movies, but notes that they have the same violent movies in other countries, showing The Matrix with French subtitles (France: 255 incidents per year). He also examines video games, but observes that many violent video games come from Japan (Japan: 39 incidents per year). He concludes his comparisons with the suggestion that the United States' violent history is the cause, yet negating that with the violent histories of Germany, France, and the United Kingdom (UK: 68 incidents per year). Moore ends his segment with gun-related-deaths-per-year statistics of a few major countries:

  • Japan: 39 (0.030/100,000)
  • Australia: 65 (0.292/100,000)
  • United Kingdom: 68 (0.109/100,000)
  • Canada: 165 (0.484/100,000)
  • France: 255 (0.389/100,000)
  • Germany: 381 (0.466/100,000)
  • United States: 11,127 (3.601/100,000)

KMart refund

Moore takes two Columbine victims, Mark Taylor and Richard Castaldo (also Brooks Brown, who goes unidentified during the refund), to the American superstore KMart headquarters in Troy, Michigan, ostensibly to claim a refund on the bullets still lodged in their bodies. After a number of attempts to evade the issue, a KMart spokesperson says that the firm will change its policy and phase out the sale of handgun ammunition; this comes after Moore and the victims go to the nearest KMart store in nearby Sterling Heights, Michigan, purchase all of their ammunition, and return the next day with several members of the media. "We've won," says Moore, in disbelief. "That was more than we asked for."[11]

Reception

Reviews for the film were overwhelmingly positive, with a 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes,[12] thus earning a "certified fresh" award. Another score aggregator, Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating in the 0–100 range based on reviews from top mainstream critics, calculated an average score of 72, based on 32 reviews, signifying 'generally favorable reviews. Michael Wilmington of the Chicago Tribune wrote, "It's unnerving, stimulating, likely to provoke anger and sorrow on both political sides—and, above all, it's extremely funny."[13]

Some reviews were not as unequivocally glowing. A.O. Scott of The New York Times wrote, "The slippery logic, tendentious grandstanding, and outright demagoguery on display in Bowling for Columbine should be enough to give pause to its most ardent partisans, while its disquieting insights into the culture of violence in America should occasion sober reflection from those who would prefer to stop their ears."[14] Desson Thomson of The Washington Post thought that the film lacked a coherent message, asking "A lot of this is amusing and somehow telling. But what does it all add up to?"[15]

Criticisms

Free gun for opening a bank account

In Michael Wilson's documentary Michael Moore Hates America, bank employees from the branch at which Moore is handed a free hunting rifle assert that they were misled during the filming of this segment. They say that the bank's policy was to conduct background checks on rifle recipients and mail the rifles to a licensed gun dealer, but Moore's agents, under the pretext of "doing a story on unique businesses across America," are accused of convincing bank employees to have his rifle presented to him on camera the morning after filming his account opening. Further, they counter that contrary to the film's supposition that the bank kept hundreds of guns on their premises, the gun which was handed to Michael Moore in the film was shipped overnight from a vault in their Upper Peninsula branch "300 miles away." Moore emphatically denies that this sequence was staged but admits the timing was compressed for production reasons. He reminds his readers that North Country Bank is a licensed firearms dealer and, in addition to its ATF license number, he produces out-takes where bank employee Jan Jacobson confirms on camera that rifles are secured locally on bank premises.[16][17]

Ignoring the role of municipal governance

The American Prospect published a piece by Garance Franke-Ruta criticizing the film for ignoring the role that municipal governance plays in crime in the United States, and ignoring African-American urban victims of violence while focusing on the unusual events of Columbine. "A decline in murders in New York City alone—from 1,927 in 1993 to 643 in 2001—had, for example, a considerable impact on the declining national rate. Not a lot of those killers or victims were the sort of sports-hunters or militiamen Moore goes out of his way to interview and make fun of."[18]

Weapons of mass destruction

After the release of the film, Lockheed Martin spokesperson Evan McCollum clarified that the plant no longer produces missiles (the plant manufactured parts for intercontinental ballistic missiles with a nuclear warhead in the mid-1980s), but rockets used for launching satellites:

I provided specific information to Moore about the space launch vehicles we build to launch spacecraft for NASA, NOAA, the Dept. of Defense and commercial customers, including DirecTV and EchoStar.[19]

Erik Möller argues that Moore's question was not limited to the Littleton-area Lockheed Martin facility:

First, note the word "our" in Moore's question. Moore is not from Colorado -- his question is generic, not meant to refer specifically to the Lockheed Martin plant in question. ... Of course, critics [David Hardy, et al.] have conveniently ignored the fact that Lockheed Martin does supply weapons of mass destruction to the US military, and that the company is the nation's largest military contractor.[19]

As of 2008, Lockheed Martin is the world's largest defense contractor by revenue, which Moore states in the film.[20]

Matt Stone

Being from Littleton, Matt Stone agreed to talk with Moore about his hometown and the shooting. Although he did not feel that Moore mischaracterized him or his statements in the film, he harbors ill feelings about the cartoon "A Brief History of the United States of America". Both Stone and his fellow South Park producer Trey Parker feel that the cartoon was done in a style very similar to theirs. Also, its proximity to Stone's interview may have led some viewers to believe, incorrectly, that they created the cartoon. As a result, Moore was depicted as a gibbering, overweight, hot-dog-eating buffoon who ultimately commits a suicide bombing against the protagonists in their 2004 film, Team America: World Police.[21]

Willie Horton

During his segment on fear, Moore sarcastically narrates, "One thing I love about this country of mine: whether you're a psychotic killer or running for President of the United States, you can always count on white America's fear of the black man," showing as he does so a clip from the "Revolving Door advertisement" used by George H.W. Bush's campaign to attack Michael Dukakis' support for a Massachusetts state prison furlough program during the 1988 presidential campaign, including a caption reading: "Willie Horton Released, Then Kills Again." However, the caption was neither part of the commercial when it first aired nor accurate in describing Horton's crimes during his furlough from prison (he kidnapped and raped a woman in Maryland).[22]

Charlton Heston interview

Moore visited Charlton Heston in his home and asked him about American firearm violence. Heston's response included the suggestion that the United States had a "history of violence" and more "mixed ethnicity" than other countries.[23][24] Moore then asked Heston if he would like to apologize for leading NRA rallies in Flint after the Buell Elementary School shooting and in Littleton after the Columbine shooting, upon which Heston walked out of the interview.[25] Moore was criticized for his perceived ambush of the actor.[26]

MPAA rating

The film is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America, which means that children under the age 17 were not admitted to see the film theatrically unless under supervision. Film critic Roger Ebert chastised the MPAA for this move as "banning teenagers from those films they most need to see."[27] Ebert has criticized the MPAA rating system on past occasions. The film was noted for "some violent images and language."

Awards and nominations

During the screening at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival the film received a 13-minute standing ovation.[28] It also won "Most Popular International Film" at the 2002 Vancouver International Film Festival.

Moore was both applauded and booed at the Academy Awards on March 23, 2003, when he used his acceptance speech as an opportunity to proclaim his opposition to the United States led invasion of Iraq, which had begun just a few days prior.[29]

The film was nominated for the prestigious Grand Prix of the Belgian Syndicate of Cinema Critics.

Bowling for Columbine was voted the third most popular film in the Channel 4 program, The 50 Greatest Documentaries of all time, in 2005.

Gross income

With a budget of $4 million, Bowling for Columbine grossed $58,008,423 worldwide, including $21,576,018 in the United States.[30] The documentary also broke box office records internationally, becoming the highest-grossing documentary in the United Kingdom, Australia, and Austria. These records were later eclipsed by Moore's next documentary, Fahrenheit 9/11.[31]

References

  1. ^ Bowling for Columbine : About the Film : Credits
  2. ^ a b "Festival de Cannes: Bowling for Columbine". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 2009-10-24.
  3. ^ Internet Movie Database entry
  4. ^ Cullen, Dave (April 16, 2005). "A little unfinished business on Bowling and Columbine".. The investigator's conclusion is on page 33 of the supplied document. See also:pages 10101-10200 of a copy of the evidence[dead link‍] recorded by the Boulder Daily Camera
  5. ^ Hastings, Michael (January 21, 2004). "Wesley & Me". Slate.
  6. ^ a b Nol, Michael. Banks use gifts to target depositors, Chicago Sun-Times. January 28, 2001.
  7. ^ Bowling for Columbine : Media Clips - Michael At The Bank
  8. ^ a b See CIA – Osama bin Laden controversy.
  9. ^ "Bowling for Columbine : Library : What a Wonderful World". MichaelMoore.com.
  10. ^ "Marilyn Manson Interview on Bowling for Columbine". Bowling for Columbine Official Website. 2002-10-11. Retrieved 2010-11-15. {{cite web}}: External link in |publisher= (help)
  11. ^ "I'm trying to connect the dots between the local violence and the global violence," says director Michael Moore of his new film, "Bowling for Columbine", The Sacramento Bee, October 25, 2002
  12. ^ Bowling for Columbine Movie Reviews, Pictures - Rotten Tomatoes
  13. ^ Bowling for Columbine : Reviews & Acclaim : Articles & Press
  14. ^ Scott, A.O. (October 11, 2002). "Film Review: Bowling for Columbine". The New York Times.
  15. ^ Howe, Desson (October 18, 2002). "Moore Shoots Himself In the Foot". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 26, 2010.
  16. ^ Michael Moore (2003). "Michael Moore responds to the wacko attacks..." Retrieved 2008-05-30. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  17. ^ Michael Moore (2003). ""Bowling for Columbine" outtakes". Retrieved 2007-07-14. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  18. ^ Garance Franke-Ruta, Moore's the Pity, The American Prospect, November 22, 2002
  19. ^ a b Möller, Erik. A defense of Michael Moore and "Bowling for Columbine" kuro5hin.org August 13, 2003.
  20. ^ Defense News research. "2005 Defense News Top 100".[dead link‍]
  21. ^ ‘Team America’ takes on moviegoers msnbc.com, October 15, 2004
  22. ^ Ben Fritz (November 19, 2002). "Viewer beware: In "Bowling for Columbine," Michael Moore once again puts distortions and contradictions before the truth". Spinsanity. Retrieved June 2, 2012.
  23. ^ Jonathan Curiel (October 18, 2002). "Moore captures U.S. zeitgeist". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved February 24, 2011.
  24. ^ Chris Coates (October 21, 2002). "Moore puts gun culture in cross hairs". The Columbia Chronicle. Retrieved February 24, 2011.
  25. ^ Alan A. Stone (Summer 2003). "Cheap Shots". Boston Review. Retrieved February 24, 2011.
  26. ^ Roger Ebert (June 18, 2004). "'9/11': Just the facts?". Chicago Sun-Times. p. 55. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
  27. ^ Ebert, Roger. Bowling For Columbine. October 18, 2002.
  28. ^ Bowling for Columbine (2002) - Trivia
  29. ^ "Chicago scoops six Oscars". The Guardian. March 24, 2003.
  30. ^ In nominal dollars, from 1982 to the present.
  31. ^ Documentary Movies
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