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"Bowling for Columbine" by Michael Moore |
If you want to broaden your horizons, laugh and cry at a film, then Michael Moore’s "Bowling for Columbine" is for you. The film is a rare novelty in today’s media that educates the public and examines the ills of society while entertaining, crowds.
Weeks after its opening, in a college town made empty by the Thanksgiving holiday, a line of people stood outside in the snow on State Street to see the film.
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"Bowling for Columbine" by Michael Moore |
Erica Deluca, a Michigan State University junior studying environmental science, returned to the theater to see it a second time. She giggled before funny things happened and cried again at the tragic realities that played across the screen.
"It is so good!" she said.
"Bowling for Columbine" examines firearms in America. Despite its title, the film is not about the Columbine tragedy. Instead, it looks for the reasons why America has such a large problem with guns compared to other countries.
Although more than 11,000 firearm deaths occur each year in the United States, only a few hundred are killed in Canada.
"Bowling for Columbine" examines people’s search to discover a reason behind Eric Harris’ and Dylan Klebold’s violence. Many blamed Marilyn Manson, violent video games and bad parenting. But Moore discusses how countries all over the world listen to Manson, watch violent movies and play violent games. None of them have experienced school shootings like those that have occurred in the United States.
Moore sarcastically says that maybe bowling caused the boys’ violence because they both went bowling all the time.
In one scene, Moore interviews an authority from a missile factory, where many of the parents of students at Columbine work. The man stands in front of large missiles that will be used overseas to kill numerous military personnel and civilians and talks about how he doesn’t understand the
correlation between his career and what the teen-agers did.
What do people think about the facts that Moore presents?
Most people are surprised at the big difference in the numbers of firearm deaths in the United States and other countries.
"Wow!" said Beverly Tubbs, a mother of four school-age boys in South Lyon. "We need more gun control."
The media constantly broadcast stories about shootings but, unlike Moore’s film, they never look at it as anything unusual. As a result, too many Americans have become desensitized to such stories.
Only when people find out that this situation is not universal – as they do in Moore’s film – are they shocked.