You gotta love Michael Moore, America's Hardest Working Populist. "Bowling for Columbine" is as lovable. And just as sloppy.
It's a movie as shambling as Moore's own shuffle. It's almost always entertaining and occasionally touching. It's also incoherent, willing to sacrifice its argument for the sake of a righteous stunt.
It's easy to be for gun control and against racism as this movie surely is. But it's heartening to see a movie that also cares about little ol' things like the way big companies casually get rich off of human misery and about the increasingly rigid class structure in the US. It's good to have the argument over crime expanded to include a peek into the life of a single mom forced by welfare "reform" to abandon her 6 year old child for 12 hours a day.
And yet, "Bowling for Columbine" poses a focused question and squanders itself on stunts that work against its answer. For example, the single mom works for a restaurant chain owned by Dick Clark. The restaurant gets a tax break for hiring welfare recipients. So, Moore chases Clark down and gets the door slammed in his face when he presses Clark on why he hires welfare moms for lowing paying jobs. The chain of causes is getting pretty slack by the time we get to Clark. Is his crime paying minimum wage? Taking the tax credit offered him? Hiring people on welfare? Does Clark have some special obligation because he's a celebrity? If not, then why pick on him instead of someone either abusing the system by paying less than minimum wage or someone responsible for voting in the hideous welfare "reform" act in the first place? Moore collects door slams the way others collect autographs.
He's at his worst in the movie's climactic encounter with Charleton Heston. Moore has labored to widen the context for understanding why America has so many murders by gun. If sometimes it seems like a stretch, on reflection the stretches often seem less stretchy: Yes, our willingness to launch missiles probably does have something to do with our casual attitude towards guns, for example. And Moore makes a special point of showing that the mere presence of guns can't explain why so Americans shoot other Americans. In one of the most effective sequences, Moore visits Canada. a country with almost no gun violence even though it has 10M homes and 7M guns.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Karl
In the review for Bowling for Columbine by David Weinberger, the author claims: "In fact, Heston gives the answer that Moore seems to favor: America has a history of violence. "
Apparently, Mr. Weinberger doesn't have very good comprehension skills as Moore clearly debunked that ridiculous notion prior to the Heston encounter and during the actual interview. Every nation has a violent history. Japan and Germany are responsible for some of the worst atrocities ever, as Moore points out, and even Canada shares the same bloody history as the USA. Moore never buys into the notion that our history of bloodshed ties into our current problem with murder.
BTW, one thing the Heston interview did clear up, that man is shockingly racist. Beyond revulsion I never felt pity for that priveleged, ignorant hypocrite.
2 - Jim Carruthers
I have mixed feelings about Michael Moore (I haven't yet seen "Bowling for Columbine" since I just wait for movies to come out on DVD), I think what he does is thought provoking, which is a nice change from the static of almost all 'murrican propaganda (Joss Whedon excepted).
TVNation was one of the funniest shows on teevee, and the movies have been worthwhile. The cult of personality is off-putting (but if it can get someone to coin the phrase "fat, commie, fucknozzle" to describe Moore, I can live with that. What I don't buy is his portrayal of Canada. In the past two weeks there have been about eight shootings here in Toronto. Is life that hellish in the US of A?
And lastly, if you had to pick one to represent on-screen pranks, would it be Michael Moore or Johnnie Knoxville? (remember it will go in your permanent record)
3 - Paul Elverud
You say:
"So, why pick on Charleton Heston? Yes, Heston has twice gone to communities to hold NRA rallies just weeks after horrendous gun murders. Despicable."
This is simply incorrect. Among a variety of creative editing (read: lying) Moore loses all credibility with this film. Why is it so beloved then? People want to believe what Moore is preaching without having to check his "facts." Don't love and accept someone like Moore till you look behind the curtain. He and his lies are what are despicable.
4 - Jon Hensel
How can a man who fabricates facts(ie, lies) for an entire move be given an award for a documentary?
Heston appeared in Denver after the Columbine tragedy because of an annual NRA event that had been scheduled for years in advance. They cancelled most everything except the annual meeting portion. The law requires it to be held or advance notice given, to put it off until a different date. Hard to do on short notice with 4 million members.
Heston didn't go to Michigan right after the Flint shooting as Moore would have you believe. It was 8 months after and it was a 'get out the vote' rally having nothing to do with the NRA.
This movie is full of lies and fabrications and doesn't even qualify under Academy definition as a documentary.
What we have is a fictitious Director making a fictitious movie full of fictitious 'facts'. Shame on YOU Mr Moore.
5 - Rob
We need to hear this kind of criticism and commentary on our country and it's hisotry of hysteria. I agree Moore doesn't offer a definitive answer to the problems raised but I'd hardly call him sloppy and a liar. Doing that just ignores the reality he's exposed.
6 - Tim Carroll
Michael Moore is nothing but a Socialist. I still gasp at the gullibility of the Michael Moore supporters and the Academy. His movie is obviously a fabrication, an amazingly Self-righteous fabrication. Anyone with a 5th grade education and 10 minutes on the internet can denounce most of his claims.
WE ARE NOT IDIOTS MICHAEL MOORE.
http://www.hardylaw.net/Truth_About_Bowling.html
7 - Oscar Alvarez
Oooh wow he's a socialist? Now I'm angered. How dare he? Socialism is BAD. Any god fearing individual with a 3rd grade education can tell you that.
Grow up man and stop the name calling. Are you seriously attempting to disparrage someone by calling them a *gasp* socialist? What's next Moore is a witch?
8 - Mark
Moore is nothing but a filthy lying propagandist. I'd say Joseph Goebbels would be very proud of Mr. Moore. Try http://www.hardylaw.net/Truth_About_Bowling.html for the truth about this drivel.
9 - Mark
Hestin a racist? What planet are you on? During the 60's he was heavily involved in the civil rights movement. He picketed discriminating restaurants. He worked with Martin Luther King, and helped King break Hollywood's color barrier. He led the actors' component of King's 1963 march in Washington, which set the stage for the key civil rights legislation in 1964. He put his life and reputation on the line for civil rights. All so some moron who reads or watches Moore's lies can say, ". . . that man is shockingly racist." Don't take anything Moore says at face value, it will only prove to people just how stupid you really are.
10 - dutchmen
i would like to make a statement on behalf of the entire dutch nation:
STOP BOTHERING THE WORLD (and mind your OWN buisness) -> you DON'T own the world!!
we all hoped sep 11 would have learned you SOMETHING, but i guess we were all wrong...
goodbye
11 - Doctor Slack
Moore strikes me as being so caught up in the game of polemics and counter-polemics with the American right that he's also starting to replicate their creative approach to reality itself.
BUT, that's the sort of thing that's not often said out loud by the progressively-minded, mostly for reasons of partisanship. Careful, nuanced critiques of Moore strike a lot of people as being largely worthless when the other side of the debate is FAR more flagrantly dishonest and devoted to empty, echo-chamber yammering than Moore himself. (Just take a look up the thread here, where Goebbels has already been evoked.) IOW, the lies of Bush, Fleischer, Wolfowitz et al -- not to mention the much more venomous lies of Coulter, Falwell, Savage and their ilk -- are a higher priority for many people than those of Moore. And I don't blame them in the slightest.
I myself won't go out of my way to be a Moore detractor, but based on what I know of BfC, I don't think he's entitled to a "documentary" award either. Nor do I have a copy of "Stupid White Men" on my shelf. I do enjoy his brand of "protest theatre" and the fact that he's prepared to dissent, but the quality of his thinking and reporting is just too dodgy for me to embrace him beyond that.
12 - Michelle
I must admit, reading the comments here, especially by a person named Mark, I'm with the dutchmen here. More or less. And that's not only because the Netherlands are right next to my country. Well, left to my country, to be correct.
I really can't understand how this film, and the person Michael Moore, can start such a hysteria and name calling in the US. For me it seems to be a sign that you don't have a real culture of critical discourse. The main point of Bowling for Columbine for me is the big question, why do people in the US shoot each other? He's not even giving an answer, nor is he in any way antiamerican (which seems to be a deadly sin). Can anybody please explain to me where the problem is? All the hysteria about the film just implies that people want to shut their eyes to the fact that even the USA might have the one or the other problem. And that's not limited to highschool shootings.
13 - luxovius
Fuck all of you right-wing conservative freaks...you sound more militant that the people you accuse of being terrorists...I am an American and I openly admit that we must sound like hopped up raving lunatics to the rest of the world...all those of you pro-American propagandists are why so many people hate us...you seem to think we can do no wrong...I mean you go along making up stuff about how Michael Moore made everything up in this movie...you in fact are the liars...how can you deny so many facts...America did supply weaponry to the Taliban during the moronic "cold war" era. America did fund many middle-east radicals thinking they would help us take out "commies." We are responsible for unsupported bombing and slaughtering of innocent people all over the world...just because someone realizes that we are all imperfect...yes, ever our precious "infalible America" can commit wrong acts does not mean he is some terrorist or anti-American looney. Being an American who has to deal with people giving my nation this image I am fully disgusted by your pathetic one-sided, naive, overly loyal arguments that make you look completely blind to concrete truth...America has and can be mistaken like the rest of the world...we are no better than anyone else.
Oh yes...an a side-note...what the hell kind of insult is calling a person a socialist...what in the world makes you feel that socialists are evil...Oh no, someone wants equality for people economically and socially...they will burn in hell because they are sick of poverty, racism, and capitalistic hogging of wealth...they must die for believing no one should have to live in a ghetto while watching as people live like kings. I can't believe anyone would be socialist and actually show some simpathy for the less fortunate...
I am so sick and tired of standing by while my "fellow Americans" fanatically preach their overbearring, overly capitalistic, propoganda horse manure. Michael Moore is a better supporter of "American-Democracy" than any of you blind goverment-loving sheep. He actually promotes the true ideals of America...he actually shows his strong beliefs in free speech, liberty, equality, say-in-the-government, and most of all FREEDOM. Good God people...
14 - Al Barger
HERE, LET'S MAKE A HYPERLINK to The Truth About Bowling for Columbine page. It's good. Read it and find out about some of Moore's deliberate falsehoods and misrepresentations.
15 - Mark Saleski
cool! can we have similar links for Savage's The Savage Nation, Hannity's Let Freedom Ring, Coulter's Slander and Treason and Mona Charen's Useful Idiots?
16 - Tris
So, we've all decided Mr Moore is a liar because we've read a website which says he is. Is it any wonder Americans are quick to defend themselves, after all, the film makes them, and their elected leaders, look pretty bad. Yeah sure Mr Moore would have exaggerated facts and used media clips which supported his argument, but it's obvious that Moore was trying to make a point, not provide a un-biased overview of the situation. The fact that the USA is one messed up country is obvious to anyone (apart from most Americans themselves, apparently).
The film is a refreshing change from most of the drivel spewed out by Hollywood and the American media because it accepts there is a problem, and doesn't pretend that Americans are world-saving heroes. It seems that America has been so shocked that a film which made them look bad won an award, they will now try to prove it all wrong by picking apart Moore word by word.
It's funny, sitting on the other side of the Atlantic, watching you guys panicking because you've been insulted in a succesful film. We in Britain have a serious problem too - we're America's closest allies, something we should be panicking about.
17 - Eric Olsen
America may be "one messed up country," if you expect, say, perfection, but it is the least messed up country on earth, which should count for something. Moore should not have to distort, prevaricate, twist and just plain lie to make a point, and if he does it isn't a "documentary." He is free to make any film he wants from any perspective he wants, but if he lies to further that perspective he should be called on it. And I am by no means pro-gun - I attach no romance to weapons of any kind.
18 - Michelle
This seems a bit lightheaded. I wouldn't agree totally with the "one messed up country", because it's a generalization, but please how would you define "least messed up"? And don't start with "land of the free" blabla "created equal" and so on. Other countries have that, too, you know;-) When I see that the US even still have the death sentence along with a few other South African countries (or which messed up part of this world was it?), I'm a bit sceptical. But this is just to emphasize my point and not to start a new discussion...
19 - kristen
Personally I don't care how Americans are portrayed in a MOVIE but it does bother me somewhat when the person who makes the movie deliberately misleads to prove a point. Yes, there is a problem with guns, but i don't think we should try to make up people's minds for them on the problem. If somebody could just tell me ALL the facts, not just the ones for or against Michael Moore, then maybe i would decide one way or the other. Not that it really matters for one movie. I just like to have my facts straight.
Oh, and if you are going to call people names, socialist might not be the best one. I guess if i make a movie about gun control, i'll be a socialist too...?
By the way, maybe half the americans are stupid, but the rest of us resent that. I don't CARE whether or not i'm insulted in a movie, but please don't make the mistake of being (well, for lack of a better word, racist) and saying that all Americans are stupid.
20 - kristen
oh, and no, i'm not trying to "pick apart Moore" because he insulted americans. I, personally, have never seen a gun in my life, other than at a store. I'm just insulted that Moore would lie to try to insult me. If he's right, then that's fine, we have a problem. But if he lied, then i don't think he should have gotten an award for lying.
21 - John
Truth About Bowling
22 - gregling
I love how all of the Moore debunkers just link back and forth to each other's web sites...Now I'm convinced!
And Tim Carroll claims "Anyone with a 5th grade education and 10 minutes on the internet can denounce most of his claims." This is how research should be done, huh?
I think the few inaccuracies in BFC are nothing compared to the readily available torrent of lies, myths and misleading information all over the internet (how quick some are to assume any of Moore's inaccuracies are intentional--they seem benign to me)
23 - gregling
Tris and Michelle have it right.
We have almost nothing reflecting elevated dialogue in the US these days, by God just look what kind of narrow minded obstructivists we have in the administration!
There was opportunity to engage in dialogue instead of attacking Iraq, but Bush can barely read a speech correctly, heaven forbid he try to engage in interactive dialogue!
The idiot flag-waving morons have stolen the day.
It is frightening and embarassing.
...and the US has the potential to be as sophistocated and enlightened as any European country, but (sigh) we are never likely to overcome our hate and fear enough to get rid of the death penalty (the only economically powerful Western country to practice such a barbaric act).
How can we say this is one of the least messed up countries? We had the sympathy and support of the entire world when we were a victim two years ago, but it was squandered in some violence-crazed rage...we need people like Michael Moore just to get us taling about how and why we are so incredibly violent.
http://votetoimpeach.org
24 - Cannie
It's amazing the idiocy of people. Especially across from the Atlantic. Let's not forget who started 2 World Wars - but they seem to look down on America. And for the angry socialists - go to Russia, China, or Cuba if you hate America. For the Europeans - too bad it takes the European Union to match the United States in anything you do.
25 - Timmy
In regards to the death penalty - I guess we are sick if you we put to death people that kill other people. But I guess it's better than putting to death people that are still in the womb. Maybe our respect for human life is nonexistent because hell we are the only species to kill our unborn due to inconvenience. If you are pro-choice then I guess it won't insult you to say that your mom should have aborted you. Just a thought