Bowling for Columbine (2002)
Director: Michael Moore
This documentary's purpose was to find out why America is one of the leading countries in deaths from gun violence, even though the country is not at civil war. Moore uses several images, people, and events to prove his point that guns are a problem in this country.
The documentary is mostly driven by Moore's commentary. He's an active participant in the film, doing interviews, making commentary. His voice never seems to leave the picture. He shows clips of guns being looked at and treated very casually. The biggest piece in the film is about the Columbine Killings and the fact that the killers would play video games with guns in them and were loners who's parents didn't watch them. The two boys even went out bowling that morning before shooting-up their school and eventually killing themselves. He even includes the video from the library that shows the killers shooting students under tables.
Watching this for the first time I found myself being persuaded by Moore's point a view. He's not shy to tell the audience how he feels about the issue and show with graphic pictures that he's right. Wathing it a second time, I realized how one-sided every aspect of this documentary was. Moore doesn't allow any positives of the other opinion to come through. If he interview a person who is for guns, he questions them into a corner and with the power of editing on his side, can make them seem dumb, arrogant, or uninformed. It's a very powerful way to make people see the world the way the director wants them to see it.
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1 comment:
Indeed, Moore is very persuasive in his arguments, and is good at using the tools of documentary to get his points across. I personally think that over the years his films have gotten less interesting as he's become less interested in presenting any nuance or opposition to his central thesis.
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