Bowling for Columbine by Michael Moore

Bowling for Columbine

What makes America such a violent nation? Why have massacres involving guns become commonplace in American society? In his 2002 documentary titled "Bowling for Columbine," Michael Moore explores the many aspects of American society in an attempt to answer why American society is so violent. Moore takes a hard look at a society in which fear permeate people's lives and the intense and violent reaction that is a result of it. In its exploration of an answer to why Americans are a violent people, "Bowling for Columbine" raises a number of very interesting questions that get to the heart of why two students from a middle class Colorado neighborhood went on a shooting spree in their high school.

On April 20, 1999 Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, two high school seniors at Columbine High School, walked into their school and committed a massacre that resulted in thirteen deaths and scores injured. Michael Moore, in his documentary "Bowling for Columbine," uses the tragedy as a backdrop for an exploration of violence in America. The film Moore raises a number of questions that pierce the silence surrounding the epidemic of violence in America. In the opening sequence of the film, Moore opens an account at a bank where he is given a rifle as a free gift, posing the question of what is the connection between money and guns? A question that will ultimately be answered later in the film. The fact that the two students who attacked their high school were social outcasts brings up a number of other questions such as what is the cause of troubled youths in America? As well as how do non-conformists fit into American society? In an interview with Trey Parker, creator of the hugely successful "South Park" cartoon, Parker poses the query of how so-called "losers" fit into a society that is "painfully normal?" (39:30)

In an attempt to answer these questions the film transitions into a discussion involving the prevalence of violence in American foreign policy. The film explores whether or not there a connection between the American government's use of violence around the world and violence in American society, and in which direction the influence may be directed. After all, American society is permeated with violent films, television, music, and many other things but so too are other modern industrialized nations. Moore asks what is the difference between the U.S. And other nations that makes American so violent. He then explores the question of the connection between fear and violence in American society asking where does fear originate? This leads to the question of whether or not he media is culpable in sowing the seeds of fear in order to promote themselves. Does the media promote racism, for example, in order to gain ratings, and is there a connection between racism and violence? Finally Moore gets back to the original question of what is the connection between guns and money by asking what is the connection between fear and commerce? In the end Moore concludes that it is the question of fear and how it affects American society, particularly the gun industry, that is at the heart of why America is such a violent society.

The scene that most impressed me in the film was a short and somewhat comical cartoon explanation of why Americans are such a violent people. (52:45) The cartoon explained that it was fear that was at the heart of the American people's obsession with violence. It was fear that caused them to immigrate to America, and it was fear that made them exterminate the Native Americans. Fear made them import African slaves and fear of the slaves caused them to invent new and better guns. The connection between the NRA and the KKK is disclosed as one group promoted the use of guns while the other ensured that only whites would have this right. And finally the white exodus to the suburbs is explained through the fear white Americans have of those non-whites in their society. This scene can be seen as a microcosm of causes of gun violence in America.