Bowling for Columbine: Michael Moore's documentary analysis

Bowling for Columbine

Irony and 'slice of life' cinematic techniques in "Bowling for Columbine"

The cinematic techniques used by the documentary "Bowling for Columbine" by Michael Moore are entirely crafted upon the use of carefully delineated irony. The film contrasts the real need to protect the nation's citizens with the zealous love affair that Americans have with guns. The title of the film refers to the tragedy at Columbine High School, Ohio where the all-too typical adolescent angst of a group of troubled teens was the tinder that combined with the spark of easy access to guns. This cumulated in a conflagration of violence, as they vented their frustrations upon their fellow pupils. Only in America, Moore suggests, could such a horrific event occur. It is not that teens are not unhappy or bulled in other lands, but no other land makes it so easy and acceptable to wield the deadly power of firearms as a way to vent anger. In one of the first ironies highlighted in the film, Moore notes that violence was so unremarkable and causal to these children that they actually went bowling before embarking upon their suicidal and homicidal crime spree.

Moore's documentary takes the viewer on a tour of American violence and America's obsession with violence that is nearly, perhaps even more epidemic than American violence itself. Again and again he returns to Columbine. He uses specificity, in combination with hard facts and statistics, to make a perhaps unconsciously persuasive case to his viewer for greater regulation of handguns -- despite the fact that Moore admits that he himself was reared in a culture of guns. Moore states that he embarked upon his film as a kind of voyage of discovery. He said he did not have answers as to why people would kill for the sake of killing or if gun control would provide an effective solution. However, only by engaging in a truth-seeking mission would he find at least some inkling of how Americans should strive to alter their legislation and their cultural beliefs regarding guns and prevent tragedies like Columbia from occurring again.

Bowling for Columbine" is compelling because, rather than simply craft a tale with his own footage, solely under his control, Moore uses slice-of-life film in 'real time' to show how he, along with the viewer is searching for answers as to what is real, in a culture where so much unreality characterizes the depiction of American violence. For example, he interpolates security-camera footage of the Columbine, massacre, using its jerky verisimilitude to brand an intense image of horror on the mind of the viewer, with his own footage. Moore, in the role of an investigative reporter as well as a filmmaker, interviews two of the students who nearly died at Columbine, their injuries creating a dark, ironic contrast with the smiling facade of Kmart, where the bullets still lodged within the students' bodies were bought by the gunmen. This juxtaposition of what is clearly not Moore's invention and editorializing, combined with the words of the student creates a portrait of 'truth.'

Moore visits Kmart's headquarters to speak to a representative of the company. The clearly unscripted dialogue between Moore and the spokesperson (Moore must return several times to get any satisfaction and the Kmart spokesperson stutters and clearly is just unconvincingly rehearsing the company line) gives the viewer a sense that history is happening in the 'here and now' of the film, just as the viewer watched the security footage of the massacre at the high school. Eventually, Kmart agrees to no longer sell firearms, under Moore's direct, on-camera pressure. For one brief moment, the irony ebbs away as Moore takes some satisfaction that his quest for truth has done something, however small.

Moore deploys the same investigative, 'slice of life' technique when he goes to the NRA-supporting actor Charlton Heston's home, to ask the actor why he agrees to support the organization, even after the shootings. Heston can offer no explanation, other than safety, despite the fact he lives in a house with a security gate, in an affluent area of Hollywood. Heston's comment that America's escalated levels of violence are due to America's greater "diversity" smacks of racism, but also highlight why many people buy guns and live in such a state of fear. The fact that Americans are actually not threatened with murders at every corner and need guns to protect themselves is a myth promulgated by the types of films made by men like Heston, Moore implies, and the sensationalist coverage the 'if it leads, it bleeds' evening news gives to violence. This belies the fact, Moore tells the viewer, that although the murder rate is down percent in America, TV images of violence and violent crimes have increased. The perception that violence is 'normal' fuels the Columbine mentality, he suggests, showing excerpts of local crime news coverage.