So I saw Bowling For Columbine this weekend...

[Canyonero!]

There's been a lot of discussion on the board about Michael Moore and Bowling For Columbine since Oscar night, so I decided to see it this weekend.

A little disclosure: I'm not some right-wing, pro-gun Republican. I'm very much a liberal Democrat, but not the idiot variety (i.e. I'm very much in favor of this war we're in). I have seen both of Moore's TV shows, and even recently rented The Awful Truth on DVD. My girlfriend has his most recent book, Stupid White Men, which I have read a majority of. I'm a fan of both documentary and mockumentary, but this movie is neither.

My basic issue with this movie is that it doesn't have a clear goal. Moore's basic thesis question seems to be: "Why are there so many gun murders in the US, but not in other countries?" In the end, he can't provide an answer for it. He suggests it's the media more than anything else. He gives (mostly true) facts about gun ownership in Canada vs. America (about equal), basically killing any argument he has that the proliferation of guns is the reason for all of the murders.

He looks at other possible reasons for why America has more violent crimes than Europe. Some suggest it's because of America's more violent past, but Moore knocks down that theory easily. Europe has seen 100's of years of war, and their gun murder raters are far below ours.

The part of the film that really made me dislike it was how Moore tried to find blame for Columbine, without ever saying a bad word about the 2 people that are ultimately to blame: Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris. Moore tries to blame Lockheed Martin, which basically falls flat. You can't blame a company that used to produce military equipment in a town for a crime that happens some 20 years after those military contracts end.

He tries to blame KMart for selling the guns and/or ammo that Dylan and Eric used. KMart is a store. Stores sell goods that consumers buy. It is/was legal for KMart to sell ammunition in Colorado, so they did. Moore never said if Eric and Dylan purchased the ammo or guns (they didn't, but he "forgets" to include this fact), but since KMart sold them at the time, it must be the store's fault.

I graduated from High School the year before Columbine. I can still remember what High School life was like. Kids in school can be dicks. But after Columbine, I, a former believer in stronger gun-control, knew whom to blame. You blame the 2 screw-ups that shot up their school. You blame the 2 animals that shot off hundreds of rounds of ammo all around their school. You blame the kids that planned to kill hundreds of children for nearly a year.

And the Moore's ambush on celebrities was just sad. It seemed like filler to me; he was really stretching for more to put into this movie. He questions Dick Clark of all people. You see, the mother of a 6 year old who shot another 6 year old in school was forced to work in Michigan's Welfare to Work program. This forced her to work 2 jobs, which in the end means she's basically an absentee parent. One of the places she works is Dick Clark's American Bandstand Grill. Apparently Moore can't grasp the fact that this restaurant (like most other "celebrity" named venues) isn't run by the guy himself. Moore asks Clark for help in ending Michigan's Welfare to Work program, because this program, which forced the guilty party's mother to work 2 jobs must be the reason behind the child's murder. Moore never mentions that the house the child gets the gun from was known as a local crack house. He never mentions that the child was the class bully, that he had already been suspended from school for stabbing another child with a pencil, and later stabbed another child with a knife (apparently away from school).

In the end, Moore tries to link our higher gun murder rate with our "Culture of Fear." You see, Moore knows this because of his scientific research. That research: asking some select residents of Windsor, Ontario, Canada if they lock their doors when they are home or go to sleep. Most seem not to lock their doors, so they must not be a scared society. And since EVERYONE in America locks his or her doors AT ALL TIMES we are scared.

I found it amusing that Moore tries to paint the media as the biggest reason behind our general fears. He shows random news bytes of the usual (killer bees!, summer of the shark!, murders!, the flesh eating virus!) crap that's supposed to prove his point. I guess he might be right, but I couldn't be sure. The fact that I couldn't be sure about what his point was in the end should tell you that this was a terrible documentary. It was a decent movie, with some insight and a few laughs, but a terrible documentary.

Perhaps the most aggravating part of this movie is that people take this crap to heart. Much like how Moore tries to say, "Wake up people! You're just being scared into thinking things are bad," I would have liked to yell at everyone in the theater that this movie was filled with lies.