The belief that America’s gun culture is a fundamental to the construction of their modern day society, is the topic of Michael Moore’s documentary film “Bowling for Columbine.” Guns, death and fear; three keywords that inspired
The movie makes its points by manipulating and twiting the information that is fed to the viewer. Moore utilises deception as the primary tool of persuasion and effect in Bowling.
A major theme in Bowling for Columbine is that the NRA is cold hearted towards the killings. In the movie Charlton Heston travels to Denver to host a large pro-gun rally for the National Rifle Association. During the scene in which Denver delivers his speech to the NRA, it seems as though the speech is one continuous passage, whilst in reality,
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Immediately, following this sequence, a young mother is seen to say “This is a great place to raise your children”. Clever editing such as this juxtaposition of two contrasting ideas is used throughout the film. It is seen again soon after at the weapon merchandiser, who says, “we don’t just drop a bomb on them,” referring to American. This is followed by archive and newsreel footage of all the wars of recent years that the USA has played a part in with civilian death numbers being shown on screen, as Louis Armstrong’s “What A Wonderful World” plays. The contrapuntal music adds to the irony and the sequence closes with the immortal, unforgettable image for this era of the hijacked planes flying into the twin towers. As this image is shown, the music fades out and the panic of the witnesses of this event fades in, ultimately disproving the weapon manufacturer’s words. This is perhaps the element that a) shows the film to be subjective and b) provokes so many critics and viewers to accuse Moore of being a