Bowling For Columbine Documentary Analysis

Michael Moore is an American documentary filmmaker, who is best known for his line of controversial documentaries exploring and addressing political and social issues in the US. Moore has a number of films, including 9/11: Fahrenheit, Sicko and Roger and Me for example. In particular, he has produced and directed “Bowling for Columbine” which I will be close viewing for my 3.9 report. During this film he raises and explores the issue of gun violence in the United States and uses a variety of techniques to showcase his thinking. In the two excerpts “Columbine” and “Fear of Black Men”, I will be discussing how he uses archival footage (stock footage) and non-diegetic sound to help to steer his audience into thinking a certain way or to make them

Michael Moore positions the audience to feel a variety of emotions, like sadness or fear for example. Sadness because we come to the realization that this actually happens in other places all around the world and fear because there is a slight possibility that it could happen in New Zealand and in our secondary schools. Although we aren’t exposed to the high level of gun violence like the United States, we can’t completely disregard the likelihood of it happening to us because we don’t know that for sure. We can also relate this to what we see on television, whether we see this from a movie or a TV screening, there can sometimes be a level of violence added to make a scene/episode more likable or intriguing to watch. Despite the fact that it may not be up to that level of violence shown compared to the Columbine shooting, we are still exposed to the chance of it happening and therefore, it opens our eyes wider to realize that this just doesn’t just happen on our television screens and that it happens to real people in the outside world. Moore is trying to make us feel connected as what is shown is raw, sad and scary. Real. He also wants us to feel involved, like we’re experiencing this with the victims of the massacre and in my opinion, he achieves his

My first technique that I will be responding to is archival footage. In this excerpt, a montage of archival footage is presented to us showing many news reports and documentation of crimes being committed by black African American males. It shows men of a black race being arrested and spoken to by police and news reports describing offenders of crimes being black. When we are repeatedly shown images and videos or reports of black males committing crimes we get an idea in our head thinking a certain way about certain people, which then reinforces the idea that violent crimes are committed by black males. Americans are exposed to think that most violent crimes are committed by black people not only because it is constantly being shown to them in forms of media but it is also being taught to them from a young age. When you are constantly made to think a certain way about something, it is hard to think otherwise because so many other people are thinking and being taught the exact same as you. Therefore, using archival footage in “Fear of Black Men” makes the audience believe that what is being said is in fact true because we have been provided evidence that shows exactly what the topic of conversation