Jodie Tucker
Media studies
Evaluating “Bowling for Columbine”
On April 20th 1999 two students from Columbine high school (Littleton Colorado), shot 12 students and 1 teacher before shooting themselves. Michael Moore proactively investigates why ‘American culture is steeped in violence and fear.’ (Jürgen Fauth – film review).His passionate approach to these issues show how his heart is truly in these issues. Also he does this because he wants the public to understand how he feels about issues. This is effective because of the variety of achieve footage, interviews etc.
Michael Moore does not avoid stereotypical people to do with each issue, for example he shows a typical American man with his national flag flying outside the front of his house, and this shows what we all expect Americans to do. Throughout ‘Bowling for Columbine’ Michael Moore deliberately uses shocking visual footage, for example he shows the original footage and audio from the incident at Columbine, which includes seeing some of the victims getting shot and people in serious distress. Michael Moore does this to really make the viewer understand and feel the emotion of the horrific incident. Furthermore near the beginning of the documentary there is a good use of juxtaposition; there is an upbeat song with a man singing happy lyrics, it also includes the word ‘happiness’ in the chorus, this music is on whilst achieve footage is being shown of weaponry being made then lots of people getting shot. This defiantly had an effect on me as a viewer as you can see that it is infact real and almost happening right in front of you. Michael Moore does these shocking things for the interest of the general public, to show his views and for the public to make their mind up on what they think about certain issues. We know this from certain use of rhetorical questions, the opening line being ‘Is America a nation of gun nuts? Or just nuts?’
Moore uses lots of effective editing decisions like the one I mentioned before about the people getting shot, also there is another point in the film which shows people making weapons of mass destruction and in the background is elevator music. Moore uses a lot of effective music to a completely different image; this also makes it really shocking. He also uses this technique in his other films, for example ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’, especially parts with President ‘George Bush’. He uses simple folk music (banjo playing), when Bush is talking about something serious, this helps for Moore to get his point across about Bush and how he thinks that he wasn’t good for America. Moore’s filmic style also includes lots of uses of achieve footage. One that stood out for me a lot was in ‘Bowling for columbine’ when a brief story of America is told in a cartoon, which also includes lots of jokes, showing how Michael Moore sees guns in America are a joke.
Additionally the narrative of the film is also very sarcastic. It does help to simplify complex issues within it, because the issues are difficult to deal with and Moore makes all the situations seem more light-hearted. At the end of the film Moore creates a ‘false sense of closure’, he achieves this by almost ending it quickly and on a down note, and he does this to try to get the public to do something about these issues.
Michael Moore has lots of common sense and he uses this to his advantage against the people who are’ in the wrong’ in his documentary. This format is successful because he presents facts very simply so a wide range of viewers can understand exactly his argument. The argument is not explicit because of his calm and down to earth approach at the problems, however he does mean what he is saying passionately but can get away with being somebody with ‘common sense’.
The viewer is positioned in the way that they can see everything from Michael Moore’s point of view. This is effective because it makes the viewer feel part of the documentary (involved with the situations).He makes the issues come across as interesting and part of everybody’s everyday life. I think Michael Moore’s documentaries are very interesting and engaging to watch, and I recommend them.
