This article consists almost entirely of a plot summary .(October 2023) |
Bowling for Columbine | |
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Directed by | Michael Moore |
Written by | Michael Moore |
Based on | Causes of the Columbine High School massacre in 1999 |
Produced by |
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Starring | Michael Moore |
Narrated by | Michael Moore |
Edited by | Kurt Engfehr |
Music by | Jeff Gibbs |
Production companies | |
Distributed by |
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Release dates |
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Running time | 120 minutes |
Countries | |
Language | English |
Budget | $4 million |
Box office | $58 million |
Bowling for Columbine is a 2002 documentary film written, produced, directed, and narrated by Michael Moore. The documentary film explores what Moore suggests are the primary causes for the Columbine High School massacre in 1999 and other acts of gun violence. He focuses on the background and environment in which the massacre took place and some common public opinions and assumptions about related issues. The film also looks into the nature of violence in the United States, and American violence abroad. [4]
A critical and commercial success, the film brought Moore international attention as a rising filmmaker and won numerous awards, including the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, the Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary Feature, a special 55th Anniversary Prize at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival, [5] and the César Award for Best Foreign Film. [6] The film is widely considered one of the greatest documentary films of all time. [7] [8] [9] [10]
In Moore's discussions with various people—including South Park co-creator Matt Stone, the National Rifle Association's then-president Charlton Heston, Oklahoma City bombing suspect James Nichols, and musician Marilyn Manson —he seeks to explain why the Columbine massacre occurred and why the United States' violent crime rate (especially concerning crimes committed with firearms) is substantially higher than those of other nations.
The film's title refers to the story that Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold—the two students responsible for the Columbine High School massacre—attended a school bowling class at 6:00 AM on the day they committed the attacks at school, that commenced at 11:17 AM. Later investigations showed that this was based on mistaken recollections, and Glenn Moore of the Golden Police Department concluded that they were absent from school on the day the attack took place. [11]
Moore also incorporates the concept of recreational bowling into the film in other ways. For example, the Michigan Militia use bowling pins for their target practice. When interviewing former classmates of the two boys, Moore notes that the students took a bowling class instead of physical education. He suggests that this might have very little educational value and the people he interviews generally agree, noting how Harris and Klebold led introverted lifestyles and had careless attitudes towards the game, and that nobody thought twice about it. Moore questions whether the school system is responding to the real needs of students or if they are reinforcing fear. Moore also interviews two young residents of Oscoda, Michigan. Moore suggests a culture of fear created by the government and the media leads Americans to arm themselves, to the advantage of gun-making companies. Moore suggests that bowling could have been just as responsible for the attacks on the school as Marilyn Manson, or even President Bill Clinton, who launched bombing attacks on Serbia at the time. [12]
An early scene depicts a bank in northern Michigan that gives customers a free hunting rifle when they make a deposit of a certain size into a time deposit account. [14] The film follows Moore as he goes to the bank, makes his deposit, fills out the forms, and awaits the result of a background check before walking out of the bank carrying a brand new Weatherby hunting rifle. Just before leaving the bank, Moore asks: "Do you think it's a little dangerous handing out guns at a bank?" [15]
The Boston Review called this scene a fabrication:
[T]he bank doesn't ordinarily hand over guns to customers. Moore's people arranged this exchange well in advance. The required paperwork and waiting time for gun ownership was done long before the scene was shot and as a favor to Moore the rifle had been delivered to the bank so Moore could pick it up there rather than going to the gun dealer as is ordinarily required. One Michigan bank does indeed reward a savings account with a gift certificate for a rifle...But nothing else in this scene, according to the bank official, has anything to do with reality. [16]
Similarly, The Wall Street Journal called the scene "staged." [17]
About 20 minutes into the film, the Beatles song "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" plays during a montage in which footage of the following is shown:
Early in the film, Moore links the violent behavior of the Columbine shooters to the presence of a large defense establishment manufacturing rocket technology in Littleton. It is implied that the presence of this facility within the community, and the acceptance of institutionalized violence as a solution to conflict, contributed to the mindset that led to the massacre.
Moore conducts an interview with Evan McCollum, Director of Communications at a Lockheed Martin plant near Columbine, and asks him:
So you don't think our kids say to themselves, 'Dad goes off to the factory every day, he builds missiles of mass destruction.' What's the difference between that mass destruction and the mass destruction over at Columbine High School?
McCollum responds:
I guess I don't see that specific connection because the missiles that you're talking about were built and designed to defend us from somebody else who would be aggressors against us.
After the release of the film, McCollum clarified that the plant no longer produces missiles (the plant manufactured parts for intercontinental ballistic missiles with a nuclear warhead in the mid-1980s), but rockets used for launching satellites:
I provided specific information to Moore about the space launch vehicles we build to launch spacecraft for NASA, NOAA, the Dept. of Defense and commercial customers, including DirecTV and EchoStar. [18]
Erik Möller argues that Moore's question was not limited to the Littleton-area Lockheed Martin facility:
First, note the word "our" in Moore's question. Moore is not from Colorado -- his question is generic, not meant to refer specifically to the Lockheed Martin plant in question. ... Of course, critics [David Hardy, et al.] have conveniently ignored the fact that Lockheed Martin does supply weapons of mass destruction to the US military, and that the company is the nation's largest military contractor. [18] [ dead link ]
The film cuts to a montage of American foreign policy decisions, with the intent to counter McCollum's statement by citing examples of how the United States has frequently been the aggressor nation. This montage is set to the song "What a Wonderful World", performed by Louis Armstrong.
The following is a transcript of the onscreen text in the Wonderful World segment:
The montage ends with handheld-camera footage of United Airlines Flight 175 crashing into the South Tower of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, the audio consisting solely of the emotional reactions of the witnesses, recorded by the camera's microphone. On the website accompanying the film, Moore provides additional background information for this section. [20]
Moore contrasts his portrayal of the U.S. attitude toward guns and violence with the attitude prevailing in areas of Canada where gun ownership is at similar levels to the U.S. He illustrates his thesis by visiting neighborhoods in Canada near the Canada–U.S. border, where he finds front doors unlocked and much less concern over crime and security. In regards to the film, Farber states "Moore's thesis, which he later elaborated in Fahrenheit 9/11, is that the fear-mongering that permeates American society contributes to our epidemic of gun violence". Moore shows news stories in Canada which do not follow the "if it bleeds it leads" mentality. This adds to Moore's argument that the media is driving America's fear and their need for protection. The cartoon "A Brief History of the United States of America" encompasses Moore's view of where the fear in America started and how it has progressed and changed over the years. [21]
In this section, there is a montage of several social pundits stating possible causes for gun violence. Many claim links with violence in television, cinema, and video games; towards the end of the montage, however, the same people all change their claims to Marilyn Manson's responsibility. Following this is an interview between Moore and Marilyn Manson. Manson shares his views about the United States' climate with Moore, stating that he believes U.S. society is based on "fear and consumption", citing Colgate commercials that promise "if you have bad breath, [people] are not going to talk to you" and other commercials containing fear-based messages. Manson also mentions that the media, under heavy government influence, had asserted that his influence on the acts of Klebold and Harris was far greater than that of President Clinton, who ordered more bombings on Kosovo on April 20, 1999, than any other day during the NATO campaign against Yugoslavia. When Moore asks Manson what he would say to the students at Columbine, Manson replies, "I wouldn't say a single word to them; I would listen to what they have to say, and that's what no one did." [22]
South Park co-creator Matt Stone—who grew up in Littleton—agreed to talk with Moore about his hometown and the shooting in the film. Although he did not feel that Moore mischaracterized him or his statements in the film, he harbored ill feelings about the cartoon "A Brief History of the United States of America". Both Stone and his fellow South Park creator Trey Parker felt that the cartoon was done in a style very similar to theirs, and its proximity to Stone's interview may have led viewers to believe that they created the cartoon. "It was a good lesson in what Michael Moore does in films. He doesn't necessarily say explicitly this is what it is, but he creates meaning where there is none by cutting things together," Stone remarked in a later interview. [23] As a humorous retort to this, Stone and Parker portrayed Moore as "a gibbering, overweight, hot-dog-eating buffoon" who ultimately commits a suicide bombing against the protagonists in their 2004 film, Team America: World Police . [24]
Moore follows up by exploring popular explanations as to why gun violence is so high in the United States. He examines Marilyn Manson as a cause, but states that more German citizens listen to Marilyn Manson (per capita) and that the country has a larger Goth population than the United States, with less gun violence (Germany: 381 incidents per year). He examines violent movies, but notes that other countries have the same violent movies, showing The Matrix with French subtitles (France: 255 incidents per year). He also examines video games, but observes that many violent video games come from Japan (Japan: 39 incidents per year). He concludes his comparisons by considering the suggestion that the United States' violent history is the cause, but notes the similarly violent histories of Germany, Japan, France, and the United Kingdom (68 incidents per year). Moore ends this segment with gun-related-deaths-per-year statistics of the following countries:
The American Prospect published a piece by Garance Franke-Ruta criticizing the film for ignoring the role that municipal governance plays in crime in the United States, and ignoring African-American urban victims of violence while focusing on the unusual events of Columbine. "A decline in murders in New York City alone—from 1,927 in 1993 to 643 in 2001—had, for example, a considerable impact on the declining national rate. Not a lot of those killers or victims were the sort of sports-hunters or militiamen Moore goes out of his way to interview and make fun of." [25]
Moore takes two Columbine survivors, Mark Taylor and Richard Castaldo (along with Brooks Brown, who remains unidentified during the segment), to the Troy, Michigan headquarters of American superstore Kmart to claim a refund on the bullets still lodged in their bodies, which were purchased by the perpetrators at a Kmart store. Moore and the victims wait for hours in the building's lobby, speaking to several Kmart employees, who evade the issue. Moore then decides to visit a Kmart in nearby Sterling Heights, where they purchase the store's entire supply of ammunition, and the three return to the company's headquarters the following day with several members of the local media. The company's vice president of communications is quickly sent down to address Moore and the press, and announces that the company will phase out handgun ammunition sales within 90 days. "We've won," says Moore, in disbelief. "That was more than we asked for." [26]
For the final scene of the film, Moore visits Charlton Heston's home and asks to speak to him via the speakerbox in front of his gated home. Heston declines to speak to him at the time, but agrees to look at his schedule for the next day. Moore returns and first shows his NRA card, which Heston expresses pleasure at. They go inside the large property and sit down to discuss American firearm violence. Heston's response includes the suggestions that the United States has a "history of violence" and more "mixed ethnicity" than other countries. He also states that he does not believe that the United States is any more violent than other countries. [27] [28] Moore then asks Heston if he would like to apologize for leading NRA rallies in Flint, Michigan (Moore's hometown) after the shooting death of a six-year-old girl at Buell Elementary School and in Littleton after the Columbine shooting. Heston claims he did not know about the girl's death or how soon the rally was after it. When Moore presses to know if he would have cancelled the rally, he declines to answer and walks out of the interview. Moore implores him not to leave and asks him to look at a picture of the girl. Heston turns around, but then turns back to continue his exit. Upon his exit, Moore leaves the picture outside the home. [29] Moore was later criticized by some for his perceived "ambush" of the actor. [30] Heston later announced he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.
"I'm uncomfortable watching the scene now, and I'm uncomfortable sitting there with him," Moore told Vanity Fair 's Katey Rich in 2019. "But I wasn't going to not put it in the film either. He revealed his core beliefs. But I remember feeling kind of sad about it later. Here's a man who 40 years prior to that marched with Martin Luther King, and now in his elderly years had just turned into this angry white guy who believed that we should have these laws where it's O.K. to shoot first and ask questions later." [31]
The film is dedicated to the memory of three people who all died in gun related circumstances:
The film earned positive reviews from critics. On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, it holds a 95% approval rating based on 173 reviews, with an average rating of 8.20/10. The consensus states, "Though it may not always convince, Bowling for Columbine asks important questions and provokes thought." [34] Another score aggregator, Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating in the 0–100 range based on reviews from top mainstream critics, calculated a score of 72 based on 32 reviews, signifying 'generally favorable reviews'. [35]
Michael Wilmington of the Chicago Tribune wrote, "It's unnerving, stimulating, likely to provoke anger and sorrow on both political sides—and, above all, it's extremely funny." [36] A.O. Scott of The New York Times wrote, "The slippery logic, tendentious grandstanding, and outright demagoguery on display in Bowling for Columbine should be enough to give pause to its most ardent partisans, while its disquieting insights into the culture of violence in America should occasion sober reflection from those who would prefer to stop their ears." [37]
However, the film had its detractors as Desson Thomson of The Washington Post thought that the film lacked a coherent message, asking "A lot of this is amusing and somehow telling. There was a parody of this movie called 'Bowling for Midway', a conservative Utah family movie to counter Moore's movie, and this paralleled the Docudrama, 'This Divided State'. But what does it all add up to?" [38]
The film was rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America, which means that children under the age of 17 were not admitted to see the film theatrically unless under supervision. Film critic Roger Ebert chastized the MPAA for this move as "banning teenagers from those films they most need to see". [39] Ebert had criticized the MPAA rating system on previous occasions. [40] The film was noted for "some violent images and language". [41]
With a budget of $4 million, Bowling for Columbine grossed $58,008,423 worldwide, including $21,576,018 in the United States. [42] The documentary also broke box office records internationally, becoming the highest-grossing documentary in the United Kingdom, Australia, and Austria. These records were later eclipsed by Moore's next documentary, Fahrenheit 9/11 . [43]
During the screening at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival the film received a 13-minute standing ovation. It also won "Most Popular International Film" at the 2002 Vancouver International Film Festival.
Moore was both applauded and booed at the Academy Awards on March 23, 2003, when he used his acceptance speech as an opportunity to proclaim his opposition to the presidency of George W. Bush and the United States-led invasion of Iraq, which had begun just a few days earlier. [45] [46]
In 2005, it was voted the third most popular film in the British Channel 4 program The 50 Greatest Documentaries of all time. [47]
Bowling for Columbine was released on VHS and DVD by MGM Home Entertainment on August 19, 2003. The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray in a digital restoration with supplementary features by the Criterion Collection in June 2018. [48] [49]
Charlton Heston was an American actor. He gained stardom for his leading man roles in numerous Hollywood films including biblical epics, science-fiction films and action films. He won the Academy Award as well as nominations for three Golden Globe Awards, and three Primetime Emmy Awards. He won numerous honorary accolades including the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1978, the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1967, the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 1971, the Kennedy Center Honors in 1997, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2003.
The Columbine High School massacre, often referred to as simply Columbine, was a school shooting and attempted bombing that occurred on April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado, United States. The perpetrators, twelfth-grade students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, murdered twelve students and one teacher. Ten of the twelve students killed were in the school library, where Harris and Klebold subsequently died by suicide. Twenty-one additional people were injured by gunshots, and gunfire was also exchanged with the police. Another three people were injured trying to escape. The Columbine massacre was the deadliest mass shooting at a K-12 school in U.S. history, until December 2012. Columbine is still considered one of the most infamous massacres in the U.S. for inspiring many other school shootings and bombings; the word "Columbine" has since become a byword for modern school shootings. As of 2024, Columbine is still the deadliest school shooting in Colorado and one of the deadliest mass shootings in the United States.
Michael Francis Moore is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and author. Moore's work frequently addresses various social, political, and economic topics. He first became publicly known for his award-winning debut documentary Roger & Me, a scathing look at the downfall of the automotive industry in 1980s Flint and Detroit.
Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death) is the fourth studio album by American rock band Marilyn Manson. It was released on November 11, 2000, by Nothing and Interscope Records. A rock opera concept album, it is the final installment of a triptych that also included Antichrist Superstar (1996), and marked a return to the industrial metal style of the band's earlier work, after the glam rock-influenced production of Mechanical Animals (1998). After its release, the band's eponymous vocalist said that the overarching story within the trilogy is presented in reverse chronological order: Holy Wood, therefore, begins the narrative.
Eric David Harris and Dylan Bennet Klebold were two American high school seniors and mass murderers who perpetrated the Columbine High School massacre at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999, in Columbine, Colorado. Harris and Klebold killed 12 students and one teacher and wounded 24 others. After killing most of their victims in the school's library, they died by suicide. At the time, it was the deadliest high school shooting in U.S. history.
Folk devil is a person or group of people who are portrayed in folklore or the media as outsiders and deviant, and who are blamed for crimes or other sorts of social problems.
Brian Hugh Warner, known professionally as Marilyn Manson, is an American rock musician. He came to prominence as the lead singer of the band that shares his name, of which he remains the only constant member since its formation in 1989. Known for his controversial stage personality, his stage name was formed by combining the names of two opposing American cultural icons: actress Marilyn Monroe and cult leader Charles Manson.
Michael Moore Hates America is a documentary film directed by Michael Wilson that criticizes the work of film director Michael Moore.
David T. Hardy is an American private attorney and has practiced law since 1975. A graduate of the University of Arizona Law School, he previously served as an attorney with the U.S. Department of the Interior in Washington, D.C., for ten years and now lives in Tucson, Arizona, where he practices law.
Michael & Me is an independent, self-financed 2005 American documentary film created by Los Angeles–based radio and television talk show host Larry Elder. The direct-to-DVD documentary attempts to disprove statements made by filmmaker Michael Moore in his 2002 documentary film Bowling for Columbine about the relationship between American culture, gun ownership and increased violence. The documentary mirrors Moore's landmark 1989 documentary, Roger & Me, in tone and interview style. The film is frequently presented at conservative film festivals.
On March 10, 1993, Dr. David Gunn was fatally shot by anti-abortion extremist Michael Frederick Griffin in Pensacola, Florida. It was the first documented killing of an obstetrics and gynaecology doctor where the stated intention of the perpetrator was to prevent a doctor from providing abortion care in an act of anti-abortion violence in the United States.
"The Nobodies" is a song by American rock band Marilyn Manson. It is the third and final single from their fourth studio album, Holy Wood , released in 2000. The song addresses Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, perpetrators of the Columbine High School massacre in 1999. The song's title is from a quote by John Lennon's murderer, Mark David Chapman, who once lamented that he "felt like a nobody."
"Get Your Gunn" is a song by American rock band Marilyn Manson. It was released on June 9, 1994 as the band's debut single and is from their debut studio album, Portrait of an American Family (1994). The song was written by the band's eponymous vocalist along with original guitarist and bassist Daisy Berkowitz and Gidget Gein, respectively, and was produced by Manson with Trent Reznor. "Get Your Gunn" was inspired by the murder of abortion provider David Gunn by an anti-abortion activist, an event which angered Manson. The song also took influence from Manson's lifelong fascination with abortion and an interaction he had with an anti-abortion protester.
"The Fight Song" is a song by American rock band Marilyn Manson. It was released in 2001 as the second single from their fourth full-length studio album, Holy Wood .
"I'll give you my gun when you pryit from my cold, dead hands" is a slogan popularized by US organisations opposed to gun control. A form of the slogan is attested from the 1970s when it was promoted by the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. It gained widespread popularity following the May 2000 National Rifle Association convention when actor and then-president of the NRA, Charlton Heston, used the phrase to conclude a speech. Though the slogan has often been used by gun owners and their supporters, it has also been frequently satirised and parodied in the media and by supporters of greater gun control in the United States
Playing Columbine is a 2008 American documentary film produced and edited by American independent filmmaker Danny Ledonne. The film follows the video game Super Columbine Massacre RPG! in which players experience the Columbine High School massacre through the eyes of the murderers, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold.
Carl Deal is an American documentary filmmaker and journalist. He is the producer and director of the films Trouble the Water and Citizen Koch, producer of Michael Moore's Where To Invade Next and Fahrenheit 11/9, and co-producer of Capitalism: A Love Story and Fahrenheit 9/11.
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Following the massacre at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999, one common view was that the violent actions perpetrated by the two shooters, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, were due to violent influences in entertainment, specifically those in the music of Marilyn Manson.