Director: Michael Moore
Documentary, featuring: Michael Moore, George W. Bush, Dick Clark, Charlton Heston, Marilyn Manson, John Nichols, Matt Stone

- Reviewed by Vickie

You gotta hand it to Michael Moore—the guy has guts! I kept thinking that all through this riotous and, at times, painfully sad documentary about gun culture in the United States.

Using the shooting rampage at Columbine High School as a touchstone, Moore sets out to examine why Americans have such a fascination with guns, shooting and, as a result, killing. It doesn't sound like terribly entertaining subject matter, but it is.

Moore visits a bank in Michigan where guns are handed out to customers who open a new account, and chats about militia life with the somewhat frightening members of just such a group... who proudly declare that their purpose is to defend America against its "enemies." Marilyn Manson, whose music was singled out as a source of inspiration for the disaffected youth of the U.S. who exhibit violent behavior, shares his surprisingly insightful views, and Charlton Heston, president of the NRA, gets suckered into an interview that quickly goes awry. An expert at giving people just enough rope to hang themselves with (and then letting the cameras roll while they do), Moore structures his film in such a way as to have the argument support itself without lots of voice-over narration and analysis from its director.

As a Canadian sitting in a theater full of fellow Canucks, I found some of the funniest bits involve Moore's comparisons between life in the U.S. and life in Canada. If there is any criticism (albeit tiny) to be lobbed at his film, it's that he presents a bit of a utopian picture of life north of the border. We're not all quite as "aw, shucks" naive as some of the Canadians he interviewed, and we definitely don't all leave our doors unlocked. Still, his experiment testing the unlocked-doors theory in Toronto had much of the theater laughing hysterically.

Bowling For Columbine isn't always an easy film to watch, though. Surveillance footage from Columbine and numerous newsreel clips of violence around the globe present graphic images to support the film's anti-gun, anti-violence stance. Moore doesn't claim to be presenting an unbiased view on his subject matter, either, so anyone looking for an equal-sides debate had best look elsewhere.

The film, Moore says, has already been banned by the Regal Cinemas chain in the U.S., and he expects a difficult road ahead when he seeks to have Bowling shown in theaters. Seek it out if you can. It's definitely worth the effort.

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