The SmarK DVD Rant for Bowling For Columbine
– Politics bore the shit out of me. I mean, I know it’s considered a sign of intelligence and culture to be able to lay out passionate reasons why you’re either a Democrat or a Republican (or liberal / conservative in more international terms) but frankly I gave up hope on ever having a politician to get behind a long time ago, and just stopped paying attention. In fact, I very rarely even watch the news at this point in my life.
So that’s probably why a lot of the passionate hatred of this movie from one extremist group of people or another really kinda shocked me, because ignoring the politics I thought Bowling For Columbine was one of the most powerful pieces of film-making I’ve seen in ages. It also holds a different perspective for those of us in Canada, because the “controversial” viewpoint held by Michael Moore is pretty much the same stuff we in Canada have been saying about the US for years.
I’ve always thought Michael Moore was an amazing storyteller in general, and his topics just happened to be about government corruption, big business greed and Crackers the Corporate Crimefighting Chicken. I think if he set his mind to telling a story about a totally different topic he could probably captivate his audience just as well. I was first introduced to Moore when his late, lamented Fox documentary series, TV Nation, became something of a cult hit amongst the nerd clique at my high school. I never saw his followup series, The Awful Truth, but I intend to get the DVD someday.
And then one day I started hearing a buzz about a movie called Bowling For Columbine, about the massacre of the same name, and unfortunately it only ever played in one theatre here in Edmonton, and even then not until months after the initial release, with virtually no advertising outside of word-of-mouth. I saw it there for the first time with a nearly-packed house, and was so blown away that I went back and saw it three more times, just to make sure.
The Film
On 4/20/99, two sad and pathetic little kids, whose names aren’t even remembered by the majority of the attention-shortened world, called themselves the Trenchcoat Mafia and shot up a school full of classmates in Littleton, Colorado, because they were depressed and mad at the world and were just too young to realize how stupid an idea it really was.
To Moore’s credit, he doesn’t justify their childish actions by making the movie about them. Rather, this is a movie that attempts, unsuccessfully I might add, to determine WHY something that horrible and shocking could happen in real life. The basic premise of the movie is “Why is the US such a repulsively violent society that two screwed up kids from a small town could possibly think that was the solution to anything?” The result is a documentary that swings wildly between the hilarious and the breathtakingly sad and leaves you asking the same questions Moore does, with the same disturbing lack of answers. Rather than tackling those answers, however, Moore’s thesis has more to do with debunking the easy answers from those who would have you believe that everything is A-OK with the USA.
The villains of the piece, if you can call them that, are the NRA, as there is a thread running through the movie about Charlton Heston and some VERY poorly-timed NRA rallies that happened to fall around the same time as some very gruesome gun-related murders in the same area. The question becomes “Is the 2nd amendment important enough to justify the existence of THESE guys?”
Along the course of the movie we meet the world-famous Michigan Militia members (truly the chlorinated end of the gene pool), examine the possible correlation between a weapons manufacturer in Littleton and increasing violence there (to Moore’s credit, he never does something as silly as BLAMING Lockheed-Martin), talk with celebrities like Matt Stone and Marilyn Manson about teen angst, walk the streets of South Central LA to see where all the gang violence is supposed to be, get a brief and educational overview of the USA’s cause-and-effect sequence of meddling in world politics (I’ve always been a sucker for “What a Wonderful World”) and even stop by Canada to see why we’re so much more at peace. And of course, the Columbine Massacre itself is examined, as Moore meets the survivors and parents of them, leading to an emotional and quite powerful moment where he brings two of the survivors to K-Mart headquarters to return the bullets lodged in their bodies. It sounds absurd, but the emotion expressed by the kids and the eventual payoff is one of the most moving things I’ve seen. It’s when Moore uses his lateral thinking on a situation like that — you’ve got two kids shot nearly to death with bullets from K-Mart, how do you make a story out of that? — when he’s at his most powerful.
The title of the movie comes from the Trenchcoat Mafia’s reported “bowling class”, where they learned to bowl for a gym credit, which is what they were doing in the morning before the massacre. Moore asks, since there’s about as much causal relation to that activity as there is to heavy metal, violent video games, access to guns, racial tension, and violence throughout America’s history, then why aren’t the right-wing gun-nuts also calling for a ban on bowling for America’s youth? It’s a silly point, but throughout the movie, Moore shoots down the tired reasons given by politicians (if America’s violent past is a factor, then what about Germany?) until really that’s about the only sane viewpoint left.
The movie is not without flaws, of course. When he wants to stretch to make a point, he REALLY stretches. The whole bit about the welfare bus is a sad thing, but harassing Dick Clark about it was ridiculous and stunk of sensationalism. Also, Canada is portrayed as a kind of socialist paradise, but using Sarnia as a test case for the whole country is a really inaccurate portrayal — Canada is fiercely divided along have and have-not lines, most of the provinces don’t get along, and taxation is completely out of control under the current government. Also, Canada DOES have slums — I live about two blocks away from one of them, and there have been more than a few shooting deaths here in Edmonton this year alone. Further, I don’t know if he’s actually tried to BUY a gun in Canada, but it’s infinitely more difficult here than in the US. Buying ammo is one thing, buying an actual gun is another. Gun control laws are pretty damn strict here now.
There’s also a cartoon, done by Matt Stone, halfway through the film about the history of the US, where Moore seems to trod on ground he shouldn’t be trodding on, presumably linking the KKK with the NRA.
One of the major criticisms of the movie is Moore’s, shall we say, loose interpretation of the facts in some areas. To which I say, so what? It doesn’t change the central point of the movie — 11,000 people are killed by guns in the US in a year. And there’s no good reason for it. Whether you can walk right into a bank and buy a gun or need to go to another store and pick it up later, it’s still pretty f*cking scary that you can get a GUN with your bank account! Moore is above all an entertainer, who yearns to make the viewer think — he never claimed to be a historian or a hard-hitting journalist. And I was both wildly entertained and left thinking by this movie, so mission accomplished. If you’re looking for tightly-knit political commentary or definitive answers, however, look elsewhere.
The Video
This is a mish-mash of TV footage, hand-held cameras, and standard films, so your mileage may vary on the quality. It’s presented in the intended OAR of 1.78:1 and everything looks about as good as it’s gonna get. As noted, you can’t really judge it according to the same standards as movies.
The Audio
It’s in Dolby 5.1, which is really weird and pointless for a movie that’s about people talking. The music sounds nice, but the surrounds are never used.
The Extras
Here’s a bit of an oddball thing for ya — here in Canada, the DVD is a 2-disc set, whereas in the US I believe it’s only one. Why? More cultural differences, I guess.
The extras are apparently the same on both, and I didn’t particularly care for them. You get
– An audio commentary from “interns and secretaries” at Moore’s offices. This is amusing for, oh, 10 seconds, and then you realize that it’s actually going to be that stupid throughout. Total waste of time.
– Michael Moore talking about his acceptance speech for the Best Documentary Oscar. They couldn’t get the rights to the speech itself, you see. Moore is a tad deluded about what the people were booing.
– “Return to Littleton” featurette, which is a speech given by him on campus where he does his usual ranting and raving against rich people and George Bush. More self-congratulatory claptrap. I mean, I like Moore as much as the next guy, but do we need a whole disc of extras about how great the movie is and how evil Bush is?
– A half-hour interview by Joe Lockhart with Moore, where once again Michael endears himself to the right-wing by comparing political figures to Bin Laden.
– A segment from the Awful Truth, as Moore makes a nuisance of himself in a lab that was testing DEET on human subjects. Now, as a Canadian, I found this pretty ironic, because for all of his love of Canada, I wonder if Michael is aware that DEET has been legal and in widespread use in store-bought mosquito repellants in this country since well before the movie was made. In fact, with the West Nile Virus scare recently, the government has actually ENCOURAGED use of the chemical to prevent spread of the disease. On the other hand, Crackers the Corporate Crimefighting Chicken got to make an appearance, so that redeemed it.
– A series of interviews and acceptance speeches from film festivals, which was the DVD equivalent of Moore casually showing party guests his award-laden mantle.
– Clips of Moore on the Charlie Rose show.
– Marilyn Manson’s “Fight Song” video.
– The trailer, of course.
– “Teacher’s Guide” and “Action Guide”, both of which are just pointers to the website.
Overall, lots of extras, but they’re only interesting if you want to learn just how much everyone loved the movie and what a great guy Moore is. Is this kind of sanctimonious, preachy, self-serving nonsense really appropriate for such a heartfelt movie? What about interviews with survivors 4 years later? Followups on the K-Mart angle? Followup on the deteriorating state of Chuck Heston?
For such a great movie, the extras are a real mixed bag.
The Ratings:
The Film: *****
The Video: **
The Audio: **
The Extras: ***
