DVD Movie Rating for: Bowling for Columbine

Rating 2 out of 5 stars

Movie Plot of: Bowling for Columbine

A tour de force from filmmaker Michael Moore, Bowling for Columbine is a humorous and horrifying documentary about firearms abuse in the United States and the first documentary accepted into competition at Cannes in 46 years.

With his trademark charm and biting wit, filmmaker Michael Moore (director of Roger and Me and author of Stupid White Guys) sets off on a rollicking journey to the heart of the country hoping to discover why the American pursuit of happiness is so riddled with violence. Blending a unique mix of humor and tragedy, the film delivers startling punches with its wry observations and stunning, previously unseen footage. From a look at the Columbine High School security camera tapes to the home of Oscar®-winning NRA President Charlton Heston, from a young man who makes homemade napalm recipes with The Anarchist’s Cookbook to the murder of a six-year-old girl by another six-year-old, Bowling for Columbine will resonate with audiences continually dreading—but expecting—the next breaking news report about a homegrown assassin with a constitutionally-protected Uzi.

In making Bowling for Columbine, Michael Moore’s strategy and motivation were much different than for his earlier works. “Roger & Me focused on one town and the one company that destroyed that town,” Moore says. “Bowling for Columbine is about something much larger—an entire society gone slightly mad and arming itself at home with a quarter billion guns.”

“The one thing you have to realize about Michael,” says Producer Michael Donovan, “is that he’s the ultimate patriot. That’s why he’s so critical. He loves his country. It’s ironic that one of America’s leading social critics is also one of its leading patriots.”

Kathleen Glynn, Moore’s producer and wife, has worked closely with him for the last twenty years and has watched him refine his craft to great sophistication without losing any of the legendary Michael Moore humor or charm. “Michael goes the farthest out on a limb with film,” says Glynn. “This film is a huge document. And it’s layered. On the surface, it’s factual and shocking, but above all that there is an emotional arc, and that is critical because you want the audience to leave feeling something about what they just saw.”

DVD Production Details of: Bowling for Columbine

Starring: Michael Moore (II), Marilyn Manson

Director: Michael Moore (II)

Format: Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby

Studio: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
DVD Release Date: August 19, 2003
DVD Features:
Exclusive Michael Moore interview on his Oscar win & acceptance speech

Personal introduction by Michael Moore

"Return to Denver/Littleton" featurette

Interview with Michael Moore by former press secretary Joe Lockart

Audio commentary by receptionists and interns

Teacher's guide

Segment from Awful Truth II: Corporate Cops

Michael Moore's "Action Guide"

Film festival scrapbook: Michael in Cannes, Toronto & London

"The Charlie Rose Show" with Michael Moore

Marilyn Manson's "Fight Song" music video

Photo gallery

Original theatrical trailer

Widescreen anamorphic format

DVD Easter Eggs

None

Cast of the movie: Bowling for Columbine

• Michael Moore .... Himself
• Denise Ames .... Sexy Girl with Gun
• Arthur A. Busch .... Himself (as Art Busch)
• George W. Bush .... Himself (archive footage)
• Dick Cheney .... Himself (archive footage)
• Dick Clark .... Himself
• Bill Clinton .... Himself (archive footage)
• Barry Glassner .... Himself (as Prof. Barry Glassner, USC)
• Charlton Heston .... Himself
• Amanda Lamante .... Herself
• Marilyn Manson .... Himself
• Chris Rock .... Himself (archive footage)
• Matt Stone .... Himself
• Salvador Allende .... Himself (uncredited) (archive footage)
• Michael Caldwell .... Himself (uncredited)
• Seth Collins .... Himself (uncredited)
• Jeff Doucett .... Himself (Man shot at airport) (uncredited) (archive footage)
• R. Budd Dwyer .... Himself (uncredited) (archive footage)
• Eric Harris .... Himself (uncredited) (archive footage)
• Adolf Hitler .... Himself (uncredited) (archive footage)
• Jimmie Hughes .... Herself (uncredited)
• Dick Hurlin .... Himself (uncredited)
• Brandon T. Jackson .... Himself (uncredited)
• Daniel V. Jones .... Himself (uncredited) (archive footage)
• Dylan Klebold .... Himself (uncredited) (archive footage)
• Joseph Lieberman .... Himself (uncredited) (archive footage)
• Tom Mauser .... Himself (uncredited)
• Harold Moss .... Characters in 'A Brief History of the United States of America' (uncredited) (voice)
• James Nichols .... Himself (uncredited)
• Manuel Noriega .... Himself (uncredited) (archive footage)
• Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi .... Himself (uncredited) (archive footage)
• Trey Parker .... Himself/Stan Marsh (voice) (uncredited) (archive footage)
• Robert J. Pickell .... Himself (uncredited)
• Gary Plauche .... Himself (Gunman at airport) (uncredited) (archive footage)

Photo Gallery of the movie: Bowling for Columbine

Click on one of the thumbnails to see the full size high quality photos, posters and wallpapers of Bowling for Columbine

Reviews of the movie: Bowling for Columbine

Michael Moore's superb documentary (following in the footsteps of Roger & Me and The Big One) tackles a meaty subject: gun control. Moore skillfully lays out arguments surrounding the issue and short-circuits them all, leaving one impossible question: why do Americans kill each other more often than people in any other democratic nation? Moore focuses his quest around the shootings at Columbine High School and the shooting of one 6-year-old by another near his own hometown of Flint, Michigan. By approaching the headquarters of K-Mart (where the Columbine shooters bought their ammo) and going to Charlton Heston's own home, Moore demands accountability from the forces that support unrestricted gun sales in the U.S. His arguments are conducted with the humor and empathy that have made Moore more than just a gadfly; he's become a genuine voice of reason in a world driven by fear and greed.

I don't respect Moore, but this is a well made documentary...
Documentaries are probably the hardest types of film to review, primarily because it all comes down to whether or not you agree with the filmmaker or not. Style helps, but you can't recommend a documentary you disagree with, can you?

To come out with the truth before I get too far into this review, I will say that I totally disagree with Michael Moore on almost all subjects. To call him a liberal is an understatement -- so from a Republican's standpoint, it's very hard to give his film a good rating.

"Bowling for Columbine," like most of Moore's films, is seriously flawed. He presents a lot of information as truth when it is clearly not so. As entertaining as the History of the US cartoon was, it was also quite incorrect in many ways, and guess what -- killer bees DID come to America through Texas, even though he states that they never did.

He doesn't bash the Bush administration as much as I thought he would, or any real political issues. He basically bashes American culture for allowing guns to flow so freely into the grasps of criminals and children.

Moore is a lifetime member of the NRA, but he thinks guns should be handled with more caution. America has the highest rate of weapon-related deaths in all the world, and as this documentary shows, Britain, Canada, and other closely related countries have the exact same films, videogames, weapons, and so on. Why is America's gun crime so high?

The film is centered on the Columbine shooting a few years back, when two students walked into Columbine high school and shot students, killing and injuring a large number of innocents. It was a wake up call for most of America, and Moore's real point of the documentary is to explore the reason America is so obsessed with guns.

From a critical standpoint, the documentary is well made, probably deserving of its Oscar. It's touching and funny, disturbing and outrageous. Sometimes it's a bit too politically correct -- the whole exploration of African-Americans getting arrested more than Caucasians on the television show "COPS" is not only incorrect but sort of a laughable attempt on Moore's part to gain the respect of black viewers. I've watched "COPS" before, and a lot of white guys get arrested -- I can think of many arrests off the top of my head. I don't think that it's a valid point at all. America's reported fear of blacks is not why there are more shootings.

Two survivors of the Columbine massacre accompany Moore towards the end of the film when he visits the Wal-Mart headquarters and requests that they stop selling 30-cent weapon ammunition -- the same ammunition bought by the Columbine shooters. Wal-Mart agrees, which is why you will no longer see gun ammo in Wal-Marts across the country.

When "Halloween" came out in 1978, the six-year-old killer, Michael Myers, seemed even more evil and scary because he murdered at such a young age. Nobody thought that there could be a child like that. But, in "Bowling for Columbine," we are informed that a six-year-old school kid shot another young girl of the same age in a school cafeteria one day -- by accident, or so they say. That's when the documentary starts to become a horror film as opposed to an informative film. And it's better for it, too.

It is our right as Americans to decide whether or not we should carry guns. I think the restrictions on letting guns fall into the wrong hands could be a bit more strict, but the criminals on the street will achieve weapons irregardless of whether or not Wal-Mart stops selling hunting rifles. In that sense, Moore's documentary is almost pointless. By the end, he never reveals why America is infatuated with guns. But his unresolved insight into why our nature is so influenced by violence is the highlight, and the remaining image of the little girl shot to death by a six-year-old boy will stay with you for a long, long time.

Another problem with documentaries is that they can be twisted around and edited into whatever the filmmaker wants -- such as Moore's interview with Charlton Heston at the end of the film, or Dick Clark's refusal to speak to Moore, and so on and so forth. We don't know the background story on these things and we don't know what else was said before Moore fiddled around with the footage and crafted it into what he wanted. Splice together images of Heston saying, "From my cold dead hands!" and anything can look bad.

"Bowling for Columbine" is a very good film, and though I do not respect Michael Moore in any way, even I have to admit that he's made a good -- if flawed -- documentary about violence in America. He handles the content with care -- the way it should be handled -- and it can be both hilarious and saddening at the same time. I don't agree with everything in this film, but some of the real facts are pretty haunting. It's definitely one to check out.