Film Analysis: Bowling For Columbine

His argument is stronger if the audience has an emotional connection to the events involving gun violence. Along with statistics and facts, Moore shows sounds and images that elicits sympathy in an attempt to persuade them to his cause. The most effective example of this is when he shows camera footage from the Columbine Shooting with the 911 call from the scene in the background. He also shows testimony from concerned citizens from several shooting incidents, such as the Buell Elementary School where a first grader killed another with a gun. The graphic images shown are heart-wrenching and evokes empathy from the viewers.

In the 2002 documentary Bowling for Columbine, American political activist and filmmaker Michael Moore sets out to explore the primary causes of the 1999 Columbine Highschool massacre, as well as the roots of gun violence in the United States in his trademark provocative yet satirical manner. Bowling for Columbine takes a deep and often disconcerting investigation into the motives of two Colorado student shooters, responsible for the deaths of over 12 people at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999, and examines other gun-related issues as well. From obtaining free guns at a bank, to reviewing America’s violent history, and interviewing a variety of people, Moore demonstrates that the conventional answers of violent national history and entertainment, as well as poverty are inadequate of causing this violence, for other nations share the same factors without the same levels of carnage. In order to arrive at a possible explanation, Moore takes on a deeper inspection of America’s culture of fear, and violence in a nation with widespread gun ownership. Ultimately, the documentary implies that the high incidence of gun deaths in America is caused by the deadly combination of cultural paranoia and easy accessible firearms that is, to some extent, effectively established through rhetorical techniques of ethos, logos, and pathos.

The movie "Bowling for Columbine" was made after the shooting in Columbine high school and tries to explore the reasons for America's violent nature. Moore believes that there is one main reason for this, the fact that there are relaxed gun laws in America. Therefore, Moore uses a number of different persuasive techniques in order to try and persuade the viewer to believe that this is the case. He uses certain visuals, music, sequences the scenes in a specific order and uses facts and opinions to achieve this.

In the film, Bowling for Columbine, the director Michael Moore takes an extent look at what could have made these teenagers to do such a thing. He doesn’t just look at the terrible event at Columbine High School, but also at the NRA's effects on people, the 2nd amendment, other school shootings, and how the United States compared to other countries gun-control explanations such as Canada. Michael Moore looks as a sociologist would such as C. Wright Mills in which he explores the outside factors of the individuals, but how the personal troubles of the two teenagers involved are related to immense conditions of our society. He doesn’t look at the intellectual make up of each person who creates a crime, but instead looks at how our society as a whole views guns and their uses.

According to Sr. Elizabeth Thoman, the Executive Director of the Center for Media Literacy in Los Angeles said, the public has produced fear generated by media violence. She calls this the "Mean World Syndrome," in which the impact may not be on potential perpetrators, but on the rest of the population, who begin to believe that violence is inevitable, that crime is everywhere and that they must be afraid. The projection of violence intensifies our views of the real world, making it seem worse than it really is. As the media increasingly reports the gory details of violent acts, the public becomes more immune. It may make the children more fearful as they come to believe that violence is as common in the real world as it is on television and as a direct result children may become less sensitive to the pain and suffering of others.

Violent Media is Good for Kids, by Gerald Jones; a persuasive article written by a comic book author that analyzes how exposing children to violent media has positive effects in shaping a person. This article was written as a counter-argument to the negative response media received after a horrific mass shooting that took place at a high school. Jones defends violent media by telling of his own personal experience with it, thus glorifying it in the process. Jones argues in his article that violent media is a helpful resource for children and it does not necessarily harm them. Jones’ argument was effective and very convincing. He defends his stance by continuously stating the positives that violent media has had not only on him, but his own son as well.

He shows that although the US has many similarities, both have a high level of gun ownership (although he does have a biased spin on this as he interviews a man in a gun shop), we both have a relatively similar amount of immigration and racial diversity, we have a similar amount of poverty. He does this to show that none of this has anything to do with the United States unusually high level of gun violence. He ten points to our media, ours is vastly filled with violence and fear whereas the media in Canada focuses on speed bumps as we saw during the video. The community also said that they were not fearful and would leave their doors open at all hours of the day, this is something that would be unimaginable at least for me and I believe many Americans. I’m not sold on the idea that fear is what causes us to be a more violent society not only in terms of gun violence but in all violence. I believe that there may be other reasons that could explain our high level of gun violence. In the end Michael Moore while some of his evidence was lacking and/or biased did a decent job at trying to convey his

The 2002 film Bowling for Columbine is a documentary written, directed, and narrated by Michael Moore. Moore has won numerous awards including the Academy Award for best documentary feature. The film explores acts of violence with guns and the primary causes for the Columbine School Massacre, where two students shot and killed thirteen people and injured twenty-one others. Bowling for Columbine takes a deep and often disturbing probe into what the motives may have been for the shooters and investigates other gun-related issues along the way. Moore explores different aspects of gun-culture such as receiving free guns from a bank, taking a look at America’s violent history, and interviewing important people like Charlton Heston, former president of the National Rifle Association. The film ultimately comes to the conclusion that the American culture of fear along with the accessibility of guns is the reason why there are so many gun-related deaths. This thesis is supported by many examples Ethos, Logos, and Pathos evidence.

Michael Moore was born on April 23rd 1954. He’s an American film maker, author journalist and a liberal political activist, who has directed and produced four of the eight highest grossing documentaries of all time; he was also named by the Time Magazine in 2005 like one of the world’s “Hundred most influential people”. Moore was born in Flint, Michigan, but he was raised in Davison’s suburbs, his childhood was tainted by the use of guns; he used to play like any other boy with toy guns, which were incredibly normal at that time, acquiring excellent skills for shooting; as a result, he became a lifetime member of NRA. Moore’s documentary “Bowling for Columbine” has won the “Best Documentary feature” at both the Academy and Independent Spirit

Bowling for Columbine is a documentary about how guns are a bad influence and pollute the mind, rather than supplying safety, which is the real reason behind the possession of a gun being legalised. Michael Moore, the film maker, wrote and produced the film to emphasise his point on why guns should never be sold or purchased again. The main story Moore focused on was one that was absolutely shocking and could astonish you from start to finish: The Shooting at Columbine High School. The ordinary and average school was put through an attack by two absent minded children who destructively killed 1 teacher and 12 students, not including the many more they injured. Moore also tried interviewing people whose lives had been affected due to guns.

In Bowling for Columbine, Michael Moore, an award winning writer and director takes a look at some of the many social problems that plague America to this day. Moore starts his documentary by briefly talking about the Columbine High School shooting and then moves on to discuss things that may have truly been a factor in some the aggression that the two students so aggressively took out on their peers. Many issues are talked about in this movie including but not limited to: The Oklahoma City bombing, the presence of a leading tactical weapons provider located near the small town of Littleton, and many others. Not all of the things brought up in the film directly relate to the incidents at

Throughout the film Michael Moore throws many cold facts on the screen that makes it obvious that the strong nation of America is unruly. One of the facts that stand out the most is the number of deaths caused by guns in America per year. In comparison to the other countries, America has an outstanding of 11,127 gun related deaths a year. This is ten times

The Documentary Bowling for Columbine by Michael Moore produced in 2002 focuses on American gun culture and how impacting it is to not only America but also the world. Moore uses this documentary as a ploy to persuade viewers of his viewpoint that gun laws should be outlawed in America by using various techniques such as selection of detail, audio, visuals and facts and statistics. . It was produced three years after the Columbine school shooting in 1999 and this adds to his argument.

In the documentary Bowling for Columbine by Michael Moore, talks about the root cause of gun violence in the United States of America. The documentary shows how more than 11, 127 people die every year from guns whereas 381 in Germany, 255 in France, 165 in Canada, 68 in the United Kingdom, 65 in Australia, and 39 in Japan. Many say that violent movies, video games, and violent rock artists such as Marilyn Manson contribute to gun violence in America but violent movies are seen in France, violent video games are from Japan, and Marilyn Manson is heard in Germany. Also, guns in America are easy to obtain as in the documentary Moore got a free gun as he signed up for an account and only required to get a background check. However, fear is the root cause of America gun violence as people fear getting killed it leads to others getting killed. For example, in the documentary Moore shows that the media promotes fear in the American news program as they only focus on negative news such as violence and death such as in the news they state, “Tonight in South Central, a drive-by shooting”. It makes people fear certain places such as going to South Central as they portray it to be a dangerous place to go to as the news shows all the negative things that happen there such as crimes which make people fear to go there. Where in Canada news are positive and focus on what is going around town.

Bowling For Columbine is a documentary that was produced by Michael Moore which focusses primarily on the relationship between the crime rates throughout various regions. After learning that Canada and the United States had a very similar ratio when it came to households and guns, Michael was intrigued that Canada had a substantially lower rate of gun related crimes. This documentary became a tool for Michael to delve into the questions that were raised; although he was unable to extract a specific answer as to why Canada had a lower rate of gun related crime, he was still able to create some life altering changes.