Bowling For Columbine Review by Charlie

By: Charlie O’Donnell

Bowling for Columbine

by Michael Moore

Bowling For Columbine is a documentary in which Michael Moore examines and tries to explain why there is so much more gun violence in the U.S. than similar countries, why the Columbine massacre happened and why people from the U.S. have so much more fear compared to other countries.

Early in the film, Moore goes to a bank that offers a free gun to those who open a new bank account, Moore gets a rifle soon after, he also learns that the bank has many guns on the premises and that they are a licensed firearms dealer. Moore also looks towards why Americans shoot each other so much, because Canada has a similar ratio of firearms to citizens but they have far less gun violence.

Moore goes on to show that the U.S. has a lot more fear, especially from the news. Moore shows that news stations cover violence and bad things much more than they do with good news. He finds that Canadians are less scared in general, as many have their doors unlocked. He also points out that on the day of the Columbine massacre, the U.S. dropped more bombs on Kosovo than any other day.

Later, Moore takes two victims of the Columbine shootings to buy all the 9mm bullets at a local Kmart and then attempts to “return the bullets,” some still lodged, in their bodies to KMart’s headquarters. A KMart near Littleton is where the shooters bought their ammunition. After going back a few times, KMart agrees to phase out the selling of ammunition within 90 days.

Later, Moore displays the following gun related deaths per year statistics to prove his point: (The statistics next to the actual deaths is deaths per 100,000 thousand)

1. United States - 11,127 (3.601/100,000)
2. Germany – 381 (0.466/100,000)
3. France – 255 (0.389/100,000)
4. Canada – 165 (0.484/100,000)
5. United Kingdom – 68 (0.109/100,000)
6. Australia – 65 (0.292/100,000)
7. Japan – 39 (0.030/100,000)

Overall, I think this is a very thoughtful, well made, and informative film. I already had the opinion that there is a culture of fear in the U.S., but Moore uses very good examples. I think this is a movie that more people should see, especially Americans, because maybe if they did they would realize how much more fearful they are than other countries.