Fahrenheit 9/11 By Leo

The documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 is about George.W.Bush during his presidency and war during this time period. This is another documentary by Michael Moore. Like Moore’s other movie “Bowling For Columbine” it is a very well thought out, had great footage of Bush, the actual war in Iraq, and numerous interviews with different types of people. The only negative comment I have on the movie is that it seemed like that when Moore put in a video of President Bush speaking, he would crop out everything that he didn’t want to hear.

I think he would crop Bush short to make him look like more of bad guy then he really is. Bush still a horrible person if what was said in the film is true regarding Bush ignoring his work and papers about terrorists and how he had a relationship with the Bin Laden’s. And how there was no valid reason to be at war in Iraq. Out of these three points, Moore stated through out the documentary, I only truly believe the third point is true. This is because I have a hard time believing that some one, especially the president, would do this to his country. The way Moore presented this information was not convincing enough for me.

I think the most interesting part of the movie was when Moore was outside the Saudi Embassy. I found this most interesting because this foreign nation of Saudi Arabia has an Embassy in the U.S and they own 7% of our currency. This is a huge portion of America’s money, and this is giving the Saudis too much power. Another interesting thing from this part of the film was that the Saudis called the police because Moore was shooting film in front of the building, and police officers actually came. This is shocking to me because now our nation is protecting the Saudi Arabians who are gaining power. This power is gained many ways, through property and oil profits as well as collaboration with the American government.

Fahrenheit 9/11 Review by Charlie

Fahrenheit 9/11 Review

Fahrenheit 9/11, one of the most successful documentaries of all time, is a film that criticizes the Bush Administration with everything they do, but with good reason. Moore makes a great case of why he thinks that Bush is a failed president, and that his actions are dangerous and harmful. Moore shows that the U.S. Government uses tactics to keep their citizens afraid, like raising and lowering the threat levels, telling people they may be targeted using poisoned pens or RC planes.

Bush is characterized throughout the film as someone who wants to please his elite friends and the Saudis, who have given him billions of dollars. Bush also comes off as an unauthentic, inarticulate, simpleton who goes on vacation too much. He also paints him as a person who wants to be like his dad, and someone who associates with the wrong people.

One of the saddest points in the film comes from Lila Lipscomb, a woman who works at a Christian unemployment office in Michael Moore’s hometown of Flint, Michigan. She is introduced early in the film as someone who’s patriotic, and who teaches her kids that joining the military is a good option, as she cannot pay for them to go to college. Later in the film, Moore sees her after her son has been killed in Iraq. She reads her son’s last letter begins to question his and Bush’s involvement in the war. She goes to the Washington, not only for closure but to also show her anger. The saddest part comes when she is crying steps from the White House lawn as she explains the White House is now a place for her to put her anger and sadness, and she puts it towards the government she used to love.

Overall, I’d say this is a great film, one of my favorite documentaries of all time, and my favorite by Moore. I learned many things from this film, the thing that hit me the hardest was when Moore was taking about fear-mongering tactics used by the media and the government.

Bowling for Columbine Review by Lillo

In the movie Bowling for Columbine, Micheal Moore tries to figure out why America’s culture is more violent than many other places including countries Canada, Australia, and Japan. Moore shows this perspective he has of why America is more violent, by accusing the media or news of scaring the American people over small threats including the “Killer Bees” epidemic.

I think this is a great movie because Moore gets his point across that in other places other than America, people are more friendly and less scared of their surrounding environment. In an example from the movie, when Moore travels to Canada, he interviews many Canadians and asks them various questions. One common question he asks all of them is if they lock their door at night. Every single person who answered this question said “no.” When Moore asked the people the reason for this they responded simply because, “we’re not afraid of our neighbors.”

Moore does some field work while in Canada, and tries to open several random house doors. Every door he tries to open is unlocked. One of the doors he opens has a house owner behind it. To Moore’s surprise the owner of the house is not alarmed at Moore opening the door but more friendly than expected, willing to have a conversation with a total stranger.

In the movie some statistics are shown about the number of people killed by guns in different countries.

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)

You can see that the U.S’s death rate from guns exceeds all other countries mentioned by almost 10,000. This shows that the U.S is a more dangerous place than all these other countries, but some countries statistics aren’t shown. Many places are more dangerous than the U.S including Africa, Brazil and Colombia.

Firearm related death rate
1. South Africa - 74.57
2. Colombia - 51.77
3. Brazil - 14.15

United States death rate by firearms is 10.2, as you can see these three countries have a higher death rate by firearms than the U.S. Africa’s death rate is just about 7 times the U.S. This is only 3 of the countries that have higher death rates, there are more places in the world that have higher death rates. To sum it up, Moore does a great job in the way he produces and directs this movie to show the people of all the ways celebrities or politics are totally ignorant towards the common person and only care about themselves and their money. Moore shows this with his interview with Charleston Heston when he asks Heston why he held a rally for the NRA after the Columbine shooting and Heston has no other answer then to walk away from the interview and lock himself in his house.

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.

Bowling For Columbine Review by Leo

The documentary called Bowling for Columbine was created by Micheal Moore. This documentary was not really about one specific thing, instead it was generally about guns in America. This being why I don’t agree with the title given to the movie “Bowling For Columbine.” During the movie it only briefly speaks about the incident that occurred in Columbine. The entire movie is basically about how guns are “bad.” Also I believe that in some parts of the video, Moore stated false statements, or he simply didn’t mention important facts to try to prove his point.

An example of this happening during the movie was when Moore was talking about how “violent” America is. What Moore left out while he talked about this is the many other countries in the world that are much more violent then the U.S. He only mentioned extremely peaceful countries such as Canada. Countries in the Middle East such as Israel, Iraq etc, are much more violent then the U.S.

Despite it’s occasional propaganda, the whole movie wasn't like this. One part of the movie I enjoyed was when Moore and two of the boys who were shot during the shooting of Columbine (one being in a wheel chair) went to Walmart and were able to take action to terminate the selling of 9mm bullets. This was a very respectful act by Walmart, this demonstrated that they really do care about the safety of the people and not just the income of money to the store. I believe that there’s also another big reason why the sales of 9mm bullets are were discontinued. The reason is that when Moore went to Walmart , he brought the power of media with him, and a lot of it. The power of media is that they can and quiet possible did pressure Walmart into stop selling the bullets so that they don’t like the bad guys.

I think that another alternative that could of been used to solve the problem of guns is that instead of completely shutting down the sales of 9mm bullets, they could have made it so you could only buy a certain amount or you have to be a certain age.

Although I don't agree with everything said in the movie, the structure of the video was good. This is because I feel like as the movie went on and you weren't too sure of what was going to happen. For example, there a could be a little cartoon made that looked like it was created by the creators of South Park, which would then lead to some other “liberal act” to demonstrate that guns are wrong, and even though I may not agree with all of them, his acts were interesting.

Another interesting display of action from Michael Moore during the movie was when he went to the aging actor Charleston Heston’s house to interview him. This part of the movie was particularly interesting for numerous reasons. This including that Heston was generous enough to allow Moore to come in his own home and interview him. Also, Moore accused Heston of purposely holding NRA rallies in the cities of Columbine and Flint, Michigan shortly after tragedies. These tragedies both being a result of murders by fire arms. I personally don’t believe this is true. After watching the interview and other reviews on the interview online, I’m not completely convinced that Heston held the rally purposely after the murders happened. I think there was adequate distance of time, but Moore accuses him of it being otherwise.

Bowling for Columbine, although it does not quiet fit it’s name, is in all a very well thought out and interesting documentary by Michael Moore. I enjoyed watching this video even though I don’t 100 % agree with everything Moore does and says through out the movie. In conclusion, I’m impressed with the documentary and am excited to watch any other’s out there by Michael Moore.

Movie Reviews

In your GOOGLE DOC you will write a movie review of Bowling for Columbine. After writing it, you'll then post it along with pictures.

Here is a great description of how to write a review based on http://www.spiritofbaraka.com/how-write-a-movie-review

1. Watch the movie

The first step in writing the review is to watch the movie.  Watch the movie in a relaxed environment you are familiar with.  You do not want to be distracted by an unfamiliar room.  Watching the movie a second time will help you absorb a lot more detail about the movie.  Most movie reviewers take notes as they watch the movie review.

2. Start an outline

Brainstorm about the film, what were scenes, stories, or concepts that were notable or memorable. 

3. Begin writing your review. Now that you have a good outline and have all your important information, it's time to begin the actual writing process. It's a good idea to type this, as that is most likely the format you'll need when turning in the review. Keep your writing clear and easy to understand. Keep in mind that the person who reads this might not have seen the movie, so if you expect them to know who a certain character is and they don't, they likely will not appreciate your review. It's good to be very explanatory when writing a review, and careful to keep things simple

4. Give your opinion

Most movie reviewers will give their opinion of the movie.  This is important as the reviewer can express the elements of the movie they enjoyed or disliked.  However, as in all good journalism, the reviewer should also give impartial details, and allow the reader to make their own mind over an issue the reader liked or disliked.  Opinions should be explained to allow the reader to determine whether they would agree with your opinion .

5.  Structure

Did the movie follow a regular predictable story line, or did it get you thinking in a non-traditional format.

6. Cinematography and lighting

Give details about how well the movie was shot and directed.  Was the lighting good in the moody scenes?

7. End the review with something memorable. You want the last sentence to give your reader a good idea of your general viewpoint about the movie. This is a good place to explain whether in general you liked the movie, or not. (For example: " 'The movie' was intriguing and exciting, despite a few less than stellar actors.")

8. Read through your review. Make sure your writing is clear, complete, interesting, and is written in a general viewpoint. Make sure that there are no factual errors, and check for any spelling or grammar mistakes. These may seem minor and unimportant, but they actually are very important to your reader, as they may not trust your review if they see you've misspelled a lot of words, or contradict yourself.

 Popular movie review websites:

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/

http://www.nytimes.com/pages/movies/index.html

Digital Worlds: Frontline

Based on the documentary we watch in class this Friday by Frontline Digital Worlds,
we will begin to discuss attention, multi-tasking, and addiction. We will take polls and quizzes found here to understand more about our interaction with technology. However in the meantime, please answer these questions to the best of your ability.

Americans spend more than 32 hours a week watching television and another five hours (or more) in front of a computer screen. Based on the video we watched, how do you think life in front of a screen affects human development, including the ability to focus our attention?

How do you think people shouid keep their Internet use in sensible balance with other important life activities?

See you on Tuesday! Have a great weekend. Enjoy the weather for it doesn't get better than this.