Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14625 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-05-12
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 120 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
An Oscar-winning documentary based around a 1999 massacre at an American High School in Colorado, Bowling for Columbine is filmmaker Michael Moore's take on the culture of firearms violence that is, apparently, peculiar to the USA. Significantly, this is no detective investigation into the psychology and motives of the two students who randomly opened fire on their classmates, killing 12 of them--Moore regards such particulars as practically irrelevant--rather, it's an attempt to counter the moral panic and right-wing diagnoses that followed the massacre, with the likes of rock star Marilyn Manson blamed by some.

Using a mixture of roving interviews, statistics, historical documentary footage, cartoon animation and the set-ups familiar to fans of his TV Nation series, Moore teases out appalling truths about gun proliferation in America. He's able to obtain a rifle by opening a bank account and shows that the bullets used in the Columbine massacre were still available at KMart--until he confronts their management with victims of the shootings. But it's not just gun proliferation that's the problem. Canada, Moore discovers, is similarly rife with firearms yet has a far lower murder rate. The problem with the US, Moore believes, is an irrational climate of fear that has driven the country to reactionary extremes since the days of the pioneers, persuading citizens that they need to be armed to the teeth.

In a film short on lowlights, the highlight is Moore's confrontation with NRA President Charlton Heston. Moore's deceptively genial, shambling, regular American dude appearance (as well as his NRA membership) wins Heston's confidence and Moore teases from the actor an inadvertently racist slip of the tongue, before turning up the heat, at which point Heston terminates the interview. In this moment, the sort of anger Moore demonstrated at the 2003 Academy Awards ceremony surfaces briefly as he brandishes a picture of a gunshot victim to the retreating Heston. Funny, shrewd, righteous, hard to deny, Bowling for Columbine is uncomfortable and irresistible filmmaking. --David Stubbs

Special Features
English
Region 2

Synopsis
Filmmaker and leftist activist Michael Moore asks some serious questions as he probes the depths of America's trigger-happy gun culture in the insightful and amusing documentary, BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE. Guns in America are used to kill an average of more than 11,000 people per year. This death toll is obscenely out of balance with other first world countries, which generally average a total in double digits. Experts and analysts have pointed to America's bloody history as a reason, but how does that explain the lower murder rate in Germany

Customer Reviews

A Movie That Will Have You Up In Arms
Posing the question 'are we a nation of gun nuts or just plain nuts?', Bowling for Columbine takes a polemic pot-shot at American gun culture and the media that supports – and perpetuates – it.

Revered by the little people, feared by the corporates and getting right up Charlton Heston's gun barrel, America's favourite whistle blower Michael Moore has armed himself with his own secret weapon – humour - to create this engaging, entertaining and thought-provoking documentary. Starting point is the harrowing 1999 Columbine High School massacre – in which 13 students were murdered. Before the two fellow students responsible carried out their killing spree, they had gone bowling...

The opening scenes sees Moore, sporting his trademark baseball cap, casually open an account in a US bank which offers 'more bang for your buck!' (those who open an account there receive a free rifle in return). Moore's first question on obtaining his new firearm: 'Um... do you think it's a little dangerous handing out guns in a bank?'.

The documentary goes on to explore America's trigger-happy society – a country in which around 11,000 people die annually as a result of gun violence – throwing up some chilling stories along the way: the murder of a six-year-old girl by a six-year-old boy; Columbine High School survivors still embedded with bullets bought over the counter at K-Mart; and the town of Virgin, Utah, that has passed a law requiring all residents to own guns...

Moore also aims his camera at Charlton Heston in the Oscar-winning actor's high-profile role as president of the NRA (National Rifle Association). 'Chuck' and his fellow fervent pro-gun lobbyists have developed a habit of organising their rallies on the spot of school shootings before victims have barely been mourned.

Born, rather ironically, in Flint, Michigan, Moore share's the same birthday – 23 April, 1954 – with political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal, whose release is another cause close to his leftist heart. Author of bestseller Stupid White Men and creator of satirical television series, the Emmy-winning TV Nation and The Awful Truth, Moore made his major breakthrough in 1989 with the documentary Roger & Me. Made from funds raised by organising neighbourhood bingo games in his house, the film follows the anti-corporate crusader in his fruitless attempts to invite the chairman of General Motors, Roger Smith, out for a few beers. And, in his film The Big One (1997), Moore succeeds in securing a face-to-face interview with Nike CEO Phil Knight, famously challenging him on his company's shoes being produced by children in factories in Indonesia. Just a matter of months after the film's release, Nike raised the minimum age of workers in factories to 18. Bowling for Columbine also secures a similar coup during its making.

Unanimous winner of the Special Jury Prize at 2002’s Cannes Film Festival (the first time in 46 years a documentary has been accepted into competition at the festival), it’s world première on 17 May, 2002 was followed by a 13-minute standing ovation. And earlier this year, with Heston in the audience, Moore controversially picked up the Oscar for Best Documentary at the Academy Awards. Essential viewing.

You absolutely, positively must see this
Having seen this at the cinema, twice, I can understand why this documentary won it's award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2002.

The focus is primarily about gun ownership, and some history of gun laws, in the USA. Columbine High School is used as one of the illustrative examples of how and why the current legislation is not a good thing.
Some coverage is provided about the culture surrounding gun ownership, and the culture of fear that seems prevelant in american media over recent years. As a regular viewer of american news services (thank-you digital tv :-), I can attest to the accuracy of this coverage in comparison to that provided in europe. Michael Moore provides his own comparison - to media coverage of events in Canada. Also, some interesting insights from Marilyn Manson (who rose considerably in my estimation), which seem especially relevant as we sit on the cusp of Gulf War 2.
Something which was clear to me from Moore's attempts to speak to someone senior in K-Mart, was that without making a fuss, and turning up without an attending media circus, no-one seemed particularly interested in listening to him and the students he was with. It seemed that only when revenue was potentially affected by bad press, was anyone prepared to take any form of action at all.

The closing interview with Charlton Heston, and indeed some of his actions as president of the NRA, leaves one wondering how people of this ilk can sleep at night. Perhaps it's the loaded weapon under the pillow that does it for them, which I find as disturbing as some of the other images presented liberally throughout the documentary.

I speculate that there are those in the USA who will not take well to this. However, I felt that the documentary was well thought through, and presented a good case for attempting to remove guns from the population at large. It may also help a few people consider how a large number of people in europe view the USA.
There's a lot more I could say about this, but you really are better seeing this for yourself. There's plenty in there to make you laugh, but there's even more that you'll watch from behind your hands in disbelief. You can be laughing one minute, and very misty eyed the next. You absolutely, positively must see this.

The greatest documentary ever
To say this is a powerful piece of filmmaking is to say that Star Wars was quite a successful film chain. This is a real life documentary from Micheal Moore (a member of the NRA himself) about America and their fixation with guns and how they are so deeply embedded in their culture that is has adversely affected their lives. Moore clearly depicts the fear that Americans live in, how their opinions are so visibly altered by television through broadcasters obsession with exciting television; which itself leads to dangerous propaganda and even racism. Whilst this is a harsh look at life within America it is filled with superbly ironic humour. You will laugh out loud, and I guarantee you will think 'only in America' at least once. However this ironic laughter only increases the effectiveness of the message. Whilst it may be somewhat one sided, it explains all its opinions and not one did I disagree with. Also you are unlikely to ever view Charlton Heston (the head of the NRA) in a positive light again. Simply an absolutely amazing film and the best documentary I have ever seen.