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I don't know that I've ever called something provocative before, but I will now, because that's exactly what the new film by social activist Michael Moore truly is. Bowling for Columbine's mission statement, if you will, is to provoke you into, at bare minimum, thinking about the issue it represents... that issue: guns in America.
Bowling gives critique and insight into the history of gun fanatacism and gun violence in the United States, sparked by and culminating with the Littleton, Colorado massacre and the death of a 6year old girl in a school near Flint, Michigan (Moore's home town) at the end of a pistol held by another 6year old.
What Moore does is entertain, elighten, shock, and control the audience with his material. What he begins with is a lighthearted poke at the lax gun attitude in the US by entering a bank giving free guns with new accounts ("do you think it's a good idea handing guns out in a bank?") and a look at the gun nut. It's a smart move getting the "crazies" out of the way at the very beginning, because the crazies aren't the ones that make the guns, they don't make them available, and they don't control the policies that restrict them... the crazies just use them. Moore uses these people (the Michigan Militia, James Nichols (brother of Terry Nichols, convicted Oklahoma City bomber)) to prove a point... these people shouldn't be allowed to have guns.
True to Moore's nature, he uses the humour as a lure, as his often sardonic attitude, coupled with his ability to ask the difficult, and yet obvious questions, create some of the funniest moments on screen this year. And yet, after the first third of the film, he all but abandons the silly, off the wall humour, metering any goofiness with some gut-wrenchingly sober montages of gun violence, often juxtaposed with an irreverent accompanying song. The humour that follows, after each of the three montages (one, following the American history of violence perpetuated in other countries, and how it often reflects back upon them, peaks with the video footage of the second plane hitting the World Trade Centre) there's more weight to what's being said. The humour is still funny, but in a completely different context. We're not laughing at the silly people, we're laughing out of shame, out of anger, out of any other respose appropriate. What can we do but laugh?
Moore doesn't just focus on America, however, but uses the rest of the "civilized" world as context, to compare and contrast. How many gun deaths in Germany each year? 341. How many in Great Britain? 68. Japan? 38. Canada? 165. The United States? 11,127. But he doesn't just stop with statistics, he probes the history of these countries and their predilection towards violence, often times as bad if not worse than that of the US... and yet still undeniably they have a fraction of the gun violence that the US does. He poses the question to many as to why that is. He never gets a clear answer, even, and most importantly, from NRA chairman Charlton Heston.
A hilarious, and yet powerful and infuriating cartoon tying the history and explanation of gun creation, gun laws and gun violence to the white man's fear of pretty much everything. While this overly simplifies the issue, it also spearheads a pair of sub-commentaries in Bowling For Columbine: the vilification of the black man in the media, and a criticism of the media that thrives off of fear mongering. These are two very important elements to the development of gun violence in the US, and really, are what contribute the inexplicable rise in gun purchases when violence has been going down every year for the past (at least) 8 years.
In the ultimate compare and contrast, Moore comes up to sweet, innocent old Canada, the neighbour to the North. He wonders why with 10% of the US population we have barely 1% of the gun violence. Is it that we don't have guns? No, there are approximately 7million guns for 10million households in Canada. Is it that we don't watch violence on tv and film? Nope, we love that stuff as much as the rest of the world. Is it that we don't buy Marilyn Manson records? I think he went gold here.
So then, what's the difference?
What he boiled it down to was climate... not of temperature, but of fear. He cleverly displayed what Canadian news is like compared to US news (juxtapose "New Speed Bumps" to "black man suspected in brutal homicide") and the fact that locking our doors, even in Toronto, isn't really always necessary.
What is the Canadian attitude is as opposed to America's? Are we, as Canadians, really less self involved. Looking at the US constitution it's all about the individual and what they can have. Is that what the States are all about? The individual unit. You get what you can get, and you better hold onto it, because if someone takes it away there's noone around to help you out. Is it all about personal property and personal survival? In Canada does our "social safety net", our health care and UI etc. give more of a sense of community and being a part of a greater structure?
One of the strongest cases Moore presents is the border town of Windsor, Ontario, peering across the Detroit river from... Detroit. In the past three years there were hundreds of incidences of gun violence in Detroit. Over the pond in Windsor? 1.... caused by a man from Detroit.
In the end Moore doesn't just talk the talk of someone concerned about all the guns that surround him, and he doesn't stop at just enlightening other or asking tough questions... he acts.
Two of the surviving victims of the Columbine shooting accompanied Moore to K-Mart (the store where the two Columbine murderers bought their ammunition)headquarters in order to "return for a refund" the "K-Mart bullets" (as Moore effectively and perpetually emphasized) that were still lodged inside them.
As a result of their message, request and actions, K-Mart pulled from their stores the sales of all firearms and firearm ammunition (and on Moore's website right now, there's a petition to get Wal-Mart to do the same).
Bowling for Columbine is a rich and information intensive, there's a lot to ingest, but it's presented in a style that doesn't suggest pedantry, it really engages the viewer, provokes the viewer into thinking. To a Canadian audience, it's preaching to the converted, I'm really interested to see how it fares in the USA.
This could be the single most important film in American cinema this year, this decade, this era even...