Bowling for Columbine One of the most important goals director Michael Moore set for himself was to deliver a plethora of insightful and through interviews. Throughout all these interviews, a common theme that Moore sought to address was regarding gun control. More specifically, he sought to inform his viewers of the different sides and perspectives people take about guns, and how they are handled. Naturally, when Michael Moore interviewed citizens from Michigan about such a tense subject, the answers he received were varied.
The first interview was at a local bank, i thought it was a good interview except at the end. Moore’s first stop was the local bank, where he learned he could receive a firearm just by opening up an account. One of the several heavy-handed question Moore raised concerned gun distribution at banks across the country, outright questioning the dangers such a process could bring. Michael Moore’s point was that he believed that it shouldn’t be that easy to get a gun in America. Moore’s passing statement, that “more control is necessary when handling such distribution”, is made abundantly clear..
With that said, there’s a lot of room to disagree with Michael Moore’s statement about gun distribution in exchange for the opening of a checking account. In that case a bank could better protect themselves with that many weapons. The Michigan Militia was also an insightful interview, with a lot to take away from. When interviewed, the Militia individuals said that they wanted to protect their people within the state, which is why they train and shoot for hours at a time. What really struck home in the
Militia interview and made it such a success was its down to earth and grounded, as it showed a very human side to the group of people, as opposed to a collective. The intention of a Militia is to defend its people, and not put them in harm’s way, and with this mission statement in mind, it makes perfect sense for them to be carrying firearms. Michael Moore interviewed male adults that knew the killers of Columbine in Michigan. Some of the people remembered the killers, while others did not.
It was an average interview because the killers moved out to Colorado at a certain age which meant that they changed as people because they got older in age. Michael Moore was interviewing people that knew them years ago, that does not hold a lot of water when trying to figure out why they wanted to kill others and their belief system. Michael Moore interviewed Marilyn Manson and i thought it was a great interview because Marilyn Manson said that people believe that he is one cause of bad childhood behavior and decision making skills for the youth.
Marilyn’s music, the way he dresses, and acts makes children and young adults break the law and make bad decisions. I completely disagree with Marilyn Manson making people bad or influencing them by the way he lives his life. If young adults did not follow Marilyn Manson’s music they would just follow someone else similiar like him. Marilyn is not the problem, the problem is young adults and children making bad decisions with weapons that affect the general public.
The interview that Michael Moore did with students that went to Columbine high school at the time of the shooting done by Eric and Dylan was a great interview thanks to its admirable amount of substantial content. When students at the high school tell you that those two young men were “weird” and they did not interact with others, it adds a crucial aspect of the entire shooting that often goes unconsidered by raising the possibility of developmental or mental issues.
These students recall haring bowling classes with the killers, and reiterated that their behavior was unusual at best; weird, even, and that it was quite different from the other students they interacted with. Having the ability and privilege of interviewing students that the Columbine Massacre directly affected in influenced makes analyzing the entire process much more feasible, and offers insight that otherwise would be unobtainable. Michael Moore conducted an interview with the one of the producers of the hit TV series, “Cops”.
I thought it was a great interview because Michael Moore asked the gentlemen a question that is so true about americans. Michael said why is it that most people arrested on cops are either black or hispanic. It’s because that’s what americans want to see on tv. If there was more white people on cops then less people would watch the show. After this interview Michael did interviews with Canadian citizens to get a understanding of why they are not afraid of others and why they do not lock their doors when they are at home or when not.
I thought that the interviews were ok really. These interviews could have been better. Not enough information from the citizens of Canada was said for me to get a true understanding on why they leave their doors unlocked and why they are not afraid of others. Michael did an interview with a elementary teacher in Flint Michigan about a student of hers that got shot by another student. Both students were only the age of six years old. I think the interview was bad in my opinion.
Michael is blaming guns for killing people and is saying if there was not a gun involved then the six year old girl would be alive. That is a true statement, but over all guns don’t kill people, people kill people. I thought the taping of Charlton Heston when he visited Flint Michigan to talk to a crowd of people about gun control was great. Charlton Heston is right about everything he said. Guns don’t kill people, people kill people. I liked how Charlton still showed up even after the mayor asked him not to.
Charlton showed the letter to the crowd and said “well i still came here anyway”. Charlton is for guns and will always be. Michael Moore continued throughout the whole movie to talk about areas in the world that have so much gun violence. I thought to myself how about all the places that have almost no gun violence. I believe it has something to do with where you live in the United States and not guns at all really. Michael Moore believes guns are the problem and I do not believe that for a minute.
The Cartoon in the movie, while light-hearted, sacrificed a fair amount of sophistication in order to lighten the mood; grossly simplifying hundreds of years of conflict in order to attempt to convey a message. To be more specific, the cartoon tried to prove how violence and murder has always existed The cartoon emphasized the history of bloodshed and conflict littered throughout somewhat recent historical events, dating as far back as the voyage to the New World set by the pilgrims, and bringing it full circle to the current day.
While instances of conflict are focused throughout the clip, a recurring trend among all of them deals with a sense of fear from one party towards another; as several noteworthy historical events either stem from or have to do with fear. Portraying the white population as compulsive and paranoid, it demonstrates a brutal act of violence when a paperboy is gunned down for simply doing his job and delivering the paper to an unaware customer.
When all’s said and done, it’s difficult to argue with history, regardless of the quality in which it’s presented, and the historical scenarios Moore presents were very much real. However, it’s the method in which these facts are presented which is easy to disagree with, and as stated previously, sacrifices a lot in order to look more appealing. Simply put, detailing heinous periods in American culture such as the witch hunts and Civil War in such an upbeat and almost belittling tone teeters on the line of poor taste.
While other forms of satire have taken a similar approach, namely the South Park franchise, they did so in a way that proves a point while also acknowledges and even respects the problem at hand. The countless numbers of slaves that lost their lives both at the hands of their masters and war is not something to joke about, and It’s difficult to claim that the white population wasn’t motivated by fear and intolerance in the past, made especially clear by the ventures of the Ku Klux Klan, as mentioned in the cartoon.
With that in mind, over a century has passed, and maintaining these motivations in a radically different world, for lack of a better term, seems short-sighted, and a very weak argument in Moore’s favor. The United States today and the United States of the 1900s are vastly different countries, and holding them to the same precedents is foolish at best, and ignorant at worst. Without a doubt, th Overall the movie had some good points about how guns are so easy to get in the U.
S, but Michael Moore overall believes that guns are the problem when in all they are not and the people of the United States are the problem. Mental health is the main problem, not guns. If the U. S took away guns people would just find another way to kill someone else. The Columbine high school interviews were the best in telling a true and sad story about guns and gun control in America at that time.
