Movies
Film asks provocative questions about U.S. culture of
violence
By MELISSA JONES
After the D.C.-area sniper attacks
startled the nation, the Columbine High School massacre seems like history long
past. But the shocking murder of 12 students and a teacher by two troubled
teens on April 20, 1999, caused anguish for the parents, students, teachers and
residents of Littleton that is as real today as ever.
The Denver premiere of “Bowling for Columbine” concluded
with filmmaker Michael Moore acknowledging an extended standing ovation in the
packed theatre. He said, “During the three years making this film my wife
and I often wondered what it would be like to be here in Denver watching this
film.” He added, “I hope the parents and students of Columbine will
see this film and realize it is made by somebody who never wants to see the
likes of Columbine happen again.”
Moore had reason to worry about the acceptance of his film in the
Denver area. Parents of Columbine victims were offered an advanced screening by
Denver’s Starz International Film Festival organizers. Several refused to
see it and criticized Moore for trying to capitalize on the tragedy.
Moore is no stranger to criticism. “Roger & Me” was
his 1989 critique of corporate America; his best-selling book, Stupid White
Men, explains itself in the title. With “Columbine” -- appearing
on the heels of the Montgomery County, Md., shootings -- Moore has created a
stimulating documentary that ought to produce widespread discussion across the
United States regarding our use of guns and violence. This film is a
combination of unsettling ambush journalism, brilliant interviewing and
humor.
R-rated “Bowling for Columbine” (violent images and
language -- mostly real-life violence from news videos and journalistic
reports) uses security-camera video from Columbine High during the attack.
Defending the use of this footage, Moore said he did not intend to single out
Littleton or create “freaks.” He said the video shows just how normal
things were -- a normal community, normal high school, a normal cafeteria, and
then “normal” kids walked through with guns and bombs, wreaking
havoc. “The normalcy is the most frightening thing about it,” he
said.
The question that initially motivated Moore to make the film
remains unanswered. Why would two upper middle-class boys from apparently
normal families go bowling one morning, then go to their high school and
massacre 12 of their classmates and a teacher? This original question moved
Moore to examine broader issues of fear and violence in the United States.
The movie offers mostly questions: Why are there so many forms of
violence in our country at so many levels? Does listening to heavy metal
produce murderers? Does the sport of bowling produce murderers? What makes us
arm ourselves? Does our fear of the “other” (blacks, Hispanics,
Arabs) feed into the U.S. love of guns? Does our callous disregard of the needs
of the poor result in violent crime? Does government-sanctioned violence, such
as war, the death penalty and covert military activities lead individual
citizens to justify violence and murder?
While offering no specific answers to these questions, Moore makes
several suggestions. The movie shows comedian Chris Rock asserting that one
round of ammunition should cost $5,000. Rock’s idea that a murderous thug
would need a second job to buy a bullet is truly funny. Moore springboards from
this to suggest that cheap, easy-to-obtain ammunition feeds America’s gun
hunger. The Columbine killers bought their ammo at a nearby Kmart. Before the
screening, Moore told reporters that the Columbine killers’ rifle rounds
cost about 17 cents apiece. He said, “A pack of gum costs more than it
costs to kill a child.” Indeed, one of the film’s more moving scenes
shows two students wounded at Columbine traveling to Kmart headquarters to
successfully convince the nationwide chain to limit ammunition sales.
Moore suggests that our country should systematize better
treatment of the poor. He claims that financially comfortable Americans often
blame the poor for being poor, arming ourselves to make certain
“they” don’t take what “we” have. He said, “If
someone is poor we believe they deserve to be trashed, not embraced.”
Seeking to show the connection between poverty and gun deaths, Moore examines
the tragedy of a 6-year-old boy in Flint, Mich., who shot a classmate to death
with a gun found at his uncle’s house. The boy was unsupervised in the
house because the mother was at a low-paying job as required by Michigan’s
“welfare to work” system.
Moore suggests that we reject the country’s prevailing
culture of fear. The film shows a rollicking cartoon sequence glibly showing
how America was built on fear. It explains: The pilgrims came here because they
feared persecution. When they got here, they feared the Indians, so they killed
them. When the Indians were gone they became afraid of each other, so they
burned witches. After winning the Revolution someone wrote the Second Amendment
saying, “Let’s keep our guns because the British may come back.”
Then the Brits did come back, and everybody said, “Damn good thing
we kept those guns!”
And those guns were handy during other periods of U.S. history --
the Western expansion (more Indians!), slave rebellions, and uppity civil
rights movements in the South. This segment gains deeper meaning toward the end
of the film when Charleton Heston invokes the Constitution’s Second
Amendment and praises it as a grand creation of “those wise, dead, old
white guys.”
Moore also blames the news media for propagating fear by focusing
on the sensational and ignoring serious, chronic problems. When asked by the
media what he thought about the Beltway sniper killings, Moore responded,
“Forty people a day are killed by guns in the United States. Why
doesn’t that lead the news every day?”
Finally, Moore floats the unrealistic but interesting suggestion
that the U.S. government should give the country a “time out” and
curb our culture of violence by placing a moratorium on gun sales. He said if
parents give little Johnny a time out for hitting his sister, shouldn’t we
take a time out from buying guns until we learn not to kill each other with
them?
“Columbine” has set box office records for documentary
film attendance in New York and Los Angeles. However, whether viewers take the
film’s suggestions to heart remains to be seen. Recently, county records
were released that documented a court-ordered anger management class Columbine
shooter Eric Harris attended before the massacre. In a letter describing what
he had learned from the class Harris wrote, “I learned that the thousands
of suggestions are worthless if you still believe in violence.”
Melissa Jones is a freelance writer living in Littleton,
Colo.
National Catholic Reporter, November 08,
2002
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