Review of Bowling for Columbine (2002) by Chris Q — 12 Apr 2010

Of the four main Michael Moore movies released in the decade from 2000 to 2009 - Bowling for Columbine, Fahrenheit 9/11, Sicko and Capitalism: A Love Story - Bowling is arguably the most apolitical, the most investigative, and the most open-ended. Moore sets out to find the reason as to why we Americans are so violent, and he does not produce any clear, conclusive answers - all of his suggestions have some kind of flaw in them, and he leaves it to us to decide. It's surprising to see, in light of his later films, how he really has no agenda here - contrary to what some might think, he does not endorse more restrictive gun laws, and points out that Canada has a high gun ownership rate but nowhere near our homicide rate. Along the way he makes some good points and has some funny, interesting and insightful interviews with people like Marilyn Manson and Charlton Heston.

For me the main downside is that I didn't find the subject matter that interesting, as it's more sociological than political, especially in contrast to his later films. Also, another major flaw is Moore's tendency to go off on tangents on seemingly unrelated issues, like foreign wars, welfare and poverty, that are important to him; he then laboriously and unconvincingly tries to connect those issues to gun violence.