Hey folks, Harry here... Hopefully I'll get my review up later today before I leave for Sitges, Spain (for two weeks) and I have tons to say about this very important film by Michael Moore. On October 11th there are a TON of movies coming out. You definitely shouldn't miss BELOW, RULES OF ATTRACTION, PUNCHDRUNK LOVE and THE TRANSPORTER... However, if there is a film that you should take as a solemn duty to bring EXTRA people to, it is this one. It is entertaining, poignant, sobering, hilarious, scary and just plain damn good. Here's a look at it from Vancouver, oh... and this is where you can get the trailer!!!
I caught Bowling For Columbine last night. And since I've yet to see a fairhanded, or slightly less then glowing review of this movie, I felt inclined to write one.
BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE: Good Movie, Shady Activism
First of all, I'm not a big fan of Micheal Moore. Like most people, when I was first exposed to his work, I was energized. "Now this is a guy rocks! He's tearing up the place! Finally, a left-wing activist with some media savvy!" Few filmmakers create work that truly rile people up. Seldom do you hear people clap during a flick because they AGREE so adamantly. Micheal Moore movies do this. It's remarkable.
I saw Micheal Moore speak at The Vogue Theatre in Vancouver when he last rolled into town. A line of two thousand people stretched around the city block. Waiting for hours. Just to hear this guy speak. It was like a rock concert. People where chanting, "Micheal! Micheal!" as they waited for him to arrive. When he showed up an hour and a half late, he received a standing ovation.
As he stood upon stage, speaking about the issues that currently occupied his mind -- mostly WTC, the US Government -- as the audience hung on his every word, I had a strange realization.
This is his ACT. His rountine. His sermon. His schtick.
He's preaching up there.
This is not to say I disagreed with anything he said. It simply made be much more conscientious of how he said it. His rhythm; cadence. The heavy-handedness. The simplification of complex issues. He's manipulating you. He's working you.
If there was ever an anti-thesis to George Bush, Micheal Moore is it. But he's as much a politician as his enemies, whether he'd like to admit it or not.
All that being said -- GO SEE THIS MOVIE. See it, if for no other reason than because it has an opinion. Rarely do North American movies have opinions these days. Do you really need to see another movie about guys shooting other guys while having sex with the chick-of-the-day, who may or may not also being shooting people? Go see this movie. And bring your sad-sack, apathetic, Abercromie-and-Fitch peripheral friends with you. Maybe they'll actually come out believing in something -- Another rarity in North America.
This movie, regardless of what is written below, is still worth seeing.
Micheal Moore does not make good documentarys. He doesn't have the objectivity for it. Frankly, I feel his films would be much more effective if he didn't make himself a character in them. You'd lose a lot of the humor (his antics are pretty hilarious) but he would end up with much more subtle, restrained, authentic content. In 'Bowling', there is a montage of the Columbine high school, set to music, which I found rather poignant. THAT'S the Micheal Moore I want to see more of -- Illustrating a idea without hitting me over the head with it; or humiliating some poor unsuspecting sap.
Compare Moore's "documentary" to a documentary such as Crumb. There isn't a moment in Crumb that feels staged, or false (if anything was staged, I didn't notice). In Bowling For Columbine, you know Moore is on a mission. He has a vendetta, and is playing with a stacked deck.
Rest assured, he plays it well. I have no doubt that the majority of people will walk out of 'Bowling' singing its praises, and admanantly supporting it.† If you come out of this movie believing there's nothing wrong in America, than shame on you -- Go roll into a grave and die already. But if you come out of this movie NOT brainwashed, but with a better appreciation of the issue, then BRAVO! You're not a Palovian dog.
Moore builds a convincing argument -- That American violence is not† predestined by† a "History of Violence", rather, it is a result of a culture which thrives on fear. And what surprised, and impressed me, is how he illlustrated this concept through a variety of perspectives, from something as specific as Columbine to the proliferation of violence on the Evening News. Actually, the Columbine shootings are only a fraction of the ground this film covers. Moore takes his concept and abstracts it well. And the climax of the movie, The Moral Victory, put a smile on my face. Micheal Moore deserves to be lauded for it.
What gets in the way of Micheal Moore is the man himself. He has a habit of making unfair generalizations to either support his cause or counter his enemies (for instance, I live in Canada -- It's nice, but not THAT nice).† But I suppose my main reservation about Moore is the manner in which he manipulates situations and people to his advantage. I don't feel I'm ruining anything by saying he pays a visit to Charlton Heston, president of the NRA. and Former Moses. Moore practically ambushes him. Humiliates him. And it's fairly obvious this is Moore's†intention all along.
Now ,a great deal of Moore's fans love this about him. People love watching him pull the rug out from under Whitey McWhitey. But nowadays, witnessing these total, SPECTACULAR humiliations of prominent White men make me ask the following questions:
How interesting would the encounter have been if Heston was actually prepared for an argument?
How powerful would it have been if Moore met him with the sincere intention of changing his mind, and not simply scoring another empty victory over "Stupid White Male Oppressors"?
In the end, it's stunts like these that seem superfluous. Sure, they're funny, but in the grand scheme of things, they're detrimental to the social causes Moore fights for, and detracts from an otherwise powerful film. Revolution is less likely to happen if you continually make a mockery of your opposition. Humiliation may scare your enemies away from making the same mistake, but not from making horrifying, brand-spanking new ones.
But again, go see it. It won't make you any stupider. That doesn't sound like a stirring endorsement, but no! really, it is.
-- by Defacer (not a Heston fan, nor a member of the ungodly NRA)
