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BOWLING
FOR COLUMBINE
7/10
Canada (Canada/USA) 2002 : Michael Moore : 120-123 mins
Entertainingly
provocative documentary about an especially shocking symptom of the USA’s
current ills – the nation’s terrible record of gun-related deaths. While
seldom subtle, Bowling For Columbine is undeniably effective: fast-moving,
despite a two-hour-plus running-time, freewheeling and surprisingly wide-ranging,
the film’s starting point is the massacre at Columbine High School in
Littleton, Colorado, on 20th April, 1999. Moore examines the
possible causes for the tragedy – from violent films and nu-metal music
(Moore interviews scapegoat Marilyn Manson, who proves a surprisingly
articulate and sympathetic folk-devil) to ten-pin bowling: the title refers
to the killers’ attendance at a practice session for the sport on the
morning of their homicidal frenzy.
As
he travels across America (with a detour to the relatively peaceable Canada)
the writer-director is front-and-centre of pretty much every segment –
it’s probably no coincidence that Moore and Nick Broomfield, the two most
prominent cinema documentarists, eschew the sober, orthodox approach of,
say, a D A Pennebaker or a Frederick Wiseman, and instead insist on inserting
themselves forcibly into their subject matter. The documentarist, essentially,
becomes the story.
Moore’s
brash, confrontational style won’t be to every taste – but Bowling
For Columbine ultimately avoids the trap of coming over as an elaborate
ego-trip for its crusading protagonist. Moore soon establishes himself
as informed and well-intentioned, and, crucially, in possession of a sharp
sense of humour. There are many highlights along the way, but Moore’s
climactic confrontation with National Rifle Association spokesman Charlton
Heston is the most powerful of the lot – whatever audience sympathy one
might have for the aged, visibly frail Heston as he comes under sustained
badgering from Moore dissipates instantly as the legendary actor blames
the US’s gun horrors on the country’s “mixed ethnicity.”
The
Heston scene is remarkably effective – even if Moore insists on taking
things at least one step too far by then including shots of him leaving
a photograph of a murdered schoolgirl outside Heston’s front door, then
plodding mournfully out of shot. No ‘proper’ documentarist would include
such material – but Moore revels in his ordinary-Joe persona. And, given
the tabloidisation of America’s media – a major factor, according to Moore,
behind the gun problems – perhaps this blunderbuss approach is exactly
what’s called for, even if it is often counterproductive – we could probably
do without the mournfully tinkling piano that occasionally infests the
soundtrack, let alone the thuddingly ironic use of Louis Armstrong’s ‘Wonderful
World’ at the end.
As with Broomfield, there’s a distinct air of preaching to the converted about
Bowling For Columbine: it’s hard to see pro-gun audiences flocking
to hand over their dollars to receive Moore’s hectoring in a cinema. But
the bold marketing approach employed on the film (the first documentary
in decades to be selected for the Official Competition at Cannes, where
it won a special award) means that, when it does pop up on the small screen
(home of Moore’s long-running TV Nation series), it has a fighting
chance of obtaining the wide exposure and impact it undoubtedly deserves.
20th October, 2002
(seen 3rd, Odeon Mansfield)
by Neil
Young
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