Bowling for Columbine Essay and Review

1. The 10 scenes that I remember were: Dick Clark, interview with Charleston Heston, Tofu farmer, boy who pulled out 20 guns from his jeans, boy who murdered girl who was 6 years old, Chris Rock, Kmart, Columbine, Brief history of the US, and Marylyn Manson.

2. The interview with Charleston Heston seems to stick out as an important part of the documentary because he is the president of the NRA(National Rifle Association). It started out when Moore went to buy a star map in Beverly Hills. He then found the giant mansion of Charleston Heston and called the old star himself. He inquired that he, Moore, is a member of the NRA, and wanted to ask a few questions to the president of the NRA. Heston told Moore that he was free at about 8:00 AM the next day. So the very next day, Moore ventured to Heston’s house. They met at first in a friendly manner, but as the interview grew on, Heston grew more and more hesitant with each new question. His first and only question he tried to answer was why he thought that America had more death by guns than any other country in the world. His first answer was that we had a more violent history than other countries. The only wrong part of his answer was that the Germans had a much more violent history than the United States, as stated by Moore. Then Heston went on to change his answer to this question by saying that we have more gun related murders than any other country because of all of the different ethnicities that we have in the US. Realizing of the racist remark that he had just said, Heston started to feel uneasy. Then Moore asked Heston if he had heard anything about the 6-year-old boy who killed a 6-year-old girl at school because of his uncles gun. Heston said he had heard absolutely nothing about this. Then, Moore asked Heston if he had heard about the tragedy of Columbine high school. Amazingly enough, this was not news to Heston. The reason as to why Moore asked about these gun murders was because not more than a month had passed when Heston had come to each city of the shootings and given a rally, or a speech at NRA meetings. Heston became so uncomfortable that he just left and walked away from the questions. The symbolic thing that Moore did just before he left the Heston mansion, was that he placed a picture of the girl who died because of a gun on the ground, then he left.

3. I believe that Moore’s message is that the United States should stop living in constant fear and actually realize what is happening in the real world.

4. When I left the movie theater on Tuesday, I did not fell like the movie tried to influence me to believe in a certain way, if anything its main message was to make the viewer try to decide what s/he thinks of guns. The movie addressed many possible reasons as to why the United States has so much more gun related murders than any other country. Video games, television, Marylyn Manson and rock, and bloodshed in history, are all examples of popular reasons that people believe that guns murders are so common in America. Bowling for Columbine proved all of these reasons wrong. Video games are much more popular in Japan, and also more violent. Television is just as violent in America as in every other country. Rock music is just as common in Europe as in America. Past bloodshed in history is even worse in Germany because of WW2. Bowling for Columbine leaves the viewer to think of a reason why gun violence is so common in this country. The message that I see the movie giving is to stop gun violence by stopping to live in constant fear. Overall, I liked the movie a lot.

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