Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Bowling for Columbine

Michael Moore, 118m, 2002

Going by Moore, the US must be one of the worst societies in the world. Its people live in fear and insecurity, their minds constantly manipulated by the rich and powerful. Two students of a school gunned down seven fellow students and a teacher in 1999. The film explores the high crime rate prevailing in the US, compared to neighboring Canada, as well as some European and Asian countries. He particularly focuses on the laws which provide easy availability of firearms and ammunition. An interesting sidelight is Charleston Heston, the famed film star, who played Moses in The Ten Commandments. Heston was an office bearer of the National Rifle Association, which enthusiastically encourages gun ownership. It is amusing and chilling to see  an erstwhile Moses vehemently espousing the cult of gun posession. On the whole, this first of Moore's films, which catapulted him to fame, is less focused than the subsequent ones. Its thesis is, "violence exists", rather than "why".

4 comments:

Seongyong Cho said...

I fondly remember how Moore made one of the memorable moments at the Oscar ceremony in 2003 when he accepted the award given to this work....

S M Rana said...

You make me curous..

Seongyong Cho said...

Here's the clip from YouTube...

http://youtu.be/40T4-mUt1Jk

S M Rana said...

That speech is a mini documentary in itself!