'Bowling' Blames America For Gun-Wielding Society

"Bowling for Columbine"

Michael Moore's newest documentary, "Bowling for Columbine," is enough to make you want to move to Canada.

After the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School, Moore and his crew set out to uncover the reasons why more than 11,000 Americans die from gun violence every year. From school shootings to media sensationalism to gun fanatics, Moore asks a fundamental question.

What the hell is wrong with America?

No newcomer to controversy, Moore has established himself as the unrelenting pain in conservative America's neck. As the author of the best-selling "Stupid White Men" and the creator of the 1990 documentary "Roger & Me," Moore's irreverent take on American history has raised more than a few eyebrows.

He's aggressive, he's opinionated and, more than anything, he's asking all the right questions.

From the opening scene -- in which Moore opens a bank account to receive a free promotional gun -- a mirror is turned on American society and its love affair with the Second Amendment.

In his home state of Michigan, Moore manages to find a large cast of gun-touting crazies who provide both frightening and hilarious accounts of America's need to arm.

The film's narrative takes many detours from the topic of gun control, weaving together a vast spectrum of issues through interviews, newsreels and Moore's own acts of social protest.

Unquestionably biased by Moore's point of view, "Bowling for Columbine" is no objective inquiry into the state of gun control today. Instead, we get something better -- the passionate, personal journey of a teenage marksman who has become completely disgusted with the way guns are treated in America.

One of the most fascinating issues Moore attempts to tackle is a distinctly American sense of paranoia. Beyond the guns, he argues that we Americans come from a peculiar history of fear. Even as murder rates drop, media coverage of violent crime rises, creating a false sense of danger in our society -- one that causes us to gate our neighborhoods, alarm our homes and arm our families.

Admittedly, Moore can get far-fetched at times. He directly links the KKK and the NRA and also suggests that previous media frenzy over Africanized bees is a latent manifestation of white America's racism.

It's a pill that's a little hard to swallow -- but compelling nonetheless.

For all its ups and down, there's a reason "Bowling for Columbine" was the first documentary to be accepted into the Cannes Film Festival in 46 years. This is a brave, passionate film -- one that deserves more local attention than it's likely to get.

By turning the camera on our society, Moore often makes us ashamed to be Americans -- but he does it with the hope that there's still time for change.

The Arts & Entertainment Editor can be reached at artsdesk@unc.edu.