Documentary Analysis: Bowling for Columbine

The documentary I have chosen for the scene analysis is Michael Moore’s “Bowling for Columbine”. The scene I chose to analyze from this documentary is the opening scene. Here Moore sets the stage by describing a typical day in the United States. He uses narration as he shows clips of people taking on their daily activities, and sarcastically the president making a decision to bomb another country. While describing this he shows footage of all of these events which brings life to the documentary. He approaches the topic of fire arm laws in the U.S in a very sarcastic way which sets the stage for the rest of the documentary as a whole. His main tagline at the beginning of this scene was “Is America a Nation of gun nuts? Or just nuts?” To prove this issue Moore then goes into a bank and asks to open a bank account, but requests the account that as a reward provides you with a free gun. For the duration of the time that he spends in the bank he is again very sarcastic with the bankers, which seems to be a common theme throughout his documentary. He uses the aspect of sarcasm to prove his point as gun violence is a wide spread issue in U.S. Moore then shows footage of interviews from Colorado locals. This footage again helps to enhance his documentary as it is real footage from the town that the shooting occurred in. These interviews again play off of Moore’s sarcasm as the people he interviewed were all surprised by the event however all held fire arms in their homes. In this scene of the documentary Moore also uses celebrities to help get his point across which is also another approach to making people aware of important issues. In this film Chris Rock displays his opinion on gun violence and accessibility in the U.S, also with great sarcasm. Throughout the scene and the documentary as a whole Moore uses numerous statistics and historical reference to many similar events that may or may not have lead up to this one in particular. The concept of statistics and historical reference points aid his documentary as they give raw data about how important this issue actually is. A lot of the time viewers tend to get lost in the concept of “film” with regards to fact and fiction. By incorporating statistics and historical references or footage the viewer can reflect upon how issues like these are a reality and not just seen in the movies. Another concept Moore used in the documentary with his interviews was that he chose footage from a number of different groups. He started with lower class people, moved to white collar and then higher class individuals and incorporated all of their opinions in his film. This enhanced his documentary as it looked at multiple opinions on the issue which made it hit home. It was a way of eliminating his own bias as it gave viewers a chance to see this issue from more than just his viewpoint. This scene shows a lack of caution in the U.S at this time with regards to the issue of fire arms and the law. I feel that this scene in particular was very effective in setting the stage for the film as whole as it gave viewers enough information about the issue itself, which was fire arm laws and accessibility, setting the stage for the actual event that got America talking, the Columbine shooting. The use of live footage, personal interviews, sarcasm and celebrities kept me as a viewer wanting to continue watching as it established a clear lead up as to the event that made this issue a national eye opener.