"Bowling for Columbine"

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how "Bowling for Columbine" is a piece of filmmaking designed to provoke viewers regardless of their political beliefs and how underlying the film are solid truths about the history of and current state of affairs in the United States. It looks at how it examines in particular three main themes: racism, gun control, and the psychological and sociological impacts of mass media by using the Columbine shooting incident as an anchor.

From the Paper:

"No one need watch Bowling for Columbine to discover that race relations in the United States have been poor since the birth of the nation. Wresting millions of Africans from their home countries, treating them worse than cattle, and enslaving them and their families in deplorable conditions for centuries do little to foster good race relations. The abolition of slavery contributed little to the improvement of white-black relations in the United States, since Reconstruction was a dismal failure in this respect and in fact permitted hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan to thrive. The animated sequence in Bowling for Columbine, combined with Moore's treatment of racial profiling, show that Moore is keenly aware of and sensitive to race-related issues. Moore also shows how race relations in the United States contributed indirectly to the Columbine shootings, which occurred in a mainly white, middle-class suburban town. According to Moore, blacks have been convenient scapegoats of violent crimes."

More papers on "Bowling for Columbine":

• Film Review # 73188 : "Bowling For Columbine": Pot Meets Kettle"
• Film Review # 120511 : "Gun Control and "Bowling for Columbine"
• Essay # 68097 : "Michael Moore's "Bowling for Columbine"
• Film Review # 115174 : "Michael Moore's "Bowling for Columbine"

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