Bowling for Columbine
hat makes America such a violent nation? hy have massacres involving guns become commonplace in American society? In his 2002 documentary titled "Bowling for Columbine," Michael Moore explores the many aspects of American society in an attempt to answer why American society is so violent. Moore takes a hard look at a society in which fear permeate people's lives and the intense and violent reaction that is a result of it. In its exploration of an answer to why Americans are a violent people, "Bowling for Columbine" raises a number of very interesting questions that get to the heart of why two students from a middle class Colorado neighborhood went on a shooting spree in their high school.

On April 20, 1999 Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, two high school seniors at Columbine High School, walked into their school and committed a massacre that resulted in thirteen deaths and…...

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Works Cited

Moore, Michael. "Bowling for Columbine (2002)." YouTube. 3 Sept. 2013. Web 10 Oct.

2013.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-yio27C7Y8

Institutionalized Violence

On the other hand, it does not make sense to focus so much on the availability of firearms, simply because most violent crimes involving firearms are committed with illegal firearms and not legally owned and possessed weapons (Dershowitz, 2002). Moore himself comes to the conclusion that, if anything, the American obsession with guns is more a symptom than a cause of the complex social and cultural reasons for higher rates of violent crime in the U.S. than exist in many other countries. The second part of the movie includes vivid news footage of violence initiated by the U.S. As well as interviews with employees of Lockheed-Martin, a missile contractor for the U.S. military located in Littleton.

New Jersey State Gun Laws

In New Jersey, there are strict laws regulating the purchase and authorized ownership of firearms (Zarych, 2009). in-state purchasers must first obtain a purchaser identification card/permit. Generally, eligibility for the…...

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References

Dershowitz AM. (2002). Shouting Fire: Civil Liberties in a Turbulent Age. New York:

Touchstone.

Zarych JJ. (2009). The Current State of New Jersey's Gun Laws. Retrieved March 15,

2010 from: http://knowledgebase.findlaw.com/kb/2009/Aug/1329199_1.html

The clearly unscripted dialogue between Moore and the spokesperson (Moore must return several times to get any satisfaction and the Kmart spokesperson stutters and clearly is just unconvincingly rehearsing the company line) gives the viewer a sense that history is happening in the 'here and now' of the film, just as the viewer watched the security footage of the massacre at the high school. Eventually, Kmart agrees to no longer sell firearms, under Moore's direct, on-camera pressure. For one brief moment, the irony ebbs away as Moore takes some satisfaction that his quest for truth has done something, however small.
Moore deploys the same investigative, 'slice of life' technique when he goes to the NRA-supporting actor Charlton Heston's home, to ask the actor why he agrees to support the organization, even after the shootings. Heston can offer no explanation, other than safety, despite the fact he lives in a house…...

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Works Cited

Bowling for Columbine." Directed by Michael Moore. 2002.

hit documentary movie by Michael Moore called "Bowling for Columbine" from a criminologist point-of-view. The criminologist point-of-view is obtained from referencing "Criminology: The Core, 8th edition" by Larry J. Siegel as well as various criminal justice research journals. The objective of the paper was to addresses if this documentary supported information taught by Siegel. The paper aims to discuss theories the movie covered, provide insight into gun control and discuss violence in schools. Another objective of the paper was to discuss if the movie's arguments portrayed real life. And finally, the paper tries to provide an evaluation of my personal beliefs about "Bowling For Columbine" and crime in general.
'Bowling For Columbine" was a highly successful movie in both the box office as well as prestigious Hollywood award circles. Some estimates have the movie grossing more than forty million dollars worldwide and of that more than half coming from the…...

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Works Cited

Grasmick, Harold G. "Criminal Behavior And Age: A Test Of Three Provocative Hypothesis." Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology September (1997).

How to Deal with the Lies and the Lying Liars When They Lie about "Bowling for Columbine." Ed. Michael Moore. Michael Moore. Retrieved on 16 Nov. 2004, from .

Kreager, Derek A. "Strangers in the Halls: Isolation and Delinquency in School Networks." Social Forces September. (2004).

Moore, Michael. "Bowling For Columbine." DVD: 2002.

Michael Moore's Bowling For Columbine
Michael Moore's motion picture Bowling for Columbine provides insight into the Columbine High School Massacre Event in 1999 and into a series of incidents such as the U.S.' tendency to promote weapons and conflict. This film attempts to provide information with regard to the background of gun use in the U.S. And the consequences associated with this respective enterprise. The film is meant to generate controversy as a result of the delicate topics it addresses and most viewers are likely to be left with the feeling that there are a lot of questions that the authorities and the U.S. As a whole refuse to acknowledge.

Moore's characteristic attitudes are definitely present in Bowling for Columbine, as it becomes obvious that the film is meant to impress from the very first scenes. The typical American morning contains a series of disturbing references to a presumably peaceful nation's tendency…...

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Works cited:

Beattie, Keith, "Up Close and Personal: Popular Factual Entertainment"

Chapman, Jane, "Issues in Contemporary Documentary," (Polity, 17 Aug 2009)

Geivett, R. Douglas, and Spiegel, James S., "Faith, Film and Philosophy: Big Ideas on the Big Screen," (InterVarsity Press, 20 Aug 2009)

Kellner, Douglas M., "Cinema Wars: Hollywood Film and Politics in the Bush-Cheney Era," (John Wiley & Sons, 13 Sep 2011)

On the other hand, guns kill people every day, yet we keep protecting the rights of gun owners and fight to prevent even something a simple as registration.
Moore acts as a person trying to provoke a response on several occasions, returning to Columbine High School several times, even showing horrifying images and footage from the massacre that took place there. This is argument by shock, but it can be effective. For that matter, it is in keeping with the nature of the issue under discussion, which can hardly be discussed without showing some of the effects of unrestricted gun availability and use.

Moore is more directly provocative with some of his theatrical gestures, like buying a map to the homes of the movie stars so he can find where Charlton Heston, then head of the National Rifle Association, and go to his house to ring the bell. This sort of…...

Antisocial behavior is largely the result of poverty, prejudice, lack of education, and low social status rather than human nature or lack of character...
Rightists believe that character is largely inborn and genetically inherited.

Hence the emphasis of many right-wingers on lineage and the advantage of coming from "a good family"...

In Michael Moore's depiction of George . Bush's Presidential administration within Fahrenheit 911, Moore often emphasizes Bush's influential and powerful family ties; the fact that Bush's father was President before him and still wields great influence over the Saudis, and that Bush's father and other Bush relatives, along with the younger Bush, still have close relations with other, similarly dynastic families, such as the Bin Ladens of Saudi Arabia and the Saudi Royal family.

In one other part of the film Fahrenheit 911, Michael Moore even jokes about how the Bush family is so fond of Saudi Arabia's charismatic one-time Ambassador to…...

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Works Cited

Bowling for Columbine. Michael Moore (Dir.). 2002.

Celsius 41.11 - The Temperature at Which the Brain Begins to Die. Kevin

Knoblock (Dir.). 2004.

Celsius 41.11 - The Temperature at Which the Brain Begins to Die" (Wikipedia).

Film
Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine is a documentary that illustrates that most American of virtues -- violence, and gun violence in particular. The author utilizes the documentary format to incorporate a wide variety of disparate scenes and characters that indicate that America's obsession with guns and the violent killings they produce is a fatal folly. Perhaps because the film is a documentary, Moore enjoys much more license to incorporate a variety of different mediums including cartoons, video surveillance footage, and the ever vigilant eye of his own company, than traditional films have. In this respect he is able to manipulate the conventional mechanisms for conveying a film's theme (lighting, camera angles, sound and scoring, dialogue, etc.) much more poignantly to directly address his film's subject in a way that exceeds those of films that are not documentaries. The overall effect is that his film is able to reinforce its…...

Michael Moore so Controversial?
Michael Moore was born in 1954 in Flint, Michigan -- "the home of the wealthiest corporation in the world: General Motors." (Roger and Me, 1989). The tragic plight of this once economically booming, blue-collar city is the basis for much of his filmmaking; and it is what formed the foundation for his particular outlook on the state of American society. The theme of corporate abuse and exploitation of the American working class has run throughout his three films, two television shows, and four books.

Most of his arguments, whether you agree with them or not, are based upon true investigative journalism or are simply built upon facts available to anyone who cares to look into press reports. Additionally, many of the things he says are the same things that people have been saying for years while standing around water coolers, working on assembly lines, or flipping ig…...

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Bibliography

1. The Big One. Documentary. The Writer's Guild of America, 1997. 90 min.

2. Bowling for Columbine. Documentary. The Writer's Guild of America, 2002. 120 min.

3. Fahrenheit 9/11. Documentary. The Writer's Guild of America, 2004. 122 min.

4. Hardy, David T., and Jason Clarke. Michael Moore is a Big Fat Stupid White Man. New York: Regan Books, 2004.

films such as "The Ad and the Ego" that the media contributes much towards mind-control in 21st century America. Indeed, many of the things feared by Americans are shown to be exaggerated images the media creates on a daily basis. Glassner for example shows crime to be one of these ungrounded fears, and obscure illness as another. Crime is a problem, and illness is a pervasive phenomenon, but the point is that these are do not display the unmitigated growth suggested by the media. It is possible that gun-violence and the problem of illegal gun possession fall in the same category. On the other hand however, it cannot be denied that gun violence does play a devastating role in society, if not as prominent a role as suggested by the media. Films such as "Bowling for Columbia" for example addresses the American psyche and its apparent need for violence…...

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Sources

Boihem, Harold. "The Ad and the Ego." 1996. http://www.mediarights.org/search/fil_detail.php?fil_id=00812

Burger, Warren E. "The Right to Bear Arms."

Glassner, Barry. Introduction: The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things. "Bowling for Columbine." 2004.  http://www.bowlingforcolumbine.com 

Moore, Michael. "Bowling for Columbine." 2004.

By providing more time for children to be in school, the program takes away dangerous time that students will be on the streets making negative alliances. Additionally, by increasing home-school interactions and providing greater access to teachers, the program may offset some of the negative conditions caused by single parent homes.
Because studies have suggested that juvenile alliances and socioeconomic status, as well as other social conditions, are some of the causes for juvenile delinquency, addressing those causes has become an important method to avoiding juvenile offenders, victims, and witnesses of violent crimes. ith schools being a major part of children's lives during childhood and adolescence, teachers and administrators, with programs like KIPP, must take on the burden of preventing or counterbalancing these social conditions that lead to juvenile delinquency. Although the process of doing so may seem difficult to teachers who have been educated primarily in instructing and only…...

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Works Cited

Abdul-Adil, Jaleel. K. And Farmer, David Alan. "Inner-City African-American Parental

Involvement in Elementary Schools: Getting Beyond Urban Legends of Apathy." (NEED to PROVIDE REST of CITATION. WAS NOT PROVIDED to RESEARCHER.)

Boehnke, Klaus and Bergs-Winkles, Dagmar. "Juvenile Delinquency Under the Conditions of Rapid Social Change." Sociological Forum. 17.1 (2002): 57-79.

Bowling for Columbine. Michael Moore. DVD. a-Film. 2002.

For example, one woman got into a car accident and expected insurance to pay for her expenses related to the accident, minus the deductible. The insurance company denied her claim on the spurious grounds that the woman had a "prior condition" that was unrelated to the accident. If private insurance companies are not fulfilling their obligations to consumers, then public insurance becomes the only solution in a free, just, and democratic society. Profit-driven health care means that unethical business practices can too easily creep into and cloud what should be a care-driven system.
Moore's production may seem shrill to some viewers, but the filmmaker does a stellar job of portraying the American health care system as being in a state of sickness. Doctors in countries with socialized medical systems are far from being poor, as Moore details physicians in England and France. Moore was ultimately able to find the car…...

Roger and Me: Automobile Industry
Like All the President's Men, this work is a departure from fiction in film and in novels. Rather than portraying fictional characters in a contrived plot, "Roger and Me" takes us into the lives of actual men and women dealing with the all-too-real problems of the decline of the United States as a world industrial power.

The focus is on the automobile industry, in particular, on one of the early centers of that industry, Flint, Michigan. Major automakers like General Motors have for years been cutting back on production and employment. Now, many of the older plants that have been running at reduced capacity are being closed for good and their workers let go permanently.

Because Flint was heavily dependent on auto making, the effects on the local economy are disastrous. Flint seems to be in the process of turning into a postindustrial ghost town, but the agonies…...

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Work Cited

Moore, Michael (Dir.). Roger and Me. Warner Bros, 1989.

After World War Two, Carson realized the extent to which the government was permitting the use of toxic chemicals and wrote a book to expose the practice. That book was called Silent Spring, and it "challenged the practices of agricultural scientists and the government, and called for a change in the way humankind viewed the natural world."[footnoteef:8] Jensen includes an excerpt from Silent Spring to show that Carson was up against one of the most lucrative industries in the world, and that although her work is unfinished, Carson made a huge impact on raising awareness and eventually her work got DDT banned. [8: "The Life and Legacy of achel Carson," Accessed May 3, 2013, http://www.rachelcarson.org/Biography.aspx#.UYOWMCshKII]
Malcolm X's autobiography was arguably not a project undertaken as a form of muckraker journalism. The author started writing when he was in prison, and he comes to learn the power of the written word…...

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References

Carson, Rachel. "Silent Spring." Excerpt in Stories that Changed America, edited by Carl Jensen, 117-123.

Daily Censored. "Carl Jensen." Accessed May 3, 2013, http://www.dailycensored.com/writers/carl-jensen/

The Daily Show. "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart," Accessed May 3, 2013,  http://www.thedailyshow.com/ 

Jensen, Carl. Stories that Changed America. New York: Seven Stories, 2002.

Unilateralism and Preemptive Defense
The arguments for unilateralism and preemptive strikes outlined by conservative historians appear logical and well-documented but are essentially wrought with contradiction. In his recent documentary film called Bowling for Columbine, Michael Moore delivered the premise that American culture is built on the promotion of fear. Fear underlies American foreign policy, especially after the terrorist attacks of September 11. In fact, those attacks offered the Bush administration easy fodder for propaganda to promote unilateralism and preemptive strikes on other nations. In spite of the huge practical leap from Bin Laden to Iraq, the administration launched its attacks on that nation with impunity and in spite of massive international opposition. The willingness of the American government to act without the slightest respect for the United Nations proves that America as a whole is under the spell of a cultural superiority complex. This complex is not only psychologically dangerous, potentially…...