A tour de force from filmmaker Michael Moore, Bowling for Columbine: What a wonderful world is an alternately humorous and horrifying documentary about firearms abuse in the USA. The first documentary accepted into competition at Cannes since 1956, the film won a special 55th Anniversary Prize at the 2002 Festival.
With his trademark charm and biting wit, Moore (director of Roger and me and author of Stupid white men) sets off on a rollicking journey to the heart of the country hoping to discover why the American pursuit of happiness is so riddled with violence. From a look at the Columbine High School security camera tapes to the home of Oscar-winning NRA President Charlton Heston, from a young man who makes home-made napalm with The anarchist's cookbook to the murder of a 6-year-old girl by another 6-year-old, Bowling for Columbine: What a wonderful world is a powerful piece of filmmaking that will resonate with audiences dreading - but expecting - the next breaking news report about a home-grown assassin with a constitutionally-protected Uzi.
Special Agent Matti
Americans: can't live with them, can't nuke them.
Bowling for Columbine is proof that individual Americans can actually understand and use irony. Unfortunately, it's an independent release, so most of the country is still struggling with the concept, but there's hope. It's amazing to see social justice in action, live on camera, as K-Mart - whose bullets were used in the Columbine shooting - deciding stop selling handgun ammunition (albeit after a 90-day stock clearance window). It's scary to see "regular Americans" taking the "Right to bear arms" so seriously. In any other country it would be one of those 200-year-old leftover laws like burning witches at the stake.
*Shudders*
Only in America.
M (Adult themes, low level coarse language)
122 minutes (2:02 hours)
Film: 19 December 2002
DVD rental: 25 June 2003
VHS rental: 25 June 2003
