In the documentary ‘Bowling for Columbine’ directed by Michael Moore, we get the sense that we are being taken on a journey through the in depth insight we are given into the reasons behind America being such a ‘gun loving’ country. Bowling for Columbine is titled in remembrance of the Columbine High School massacre, where students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold gunned down thirteen people in 1999 before committing suicide. The documentary explores a variety of factors that may have lead to and encouraged America's gun loving culture.
The film opens with Moore going to a bank to open up a bank account for himself, and as a part of an advertising campaign, the bank hands him a free gun for opening up the account. This is ironic, as Moore asks
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the bank afterwards, ‘Don't you think it's a little dangerous handing out guns in a bank?’ To the audience this is crazy. Why would a bank hand out a free gun? What would happen if the bank public turned the gun at the bank? Throughout this scene Moore has made the documentary in a way that makes us believe what he wants us to. We are lead to believe that Moore was able to make the account and take the gun home in the same day. This is apart of the journey he is taking us on, Michael Moore has created a lot of false information in the documentary. When making the bank account Moore has made himself look like the innocent white american. What Moore has left out is that he had to undergo a background check by the bank and he wouldn’t of been able to take home the gun until at least a week after his first visit. Michael Moore is very convincing in the documentary as he has presented himself as an everyday scruffy American, with a bad sense of style and a shaggy hair cut. This makes his journey very convincing to the audience as he’s more relatable. In the documentary Michael Moore says the quote, “Are we just a nation of gun nuts or are we just nuts”.
This relates to his unique process of integration and analysis to come to the truth about America’s necessity of guns. Michael Moore investigates the Columbine High School massacre in which 12 students and 1 teacher were shot by 2 students in 1999. The 2 students committed suicide; causing 15 deaths to occur from the shootings. Throughout the documentary Moore investigate the reasoning behind the two teenage boys, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, and why they committed such a crime. The title ‘Bowling for Columbine’ takes us on a journey for bowling being a reasoning behind the pairs act. In the documentary Dylan and Eric were portrayed to be just like normal teenage boys, having a love for guns. This is seen as a normal thing for Americans to get into. The day of the shooting we are shown a scene of the bowling alley Dalyn and Eric were said to be bowling at in the early hours of the morning before school. Moore keeps us interested in the journey he is taking us on by creating a dramatic scene. He does this by showing us a black screen with the dialogue of a news reporter talking about the shooting that is taking place. This draws our attention as we are made to think about what is been said. Throughout this scene we are given the oral technique of voice over, we hear this through recordings of parents and also journalists ringing the school to get information about the
shooting that is taking place. Over the phone we hear a father tell the school ‘My son may be one of the shooters’. This recording leaves a huge impact on the audience. It makes you think about what your own parents would be thinking if you were in the same situation. This is also apart of the journey Moore is taking us on. Moore creates the sense that he is taking us on a journey as he holds our suspense and creates the sense that we are apart and being affected by what is happening. In conclusion the film, ‘Bowling for Columbine’ was very creative in the way it was made. Michael Moore took us on a journey that lead us to believe that guns are easy to access in America and that the country is full of violence. The way Moore has created the documentary we get the sense that he is taking us on a journey of what he wants us to believe.
"Columbine High School Shootings." History.com. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 08 Sept. 2015. Eighteen year old Eric Harris and seventeen year old Dylan Klebold were two boys with a fascination of violent video games and music. These young men were known to be “goth” and were bullied all throughout their high school careers because of their different interest. In 1999, on April 20th these boys went into their high school with mixed emotions and a devious plan to get revenge. The two teens went into the high school with handguns and killed both students and faculty members, before they turned the guns around on themselves. This is a reliable source because it informed us of both previous emotion, and the aftermath of the tragedy with detail about the boys, the school and the lives affected. This source was relevant for me because of how thoroughly it described the shooting, and gave me background information as to why and how it happened.
Moore uses ethos in his work by giving us descriptive details and facts on other shootings and gun sells in America. Moore’s audience is more likely to give him creditability because of the way he dresses. In the movie he goes about looking like any
Just like every Moore movie, it shows people looking stupid to humorous effect and it shows the heroic tales of common people who have suffered tragedy. And Moore blames their plight on the rich and powerful. In his other movies, the presidents of General Motors and the National Rifle Association, for instance, bear the brunt of his blame. In this movie, it's George W.
In the cases of school shootings that took place at Columbine High School, Sandy Hook Elementary, Virginia Tech University and Northern Illinois University, the media highly publicized the fact that the perpetrators were avid video gamers, but why is this important? The media want’s your attention and they are more than willing to say almost anything to get it. They reported that the perpetrators were avid gamers with the implication that there is a well establish connection between the two when there is not. They exploit the fear of parents and concerned citizens by not including relevant corresponding information in order to leave you more interested lea...
April 20th, 1999, Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, experienced a mass shooting. Thirteen people were injured and more than twenty were injured. Twelve were students and one was a teacher. Two students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold opened fire on their high school for forty one minutes before turning their guns on themselves and committing suicide. School shootings are notorious for making headline news but in 1999, school shooting were not as prevalent as they are in the present day. The media blew up on the catastrophe that was Columbine and many questions were raised, who were these kids and why did they do this? Speculation arose about why they did it. Maybe they were bullied for being goth and social outcasts or maybe they
On the morning of April 20, 1999, Eric Davis Harris and Dylan Bennet Klebold went into the Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, and went on a rampage killing spree leaving 12 students and 1 teacher dead and over 20 people injured before killing themselves. This crime is known as one of the most deadliest school massacres in the United States history (Pittaro).
As typical human beings we all want to know why someone could randomly take the lives of several innocent people all at one time. It is frightening and scientists figure if they can figure out why, then it can be prevented in the future. The documentary, Mind of a Rampage Killer, tries to solve the mystery and really dive deep into the minds of people who could potentially create such a horrifying situation. Through the use of ethos, logos, and pathos, this documentary concludes that every killer had something in common; they all struggled with mental disorders, depression, or outbursts of violence, all stemming from early childhood or an internal battle throughout growing up, some could have even just been born with a violent rage.
In American society, violence runs rampage throughout the country that cause its citizens to be afraid and discouraged about their homeland. One of the major parts of American violence is from guns. In the documentary, "Bowling for Columbine", a famous filmmaker, Michael Moore addresses the ubiquitous situation in America. He argues that the use of gun in America co-insides or correlates to the recent massacres and that America, as a whole, should have stricter gun control laws. Throughout the film, Moore uses specific references to it and employs rhetorical and persuasive devices to construct his argument in favor of changing gun laws.
The columbine massacre the day where no one is safe in school or out of school. The columbine massacre is about two students named Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris both seniors 17 years old both two weeks before graduating they killed 12 students, one teacher, and 21 injured to their shooting on April 20, 1999. Both Dylan and Eric were some believe they were bullied by the sport teams in their school so they planned to kill the people who bullied them and other mostly anyone who gets in their way but that wasn’t really why the FBI he said that there target was everyone no one in pacify we will not get in to more details now. Dylan and Eric were both intelligent boys with solid parents and a good home and both had brothers younger than them. They played soccer, baseball, and both enjoyed to work on computers. Both boys were thinking on commit suicide on 1997 but instead started to plan a massacre in 1998 a year before it happened. Then the two boys had got into some trouble for breaking into a van on January 30, 1998 trying to steal some fuses and wires for bombs for them to make, but they got caught in trouble. So the court put them in a program called the juvenile diversion program, but even if they were there they were still planning the massacre and the court also put Eric in some angry management classes and people believe it worked but it didn’t he just did it to look like it work and both boys made it look like they were really sorry but they weren’t. Dylan and Eric both really hated everyone in their school and the court as well after they got caught breaking in to that van that’s when they really started to plan the massacre more and that’s when Harris started he’s journals no one really knows way but they didn’t hate a hand...
In the documentary Bowling for Columbine by Michael Moore, it asks important questions and provokes thoughts. The United States is known to have the highest gun-murder rate in the world. Not that shocking if you watch the news. The media influences fear in the heart of Americans and creates hysteria all over the globe. The documentary had me thinking why are we in fear well for example every day there is always something violent going on in the news a shooting, someone getting stabbed, a woman’s purse get lifted. The media is inflicting fear in our hearts and we really just let it happen without saying a word. In my opinion I think it’s a disguise from the big picture. What is the United States hiding from the American people? The documentary started off with Michael going into a Bank and from my understanding if you open up an account with the bank you can take advantage of their special offer of being able to pick any type of gun that is advertised which I thought was completely crazy especially when the guns are stored in the bank.
Crime manifests itself in various ways in society and oftentimes difficult to pinpoint what drives people to commit certain actions. The Columbine shooting was a particular incident that ended in tears and suffering which resulted in numerous research as to what was going through the minds of these young individuals at the time of the shooting. Therefore, this paper will analyze specifically the role of differential association- reinforcement as altered by Akers in propelling Dylan Klebold to commit such heinous act, while also giving credit to Edwin Sutherland for first formulating the framework of differential association.
The United States will not soon forget the rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut that came just two weeks before Christmas last year. This tragic event resulted in the death of twenty students and eight adults. Although the event shocked the nation, rampage shootings are nothing new. Over the years, many families have lost loved ones to these horrific events. As a result, these mass shootings such as the one that occurred at Sandy Hook Elementary caught public attention leading to a push to find the cause of these events. Out of this research a variety of possible causes came to light consisting of arguments stating that high school bullying, availability of guns, mental illness, violent movies and video games are the cause of mass shootings. However, these researchers and debaters tend to ignore the role of massive media coverage in the increase of copycat shootings in the United States.
As a viewer who does not own a gun, and who is also pretty clueless about gun control laws, I was all ears to what Michael Moore had to say in his documentary Bowling for Columbine. In this documentary, Moore raises awareness for the growing need to have stricter gun control laws. Why does Moore believe that America needs stricter gun control laws? It is because Moore believes that everything that surrounds Americans is supposed to make Americans scared; America is run on a culture of fear. Although Moore’s message is an important one, Moore’s inability to connect his various sub-topics and his use of questionable evidence, ultimately destroys the audience’s understanding, and leaves them confused.
In the wake of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the increase of killing sprees involving firearms in the U.S. since the Columbine Massacre, the case against guns is emotionally charged and captivating. The use of these examples has been a powerful recruitment tool in the case against private gun ownership and the lobbying for stricter legislation governing the sale, and distribution of firearms within the U.S. and internationally. In addition to this, Pro-Control supporters most often use startling statistics in firearm-related deaths and homicides as contention that these incidents are reflections of an ongoing killing spree in the United States, whom remains among the top countries in the world for firearm related deaths, a...
With the media shining so much light upon this topic, it is evident that mass murders in the United States of America are more frequent and deadly. In fact, studies have found that the USA has more mass public shootings than any other country (Christensen). These numbers have only been increasing in the past decades. This is shocking because the USA holds only 5 percent of the world’s population, but as a nation, contributes to 31 percent of mass murders (Christensen). Although these murders continue to be a rare phenomenon, weak gun laws, the need for fame, and issues with societal views are the main causes of the increase in cases.