Bowling For Columbine Propaganda Essay

Ideology and propaganda within documentaries paying specific attention to ‘Bowling for Columbine’ by Michael Moore.

This essay will analyse how and if an individual’s own ideological beliefs can shape the making and message of documentary films and television programmes. The essay will draw from the conclusions of Bill Nichols, Simon Cottle and Erik Barnouw. This essay will be using Michael Moore’s documentary ‘Bowling for Columbine’ (2002) as a case study.

The definition of documentary given by the Oxford dictionary is ‘A film or television or radio programme that provides a factual report on a particular subject.’ (Oxford, Online) Documentaries are carefully constructed to present the reality of a variety of situations. The aim of the documentary

is to tell the truth and get a point across to the audience. However, they may be only telling the truth as they know it or editing it in a certain way as to show the truth as they want it to be; therefore the audience is not receiving the whole truth. For example, the documentary maker may have his or her own ideological beliefs that will shape the way in which the documentary is made and edited ‘Ideologies will also offer representations in the form of images, concepts, cognitive maps, worldviews, and the like to propose frames and punctuation to our experience. Such ideologies and images are inescapable.’ (Nichols, 1991) Hill states ‘almost 80 per cent of the public were interested in watching documentary television and nearly 60 per cent believed documentaries provided accurate information.’ (2005:59). This shows that most of the public may be passive viewers. This means that they read the text as truth and agree with the information given by the programme or film. However some are active readers of the text, meaning that they question almost everything and use their own ideological beliefs to determine what is real to them and what is not real.

There are many different types of documentaries such as expositional, meaning that they expose a situation, they usually depict an institution, community or a tradition. These documentaries use a serious tone and are highly formal, plus they are educational. They are aimed at the educated middle class society. Nichols (1991) states ‘Each mode establishes a hierarchy of specific conventions or norms that remain flexible enough to incorporate a great deal of stylistic, national, and individual variation without losing the force of an organizing principle.’ For example, John Grierson’s (1930s-1940s) documentary ‘Housing Problems’ which aimed to educate and use propaganda to try and achieve a social reform.

Another type of documentary is observational. This style was developed from the fifties onwards. It is also known as cinema verite (Cinema Truth). Observational documentary means that the cameras observe the subjects and record the reality of everyday as it happens without having any organised plans and structures. An example of this style of documentary would be Fred Wiseman’s ‘High School’ (1968, USA) and ‘Planet Earth’ (BBC, 2006). However it was discovered that BBC’s ‘Planet Earth’ particularly episode 6 ‘Ice Worlds’ was faked. This coursed a lot of controversy with the public. The show had filmed a polar bear giving birth supposedly in the ice lands, but it was not true as they actually filmed it in a zoo and created the habitat it may have given birth in if they were in the wild. This proves that not all documentaries are honest and tell the truth. Although it would have been rather difficult to film the birth in the wild, the programme makers should have at least put a disclaimer or had the commentator explain during the episode. This would have shown the audience that even though this is not filmed in the wild (as that would have been difficult) that it is still in some way similar to what would have happened, thus keeping the trust and commitment from the viewer. Participatory is another mode of documentary. This mode shows direct engagement from the director or documentarian and the subject. The film maker becomes a part of the documentary as they impact on the events. Documentary makers such as Michael Moore, Louis Theroux and Nick Bloomfield do this style of documentary rather well.

Propaganda is defined in the Oxford dictionary as ‘information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote a political cause or point of view’ (Oxford, Online), put simply it is the manipulation of the public’s opinion. Propaganda can be easily passed on through media texts such as the news and social networks. Propaganda is passed through these media texts because they can reach a wider audience, making them believe that the information is true. Propaganda has increased due to television being a central part of family life to date. It is easier to use televisions for propaganda as the visuals help promote the message and persuade the audience to believe the propaganda.

There are four elements of which are key for propaganda to work. For propaganda to survive it needs to have a vast majority of control of the media. It needs this control so that they can control the stream of information going out to the public. Propaganda also needs emotion as this can help persuade the viewer as they become more emotionally involved, they paint their opponent as the evil person, thus allowing them to gain the support, hearts and minds of the individuals. The next element would be the imagery used. The element of imagery is used to provide a visual understanding of the circumstances that they want you to be aware of. This allows them to control what you see and hear from the propaganda. Repetition is also used in propaganda as this is a natural and simple way for individuals to remember the text of the propaganda almost like a leitmotif ‘A recurrent theme throughout a musical or literary composition, associated with a particular person, idea, or situation’ (Oxford, Online).

Propaganda uses manipulation and deceit, O'Shaughnessy (2004) states ‘To say that propaganda is manipulative is to define a necessary but not sufficient characteristic of the term. Propaganda is the populist vernacular sense of the term is equated with the idea of manipulation, even duplicity, but never truth seeking.’ Another part to the manipulation is censorship. An example of this would be from the first gulf war where the journalists were tightly supervised, some even excluded all together. Censorship with propaganda could be the fact that the government denies information or uses statistics to help manipulate the situation. ‘Propaganda is a consequence of our need for enemies: they are not just there but necessarily there: they give coherence and definition to our values and they motivate us to action. They provide someone to blame when things go wrong.’ (O'Shaughnessy, 2004)

Michael Moore’s ‘Bowling for Columbine’ (2002) is a political documentary about the circumstances that led to the 1999 Columbine high school shootings. On the other hand he actually does not explain the shootings that happened at the school nor did he explain why thousands of people are killed by guns in America. He does however try to dispel the fact that violent cinema or ‘South Park’ had anything to do with the increase in gun violence. This documentary must have been planned; he knew where to meet the people for interviews etc. In the beginning he explains that he grew up in Michigan which is a state that is obsessed with hunting. This informs the viewer that Michael himself may be ok with guns and may not want others to know the negative side of them. It is somewhat comedic with the interview about the dog with a gun. The dog had a gun strapped to his back and then the gun went off, the male officer being interviewed about this case finds it funny and does not see the negative side of this, even though a man was accidentally shot by the dog. Moore ‘like any communicator in any medium makes endless choices. He selects topics, people, visits, angles, lens, juxtapotions, sounds, words. Each selection is an expression of his point of view, whether he is aware of it or not, whether he acknowledges it or not.’ (Barnouw, 1993:287)

Michael interviews the Michigan Militia about the gun situation in the American society. They respond with their own ideological beliefs that it is the right of every American person to be able to defend themselves and their families. They also discuss the inadequacy and untrustworthiness of the law enforcement. Michael does not dispute this showing that he may agree with them. Also he seems bias throughout the documentary as he sometimes does not really push the interviewee with a question that would oppose what the interviewee said. Thus providing an unbalanced argument.

The United States of America has the highest rate of gun related crimes; they have just over 300,000 crimes in 2012, compared to the second highest which was the Chile with just over 200,000.

Within the film ‘Bowling for Columbine’ Michael Moore propagates his ideological beliefs by having interviews and confrontations with people involved with the situation of gun violence. Moore himself is a member of NRA which is the National Rifle Association. This association is fronted by the actor Charlton Heston whose members can store ammunition at their homes. Nichols states that ‘propaganda is not as far away as one might think; ideology is always in the air, and the” free subject” is itself a concept of debatable soundness.’ Moore shows that there is very easy access to weapons such as guns and that violent entertainment such as games and movies are not the only reasons for high rates in violence within the USA. Michael Moore remains somewhat biased throughout; he interviews powerful elite figures such as Charlton Heston and K-Mart and the police man in the beginning trying to show them as crazy gun lovers who may not be taking the increase in violent gun crimes seriously. He uses this to create propaganda that persuades the audience that gun crimes are wrong and that people can still own guns but don’t have to be violent with them. Moore uses elements of propaganda to persuade the audience to support his views against the NRA of which will subsequently paint Charlton Heston as one of the

villains.

‘Bowling for Columbine’ sees Michael Moore interviewing Marilyn Manson because a few of his music tracks are linked with the boys who killed the innocent people at the school. Marilyn Manson seems to support the idea that America is a country of “fear and consumption”. He states that in some way the media is controlled by the government. That the government were also committing crimes as they were dropping bombs. This could show that the government intentionally let people blame Marilyn and his music as it was keeping the focus off of them and their deeds. An element within the film that shows propaganda was the use of emotions. This was done by Moore taking victims/survivors of gun crimes to a demonstration about selling ammunition at K-Mart. Another element is the imagery used. This is done when in the film a song plays with no narration over it. The images show different events such as shooting ranges and shootings of family members. These images try to provide the viewer with some realism and it also tries to communicate the message that he does not support the possession of guns as it could hurt the ones you love, or cause an accident to an innocent person. The repetitive part of the documentary was the fact that Moore kept asking who is responsible for gun violence and that because people have been made to fear through propaganda on the television that they needed to buy guns to protect themselves and their families.

In summary, Michael Moore and many other documentarians use ideology and propaganda in some way and that shapes the documentary itself. Moore’s ‘Bowling for Columbine’ gives a rather biased view of the situation. He himself is very involved with the situation and uses others that feel the same as he does to promote his point, he also uses a few that have different opinions, however, and he shows them as idiots and villains. He holds the interest of the audience by using propaganda, music, sarcasm and humour. I find that the film maker knowingly or not does use their own ideological beliefs when making a programme or film documentary.