Bowling For Columbine Satire

In the 2002 documentary, Bowling for Columbine, produced and directed by Michael Moore, an American filmmaker, it focuses on the 1999 Columbine High School massacre in Colorado and how two high school boys were able to obtain guns and shoot out their school, killing a teacher and 13 students, before committing suicide. The film uses this event to show America’s history with guns and gives an insight about the past, present and future of America. Michael Moore delivers this film by answering his own questions, such as how the increase rate of guns and homicides in America relate to one another, and why America has the largest number in crime than other countries. Using his fame as an advantage, Moore sets out on his journey to answer his questions

by interviewing many people, including the National Rifle Association's (NRA) president Charlton Heston, musician Marilyn Manson, the vice-president of Kmart, and locals of communities, and shares his experience with the world.
The film, Bowling for Columbine, was a $4 million budget film that grossed more that $58 million worldwide, including $21 million in the United States of America and later won an Oscar at the 75th Academy Awards for Best Documentary Feature (Mojo). The documentary became one of the most popular documented films, and was controversial to many people because of the Moore’s opinion on gun control. Although the audience towards this film is anyone who is or isn’t against gun control, Moore’s intended audience is to Americans. He states that America has the most gun violence and deaths then any other nation. Moore’s purpose for the film is to apply his knowledge and facts on gun violence and share it with the world, and specifically to those who are anti-gun control. He applies ethos, logos and pathos, to persuade the viewer by connecting to credibility, logic and emotions. Throughout the film, he applies satire as comic relief by using ironic, sarcastic tones to enlighten the film without sparing any explicit details for the audience. With these rhetorical devices, Moore’s techniques used in the film effectively accomplishes his objectives.
In the film, Michael Moore shows footage of the attack in the Columbine High School, where two high school seniors, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, enter the school’s library and begin to shoot at students and teachers. In the background of the footage, Moore inserts the 911 telephone calls of teachers and parents with music. In this scene, Moore applies the use of pathos by connecting to the audience’s emotions by the use of explicit video footage and fearful phone calls, so they can relate to themselves in that situation. Teachers, parents, and students connect to these real life situations because it can happen to themselves or loved ones in the future, thus they feel sympathetic to the situation. In this scene, it also shows credibility in the film’s work because it gives the raw footage of the shooting and telephone calls of teachers and parents. Because pathos and ethos are applied and connected together, the audience will be more open-minded and convinced towards Moore’s point of view.
Throughout the film, Moore uses satire as comic relief to bring enthusiasm to the audience, without sparing any explicit details.

He uses this method to not bore the audience and keep them engaged on the issue. For example, at the 47-minute mark of the film, Moore questions why the shooter’s of Columbine were violent, and interviews Marilyn Manson, an American rock musician, as well as Nicole Shleif and Amanda Lamontagne, who were students at Columbine High School and in the same bowling class of the Columbine shooters. Manson expresses his views by addressing that Americans want to put the blame on him for the shooters actions because, “[He] promote hate, violence, suicide, death, drug use and Columbine-like behavior…"(Moore). As for Shleif and Lamontagne, they explained that the shooters in their class were, “Not very social, just kinda kept to themselves” (Moore). Afterwards, Moore takes these interviews and to try to explain why America has a higher rate of shooters than other nations. He applies satire such as, “Why wasn't anyone blaming bowling for warping the minds of Eric and Dylan to commit their evil deeds? Wasn't that just as plausible as blaming Marilyn Manson? After all, it was apparently the last thing they did before the massacre”(Moore). Moore states this and uses satire and logos by providing irony to the situation to show how illogical it is to blame Manson for the shootings at Columbine because it would be as equivalent to blame bowling for the shootings at Columbine. He uses these devices to question the audience, as well as giving them relief of the heavy situation. The shooting at Columbine is a very serious and sensitive issue and although Moore uses satire, he makes sure he uses it with respect to not offend

anyone.
Moore continues to try to explain the difference between American culture and other nations such as Germany, United Kingdom and Canada, only to conclude that they have similar or higher rates of bad economic income, video game violence and gothic music. He states, “Yet in spite of all this, how many people are killed by guns each year? In Germany: 381. In France: 285. In Canada: 165. In the United Kingdom: 68. In Australia: 65. In Japan: 39. In the United States: 11,127.” Even though America has over 300 million citizens, adding up the number of rates of deaths that occurred in Germany, France, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, and Japan would still be far lower from the rate of deaths in America alone. Throughout this scene, he plays dramatic opera music in the background and explains that there is no difference between the United States and other countries in terms of a violent history, rock music, and violent gaming, and comes to the conclusion that high gun rate may be the problem of high gun violence. Moore uses dramatic opera music throughout this scene, which can be viewed as comedic. Yet the irony in the scene is that it shows the devastation of violence occurring around the world and instead of giving an “appropriate” background soundtrack, Moore specifically used opera music to imply the dramatic insanity of the situation. The music and scene wouldn’t have matched at all if played separately, but somehow Moore managed to combine them to make them seem connected and work. Although he addresses the issues of gun violence in America, Moore used satire as a comic relief to engage the audience in the plot.
Michael Moore achieved numerous awards for his film, Bowling for Columbine, including an Oscar at the 75th Academy Awards for Best Documentary Feature and the César Award for Best Foreign Film (Mojo). In 2002, he attended the 75th Academy Awards and gave a speech after this winning. “We like nonfiction and we live in fictitious times. We live in the time where we have fictitious election… we have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons”(Oscars). During his speech, he was being booed and insulted at, yet he continued to stand up to what he believed in. In 2013, PBS named his speech, “The Infamous Oscar Speech Heard Around the World,” and his film and speech became iconic and praised upon to many. In fact, it help produced many organizations such as Everytown For Gun Safety, an American nonprofit organization against gun violence and pro-gun control, and is supported by many celebrities including Beyoncé, Paul Rudd, Will Ferrell, Chris Rock, Jennifer Aniston, Peter Dinklage, and many more. Because of Moore’s success in his film, it achieved its goal to acknowledge the outcome of gun violence and cause conversation amongst the community.