How Is Ethos Used In Bowling For Columbine

The 2002 Academy Award winner for Documentary Feature is Bowling for Columbine, directed by activist filmmaker Michael Moore. This documentary examines in depth the different aspects of potential reasons for extreme gun violence in the United States. Released in 2002, the film is not directly centered around the Columbine shooting, however, the event serves as a catalyst to question the founding principals of America, where gun ownership is believed to be essential to one’s freedom. Throughout the film, Moore gives the audience statistics about gun crimes worldwide, multiple clips of previous shootings, interviews with celebrities of different perspectives — such as former president Charlton Heston of NRA (National Rifle Association) — and

much more. Ultimately, Moore outlines two main factors which results in the extensive gun violence in America, which is cultural fear and the easily accessible firearms.

First if all, the persuasive technique logos is used effectively to prove Moore’s theory.  For example, using the comparison of yearly firearm homicides in several countries including numbers from Canada, Japan, France, Germany, and United Kingdom, all with under 400 deaths while the United States has a sky-high total of 11,127. From looking at these numbers, there’s no denying the cold harsh truth that this is a gun issue in US. This fact also allows the audience to ponder on what causes the high number of gun violence and follow Moore on his journey to uncover the reason. In addition, another effective use of logos is the fact that murders went down 20%, but media coverage of them went up 600%. In other words, the media is scaring the public on purpose so that fear will continue to arise. As a result of that, more firearms and bullets will have to be made available to the public. Furthermore, Moore utilises a cartoon video to display the violent history of United States, including information about the Civil Rights movement and how the Caucasian race is afraid of African-Americans, even to this day. Also, news and crime shows mostly portray African-American males as the offender, further emphasizing on how cultural fear is created, resulting in the paranoia most Americans have today. Overall, the usage of logos is used to provide the audience with solid backbone information that they cannot deny, supporting Moore’s argument.  

Secondly, the use of ethos also aides Moore in proving his theory, although his methods can be questioned.

For instance, Moore uses his status as a popular filmmaker to establish his credibility by interviewing people of all backgrounds: pro-gun owners, american students, and even some Canadians, giving the audience the perspective of ordinary citizens and the opposition side to state their reasons. The vast difference between the thoughts of Americans and Canadians certainly emphasize cultural fear. However, in the interview with the former NRA president Charlton Heston, Moore questions him in a pressing manner, almost cornering him. As a result of Moore’s methods, Heston gets extremely uncomfortable and leaves the interview, backfiring . Although that diminishes the credibility of Moore, the scene where Heston walks off certainly represents the NRA president unable to take on the heavy questions about school shootings and gun violence. Alternatively, the scene where Moore opens a bank account to receive a free gun instantly shows the easy accessibility of firearms, but, it is inaccurate. Upon further research, it can be found that the guns have to be shipped to the bank or a gun shop from a different location; it’s not as fast and easy as depicted in the film. For these reasons, the use of ethos was fairly ineffective due to misusing his credibility and the method of interviewing, although receiving diverse opinions from citizens enhances Moore’s

points.

Lastly, Moore uses pathos successfully in many parts of the film to capture the audience's heart and tug at their emotions.

To illustrate, he uses many gut-wrenching clips of several shootings, displaying the horrors of gun deaths, bringing out the sympathetic side of people. Besides that, the story of a 6 year old boy firing at his 6 year old girl classmate certainly makes people react negatively to guns, as they do not want their loved ones to turn into a victim of gun violence. Another clip shows the father of a Columbine victim, stating “There is something wrong in this country when a child can point a gun in the face of another child like they did to my son”. With such a devastating situation, it undeniably plays a role in persuading others to feel as the father did. On a brighter note, Moore manages to include some amusing scenes in the film as well; he breaks down other people’s walls and gives them a good laugh. Humor can be found in the part when a first grader gets suspended from school for pointing a chicken strip at their teacher, or the scene where Moore opens several unlocked doors in Canada. On the other hand, this brings up the question of how many doors he tried to open before finding the ones as shown, once again leaving the audience with doubt about his persuasive ways. All is all, pathos is used skillfully at the right moments to carefully evoke feelings from the

audience.

In conclusion, Bowling for Columbine is a partly successful tool of persuasion about gun violence in the United States. Using ethos, pathos and logos, Michael Moore was able to back up that the high rate of gun violence is caused by fear and the accessibility to firearms. His statement ‘’If more guns made people safer, America would be one of the safest countries in the world, but it's the opposite” is carefully argued throughout the film. Nevertheless, this documentary should receive a 7.5/10 for the overall quality. Despite some inaccuracy and questions about his methods of interviewing, Moore manages to prove his point in many parts of the film. He manages to captivate the audience and bring them along on his discovery for the reasons why gun violence is how it is today in America.