Bowling for Columbine

I saw it this past Wednesday. I had heard about it before; winning some big awards at the Cannes Film Festival, and raising some very important and controversial questions. The movie’s about the tragedy at Columbine back on April 20, 2000, but more importantly, it’s about America’s love affair with firearms. A lot of people joke about how easy it is to get a gun down in the States, but it’s actually painfully true. I don’t want to say too much about what actually happened in the movie, but just to give an example of the gun control in America, the movie starts out with the director (Michael Moore) walking into a bank and asking to open up an account there so that he could get a free rifle. Yep, that’s right, they give away rifles at this (and probably a lot of other ones too) bank for opening up a certain account. Unbelievable.

There was also an interview of sorts with just some locals, asking whether or not they owned guns. “Sure, I own a 9mm”, “I own a 12-guage ”, “and what about you sir?” “Oh, I own 2 M-16s”. Seriously, I joke a lot about how Americans are so gun crazy, just because it’s written in their constitution, but that’s just ridiculous. The movie goes on, probing deeper into the topic, and up comes this cartoon from South Park (yes, the movie was actually very funny at the same time). And although it was a bit silly and crude (as can be expected from South Park), the point really came across strong – we all live in fear. (Incidentally, also in the cartoon, they revealed that in the same year the KKK was made illegal back in 18??, the NRA was formed… really confirms the ties between the two groups.) Anyway, my friends and I were just talking after the movie, and we felt this was the most important point from the whole movie, that our society pretty much lives in fear. Americans live in fear that they’re going to be attacked in some way. You know, “we need this massive military for protection”, but from what?? Many of us go to school because we fear growing up and not having money to support ourselves. We fear not being able to find a spouse, so we’re always looking for new ways to look more attractive. A lot of people fear becoming old, so they die they’re hair when it starts getting grey, or finding “rejuvenating” cosmetics. Anyway, I really thought about this whole fear complex, and I couldn’t believe how true it was.

If you guys have the chance to see this movie, I strongly urge you to do so. It probably won’t be playing in very many theaters, but it’s well worth the money. If you’re in the Waterloo area, it’s playing at the Princess Theaters. To borrow something from Richard, the movie left a very good aftertaste. In fact, it’s still there.