Extras:
Trailer, Intro, Michael Moore on his Oscar win and acceptance speech,
Return to Denver/Littleton - 6 months after, Michael Moore interviewed by
Clinton Press Secretary Joe Lockhart, Michael Moore on The Charlie Rose Show,
Music Video, Staff and Crew Photo Gallery, DVD-ROM extras
Director:
Michael Moore
(The Big One, Bowling For Columbine, Canadian Bacon, Fahrenheit 9/11, Roger & Me, TV: The Awful Truth, TV Nation)
Producers:
Charles Bishop, Jim Czarnecki, Michael Donovan, Kathleen Glynn & Michael Moore
Screenplay:
Michael Moore
Music:
Jeff Gibbs
Cast:
Michael Moore, Charlton Heston, Matt Stone, Marilyn Manson, Tom Mauser, John Nichols
Sexy Girl with Gun: Denise Ames
Bowling For Columbine is a documentary that
perfectly gets across the point it's trying to make..
On April 20th, 1999, two high school kids went their usual early-morning route
to bowling class, that's skipping school to play ten-pin bowling instead.
Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold planted bombs at Columbine High School
and took the place over in a seemingly military-style operation intending to shoot
any children and teachers that survived. The bombs placed in the school cafeteria
didn't go off, but before they shot themselves in the head they slaughtered
12 students and one teacher, although many others were wounded by the 900
rounds of ammo that were fired. All of the guns and ammunition were bought
legally.
That's the basis for this documentary, although it also examines America's
gun culture and questions whether they're really needed at all in the main.
There's chat with relatives and classmates of those who died, and one
journalist is shown saying at the time, "Harris' diary also detailed
ideas about hijacking an airplane and crashing it into New York City. Some
may characterise that as fantasy." Sadly, prophetic words indeed.
CCTV footage of the actual event in the school is shown, plus phone calls to 911
including the father of Eric Harris admitting that his son may have some
involvement because he's part of what the media call "The Trench Coat Mafia".
Then just ten days later, actor and NRA (National Rifle Association) president
Charlton Heston came to town to stage a pro-gun rally. Moron.
Along the way until we see a final interview with Heston, writer/director
Michael Moore shows us a bank that gives away free guns with each
account opened, a lad called DJ who has a homemade five-gallon drum of napalm
in his house and is second-highest on the bomb-threat list, John Nichols, the
brother of one of the Oklahoma City bombers Terry Nichols who carried out his
attack on April 19th, 1995 with Timothy McVeigh, who was executed for this.
We also take a look around Lockheed Martin, the world's largest weapons maker,
based in and around Littleton, many of its employees having children who go to
the school in question. The movie also questions America's need for guns and
takes swipes at the U.S. government and how it helped fund future world
terrorists such as Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden. A montage of such clips,
to the tune of Louis Armstrong's "What A Wonderful World" take us on a
journey from the '50s and '60s to September 11th, 2001.
The film even includes brief footage of murders and suicides, the latter
including politician Bud Dwyer who was accused of corruption, organised a
press conference and blew his brains out live on TV. Do a google for his name
and you'll find the MPEG - quite disturbing stuff, but surprisingly of the
two versions I saw, the 60-second one was worse than the 90-second piece, since
the former ends on a close-up.
So many people lay the blame of tragedies like this at the door of musician
Marilyn Manson, violent films and computer games, but I don't buy that. It's
all down to how people were brought up. If they have crap parents then they'll
turn out crap themselves. I love a good game of
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City,
but I can draw the line between fantasy and reality. While the film can get
a little slow in the second half at times, the real-life events depicted here
are nothing less than heartbreaking.
Some banks entice new custom with free pens or £30.
Some other banks have different ideas...
The film is presented in the original 1.85:1 widescreen ratio and is
anamorphic. When the source is good, it's very good, but when it's iffy then
that shows. That doesn't mean there's any problems with the transfer, but just
that as a documentary don't expect high-quality source footage throughout.
There's no problems with the sound, but there's absolutely nothing that makes
this a must-see in Dolby Digital 5.1. A standard surround track would make no
difference here.
All of the extras, apart from the trailer and intro, are on disc 2.
Trailer (2 mins):
1.85:1 letterbox and snappily put together in an over-the-top manner. Watch
the film first.
Intro (4 mins):
Well, watch this before the film and then watch the trailer, in that order.
Moore explains there's no audio commentary because the film explains it well
enough, which is true.
Exclusive: Michael Moore on his Oscar win and acceptance speech (15½ mins):
An interesting and candid solo piece to camera describing the event, since
he wasn't given the rights to show the event, and how everyone else was worried
what he'd say about the war in Iraq. Filmed in 4:3 fullscreen, as is all the
following interview-style supplementary material.
Return to Denver/Littleton - 6 months after the release of Bowling for Columbine (25 mins):
Moore gives an impassioned speech to those who were affected by everything
and takes time out afterwards to chat to his fans in detail.
Michael Moore interviewed by Clinton Press Secretary Joe Lockhart (21 mins):
Recorded at HBO's U.S. Comedy Arts Festival on February 27th 2003.
Michael Moore on The Charlie Rose Show (25 mins):
And by this point you realise there's nearly as much here in interview
material as there was a film. A lot of it will start to repeat itself, but
it's good to have for the completist even if it's overkill for others.
Music Video (3 mins):
Marilyn Manson's Fight Song
Staff and Crew Photo Gallery (3 mins):
One at a time, in alpha order.
DVD-ROM extras:
Teacher's Guide information, although it's also available at
Bowling For Columbine.com,
according to the DVD.
The disc has 16 chapters and could do with a few more, subtitles are in
English only, but the menus fit in well with the bowling theme in a
tongue-in-cheek manner.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
