Bowling For Columbine

Mr. Fancypants

Just saw it last night. Fantastic.
Thought provoking, Hilarious, Depressing, Informative and really, really scary.

If you havent seen it, go see it. If you have seen it, what did you think?

davej

Yes i was quite impressed with it. It was great to see Marilyn Manson as the "voice of reason" in the documentary. I also liked the little clips and things that were thrown in here and there during the movie.

davej

johnnynolegs

woohoo good stuff lads i can't wait to c this

gandalf

Reading Michael Moores Stupid White Men at the moment (excellent book) looking forward to seeing this documentary as well.

Gandalf.

shotamoose

I enjoyed it while also finding it quite depressing. He doesn't really advance any solutions apart from 'be nice to each other'. I expected him to be gung-ho for gun control, but then he went on about how Canada has lots of guns but very few murders because they don't live in fear up there. Alright, but then why did he hound Charlton Heston like that? And why did he feel the need to pursue Dick Clarke to moan to him about welfare to work? I agree it's a terrible programme but Clark didn't design it, he merely employed the people forced back into work by it.

Nevertheless it was a worthwhile film. Some sequences, like the one where the two boys injured in Columbine got K-Mart to stop selling bullets, were excellent. And its worth repeating again and again that America (or at least large swathes of it) seems consumed by a culture of fear, and that fear creates violence.

lamda

I thought it was a really great piece of work... really thought provoking.... and the cctv scenes from columbine were just scary as hell!! And if you ask me, Charlton Heston deserves everything he gets.... if he is so active in this bloody ludicrous organisation then he should be able to take some serious questions on it and clearly he just couldnt handle the hard questions. Anyway, i saw it in the screen on saturday and the audience reaction was great. Especially to george bush... that man is hilarious

Mr. Fancypants

Charlton Heston was a big talking point with the people i went to see with alright. He did seem to be a very easy target and does not not have any real power in the NRA. However, he is a figurehead, and as a figurehead he must accept responsibility for the policies of the NRA.

Some really scary/funny parts in there, like Mr Bush's rather vague statements and that Oaklahoma bombing guy at the start.

DMC

Heston is an easy target, and he is getting on a bit now, (he in the early stages of Alzheimer's) but he goes up there on a platform and makes speeches. He should still be able to talk the talk and walk the walk, defend his views. As for Dick Clark, he does employ people on that scheme, and why shouldn't he be confronted about it?

Funniest bit was all the news crews outside of the school in Flint and the guy looking for hairspray....

But its the media. The interview with the producer of "Cops" was the nail in that coffin for me.

Excellent film, love all of Michael Moore's stuff.

Syd_Vicious

This is Syd_Vicious speaking...

When & where is the film out?

I went to see it last week but it wasn't on in the UCI.

Help would be appreciated

This has been Syd_Vicious speaking...

Mr. Fancypants

Its on in UGC on Parnell St and in the Screen Cinema by Trinity

EmilianoZapata

He attacks Heston for the basic reason, that Heston is a figure head for pro-gun America. Shortly after the Columbine High shoots Heston attended a pro-gun rally in the area and by a short time, I mean a couple of weeks at most. When a 6 year old boy shot a 6 year old girl in school after finding a gun at home, in Michael's home town, Heston appeared 2 days later at a pro-gun rally in that town. How can you not expect him to target a psychopath like that?

Slutmonkey57b

Originally posted by Syd_Vicious
This is Syd_Vicious speaking...
.....
This has been Syd_Vicious speaking...

I think we may have already realised that by the fact that your username is displayed beside your post.
If you wish to advise people of the nature of the person posting while making comments, why not bracket your posts with

"Move along now... nothing to see here..."

instead?

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

plastic membrane

Originally posted by mbroaders
Just saw it last night. Fantastic.
Thought provoking, Hilarious, Depressing, Informative and really, really scary.

Just about sums it all up. The sequence where he takes the disabled Columbine students back to K-Mart, with its brilliant twist in the tale, is stirring stuff. As for Chuck Heston, shame on you...

Gordon

A mind blowing film.
Amount of deaths by shooting in Germany per year 92ish
Amount of deaths by shooting in UK per year 86ish
Amount of deaths by shooting in Canada per year 65ish
Amount of deaths by shooting in USA per year 11,650!

Brother of one of the Oklahoma bombers -
"The second amendment states that we are allowed to have arms"
Moore "ye but where do you draw the line.. how about owning nuclear arms?"
brother "It says we can so we should be allowed to - it is our right"
Moore "Yes but do you think that any American should really have nuclear arms?"
brother "Well... no because any nutball could use it"

Well schmucko you are the nutball.

Great film.

(oh and quite funny how he used bowling. Bowling was the last thing that the Columbine killers did before they went an a massacre. Moore condemning bowling and praising Mansun was very funny.)

/data edit

Pigman

Originally posted by Gordon
A mind blowing film.
Amount of deaths by shooting in USA per year 116,500!

I think the figure that was quoted was closer to 11,000 rather than your number. But either way it was still miles ahead of every other country it was compared too.

Well schmucko you are the nutball.

He actually had the funniest line in the film. He justified his right to bear arms and act militantly by saying 'THERES A LOT OF WAKO'S OUT THERE!!!'

Moore condemning bowling and praising Mansun was very funny.)

Manson's point about television encouraging consumerism thru fear was bang on. As such I somehow don't see Bowling for Columbine ever appearing on terrestrial channels such as UTV, TV3 or SKY.

DapperGent

Brilliant. Truly brilliant. A little one dimensional in places but still utterly fascinating. One bit that I found a little hard to swallow was the Columbine kids and the Walmart protest, they really didn't seem to have a clue what was going on and were being driven by Moore (at least it seemed that way to me).

My favorite bit was the cartoon with a brief history of America. Absolutely hilarious.

Gordon

Whoops, think you're right about that figure, will edit.

lili

i haven't seen it yet.
but i have seen the scene of the bank, how to get a gun just oppening an account....unreal!
and the scene with marilyn manson, never guess he could talk do right.
seems an excellent film. too bad a majority of americans will not see it!

DapperGent

Yeah Manson was excellent. I remember seeing a documentary about a premediated motiveless murder (of a nun) commited by 4 italian teenage girls where Marilyn Manson's music was implicated as well and happened to be doing a tour in Italy at the time. The tour in Italy had a concert in Rome where he dressed up as the pope and did some serious disrespecting.

The funny thing was that he came across as the most level headed thoughtful and intelligent person in the documentary (including the ****ing narrator), the really scary ones were the italian police and social services. Totaly blinkered.

Shad0r

yeah was definitly worth going to see.

Thought provoking and very well made, I will certainly go see his next film.

pickarooney

Just saw it last night, thought it was mostly entertaining, though hardly ground-breaking, but in parts it wandered off at tangents that themselves lead nowhere. For instance, the Work For Welfare program. I might have missed a bit, but what relevance had any of that to the issue of gun control? It looked like it could have made a very interesting hour-long documentary in itself, but was just too short and too irrelevant for this film. The Heston interview was a piss-poor finale as well. Moore's initial, botched attempt at goading Heston completely failed, so he switched to a pathetic attempt to get his interviewee to either apologise for something in which he had no part, or get angry. Heston's peeved shuffling away was an unfitting end to a documentary with lots to say, but perhaps the wrong man saying it. Let's face it, Moore is no Chris Morris, and might have been better off leaving the bulk of the interviewing to someone more tactful.

Thorbar

I think the reason he included the work to welfare system was because its taking parents out of the home and they can't supervise their kids. I'm not sure but I think at one point he actually says if the 6 year old's mother had been at home she might have stopped him from taking the gun to school in the first place.

adeypius

is the film not more about american society than just gun control

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

adeypius

Originally posted by pickarooney
For instance, the Work For Welfare program. I might have missed a bit, but what relevance had any of that to the issue of gun control?

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

TenLeftFingers

I missed it . Hope it's released on video.

satchmo

You dragged up a 2 month old thread to tell us you havent seen this film.

Cheers :rolleyes:

TenLeftFingers

OMG that's an absolute tragedy. Condolances to wife and kids. BTW, I don't see any other posts from you on this topic?

satchmo

Thats cause I only post when I've something interesting to say... spare us the flamebait please.

Giblet

1. It's not that old a thread
2. Better than making a new thread
3. You seem to be distraught, does it bother you that much, is it getting in your way?!

satchmo

blah blah blah blah
sorry i'm just not arsed keeping this up

satchmo

Ok, due to circumstances beyond my control I was in a really foul mood yesterday, and I think this may have contributed to the above.

Apologies all round barkeep

Ivan

Where did you see it? - I would really like to actually...

Sposs

is this still inn the cinemas or is it out on DVD Yet?

Gordon

Not yet apparently
http://www.playserver1.com/play247.asp?page=search&adudisc=y