Watching Bowling for Columbine on IFC

[Guaranteed]

I think it's Michael Moore's best, although SiCKO was amazing as well.

This one is just so subtle and insightful as a critique on our culture. I can easily see how so many wouldn't like it, but I doubt they even understood the half of the points he was making.

[magellan]

1. I liked the parts contrasting us with Canada

Big gun culture up there too, but gun crimes aren't nearly as endemic. And so many don't even bother to lock their doors! At least, that's how it was before Harper. Wonder how it is now? Any Canucks have thoughts on the conservative leadership and how it may be impacting Canadian society for better/worse?

[LSK]

11. it was hilarious when he was going into peoples houses and

trying to figure out why they don't lock their doors!

[cboy4]

2. "Well here's my first question. Do you think it's a little

dangerous handing out guns in a bank?" :spray:

That documentary was tooooo much. :thumbsup:

[benEzra]

4. Except that the guns-in-the-bank scene was faked...

Federal law requires that guns be transferred by licensed gun dealers, so the bank was handing out vouchers so that you could go to the gun dealer, fill out the required Federal paperwork, and pick up the rifle. That apparently didn't give the effect he wanted...

I also thought the jump-cut splicing together two different Heston speeches from eight months apart in order to make him look like he was being a curmudgeon about Columbine was underhanded. It was so smoothly done that few people would notice.

[IndianaJones]

5. I thought the Heston portrayal was right on the mark. nt.

[benEzra]

7. The "we're already here" clip was cobbled together from two speeches given eight months apart

with enough of the context deleted to make it sound defiant (he wasn't). In the speech immediately post-Columbine, Moore also edited out Heston saying "As you know, we've cancelled the festivities, the fellowship we normally enjoy at our annual gatherings" to make it look as if NRA hadn't canceled them.

Heston came to Flint eight months after the Kayla Rolland tragedy, not 48 hours, one of nine stops Heston made in a three-state area following the presidential candidates around. The web page Moore zooms from in Bowling, that says "48 hours after Kayla Rolland is pronounced dead", actually said "48-hours after Kayla Rolland is pronounced dead, Bill Clinton is on The Today Show telling a sympathetic Katie Couric, 'Maybe this tragic death will help.'" Nothing to do with Heston, but Moore made it seem as if it did.

It was definitely good theatre, but to me, it's just another way to lie. He could have made his points without pulling stuff like that, IMHO. There are plenty of legitimate complaints to make about the NRA without making crap up.


----------------------
Dems and the Gun Issue - Now What? (written in '04, largely vindicated in '06, IMO)

The Conservative Roots of U.S. Gun Control

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

6. Oooo, sorry, wrong.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/wackoattacko/

There's a whole lot of conservatives out there lying about BfC.

You should take anything they say with a grain of salt before buying itl

[benEzra]

8. My bad about the bank...the bank was also a licensed gun dealer, I see.

Sorry, Moore didn't do progressives any favors with BFC. It just reinforced the whole damn "Dems'll-take-yer-guns" meme.

[IndianaJones]

9. I own several guns and support gun ownership, and did not get that impression. nt.

[benEzra]

14. From Moore's website...

http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/articles/index.php?article=trans-donahue-20021028

October 28, 2002

Official Transcript DONAHUE show

Content and programming copyright 2002 MSNBC.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Transcription Copyright 2002 FDCH e-Media
(f/k/a/ Federal Document Clearing House, Inc.)
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

MSNBC
SHOW: DONAHUE 20:00
October 28, 2002 Monday

TRANSCRIPT: # 102800cb.466
SECTION: NEWS; DOMESTIC
LENGTH: 6146 words
HEADLINE: DONAHUE for October 28, 2002
BYLINE: Phil Donahue
GUESTS: Michael Moore

HIGHLIGHT:
Michael Moore discusses his latest film, "Bowling for Columbine," a documentary about violence in American society.

...

DONAHUE: You're talking about long guns.

MOORE: Yes, I'm talking about stopping the selling of ammunition for weapons that are specifically designed to kill human beings.

DONAHUE: And you see that as pistols, handguns.

MOORE: Handguns or weapons where you can fire multiple rounds at a time. You don't need to essentially spray the woods to get your deer. If you do, you should be, you know, doing needle point or some other sport.

DONAHUE: OK, so let's understand. You'd like a ban on the sale of handguns.

MOORE: Yes. I believe that we don't need handguns.

DONAHUE: And a ban on the sale of brrr! That kind of gun.

MOORE: Anything that fires multiple rounds like that, absolutely.

An outright ban on handguns, and a ban on long guns that can fire "multiple rounds," presumably without reloading (he's not talking about automatic weapons because they are already so tightly restricted).

I see he would let the 1 in 5 gun owners who hunt keep some of their guns--as would the repubs at the Brady Campaign--but banning the lawful ownership of handguns, the most popular target rifles, and defensive-style carbines and shotguns would be wrongheaded and conterproductive.

I also don't see him mentioning that the primary murder weapons at Columbine were a pair of sawed-off .729 caliber hunting shotguns (a pump and a side by side), meaning that even such a ban wouldn't have prevented Columbine.


----------------------
The Conservative Roots of U.S. Gun Control

Dems and the Gun Issue - Now What? (written in '04, largely vindicated in '06, IMO)

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

13. Sure he did.

Just because a bunch of rightwing kooks made up a bunch of bullshit and spread it around, and some people believed them, it doesn't mean Moore did anything wrong.

"It just reinforced the whole damn "Dems'll-take-yer-guns" meme."

Did you even watch the movie?

[leftofthedial]

3. the sequence with Charlton Heston

was one of the most twistedly wonderful pieces of filmmaking I've ever seen

[Bandit]

10. I like the part where he listed all gun fatalities in every country

All were less than two hundred and most less than one hundred except of course America which was over eleven thousand. Quite a startling statistic..

[Javaman]

12. Take the skin heads bowling, take them bowling...nt