For Michael Moore fans:
http://www.apple.com/trailers/mgm/bowling_for_columbine/
I’m looking forward to it.
This is a cue for Chet to wander in and start bitching about how Michael Moore is yet another lazy America-hating hippie who should move to Afghanistan instead of blaming America for everything bad that ever happened.
yawn.
On the one hand… Is it any surprise that the film was a big winner at Cannes right now? I could put together a group of second-graders singing “America is evil” shot on b&w Super-8 with mono sound and it would win the Camera d’Or at least.
But on the other… I remember seeing an interview from a local Denver TV station asking a father of a Columbine student who survived the massacre if we should outlaw guns. His response was that we needed more guns so that other students would be able to “take those guys out before they shot any of our kids.” I’m no sociologist, but shooting our kids before they can shoot each other doesn’t sound like the healthiest solution.
http://slate.msn.com/?id=2072243
But Moore isn’t ultimately gunning for the NRA or the State Department. What he’s doing is actually braver and more valuable. He’s directly posing the question: Why is the gun-murder rate so much higher in the United States than in so many other (not-at-war) countries? Europeans have a history vastly more violent than ours. Japan has a higher appetite for bloody movies and video games. Canada has as many guns per capita. But the murder rates in those places are low. In the movie’s most hilarious sequence, Moore walks up to a succession of Canadian homes and discovers the doors unlocked: No one is scared.
I was looking forward to watching this movie. Then Oprah endorsed it. I know, I’m being shallow.
Moore edits to his heart’s content and takes the interview’s out of context. Just an FYI for those of you to think about. I have no opinion either way.
I dunno. That K-Mart scene didn’t make him look too good. He could have easily edited the interview short and left out the bit where K-Mart said, “Well, we’ve decided not to sell those bullets anymore. Thanks for coming. And we’re really sorry about those kids.” But he didn’t, and looks kind of stupid standing beside an understanding K-Mart rep.
I’m glad he left in bit where Heston said that America’s race mixture is largely responsible for gun violence. The film was cut before Heston admitted being in the early stages of Alzheimer’s, but his lucidity through much of the interview shows that he was not too affected then. After all, he knew enough to end the interview once he said that.
Moore makes polemics, not documentaries, and he has quickly morphed from bearlike underdog to a bullying filmmaker in many respects (the Dick Clark chase was kind of pointless and off-topic). The gun-death rate in the US is insane, but the connections he draws to the Kosovo war and Lockheed-Martin are more than spurious. But with every other weekend release celebrating the gun culture in America, it’s interesting to see that there is an audience for this kind of stuff.
Troy
The Heston interview was one of those that I didn’t like how it was cut. Moore’s spent, what, most of his career trying to chase down Heston to get an interview? And it seems to me that the first second it stops going Moore’s way, he cuts it and goes on to the next. Same with the K-Mart interview. To the people who like Moore’s movies, the rep wasn’t being understanding, the rep was trying to “hide” the evil dastardly plot of K-Mart to destroy the world!
And I think Space Ghost: Coast to Coast did it best. It may have been simple parody, but it was just a damn good episode. Moore gets angry at the way Space Ghost has “enslaved” Zorak and Moltar, but Space Ghost just insists they’re villains and need to be locked up. Parody indeed, but very well done.
I’m kind of hoping that, one day, Moore’s audience will go away. But seeing as how his audience mostly consists of yuppie’s, pseudo-hippie’s, Tom Chick, and the guy who made American Idol (they both try and fill people’s lives with a sick desperation for attention!), I doubt it’ll shrink.
The Heston interview was one of those that I didn’t like how it was cut. Moore’s spent, what, most of his career trying to chase down Heston to get an interview? And it seems to me that the first second it stops going Moore’s way, he cuts it and goes on to the next. Same with the K-Mart interview. To the people who like Moore’s movies, the rep wasn’t being understanding, the rep was trying to “hide” the evil dastardly plot of K-Mart to destroy the world!
And I think Space Ghost: Coast to Coast did it best. It may have been simple parody, but it was just a damn good episode. Moore gets angry at the way Space Ghost has “enslaved” Zorak and Moltar, but Space Ghost just insists they’re villains and need to be locked up. Parody indeed, but very well done.
I’m kind of hoping that, one day, Moore’s audience will go away. But seeing as how his audience mostly consists of yuppie’s, pseudo-hippie’s, Tom Chick, and the guy who made American Idol (they both try and fill people’s lives with a sick desperation for attention!), I doubt it’ll shrink.[/quote]
What an…interesting evaluation. What’s your source on Moore spending his entire career trying to get a Heston interview?
The Heston interview was one of those that I didn’t like how it was cut. Moore’s spent, what, most of his career trying to chase down Heston to get an interview? And it seems to me that the first second it stops going Moore’s way, he cuts it and goes on to the next. Same with the K-Mart interview. To the people who like Moore’s movies, the rep wasn’t being understanding, the rep was trying to “hide” the evil dastardly plot of K-Mart to destroy the world!
And I think Space Ghost: Coast to Coast did it best. It may have been simple parody, but it was just a damn good episode. Moore gets angry at the way Space Ghost has “enslaved” Zorak and Moltar, but Space Ghost just insists they’re villains and need to be locked up. Parody indeed, but very well done.
I’m kind of hoping that, one day, Moore’s audience will go away. But seeing as how his audience mostly consists of yuppie’s, pseudo-hippie’s, Tom Chick, and the guy who made American Idol (they both try and fill people’s lives with a sick desperation for attention!), I doubt it’ll shrink.[/quote]
What an…interesting evaluation. What’s your source on Moore spending his entire career trying to get a Heston interview?[/quote]
The Onion. No, really. Same place you get all your information about Vietnam.
Actually, Jason, I was being facetious about Moore spending his entire career to get an interview. He tried during the entire making of the movie, I believe, and I was simply overstating the facts, seeing as how Moore had spent so much time trying to talk to Heston and was about to give up. etc.
>I was being facetious about Moore spending his entire career to get an interview. He tried during the entire making of the movie, I believe, and I was simply overstating the facts, seeing as how Moore had spent so much time trying to talk to Heston and was about to give up. etc.
Moore is just a bully, who has no interest whatsoever in presenting an even-handed examination of a subject (for entertaining -and- even-handed, see anything by Errol Morris). Harrassing an enfeebled, and feeble-minded, Charlton Heston is right up there with Moore’s moronic habit of harrassing minimum wage security guards at conglomerates to “stand up for the common man”.
There’s some good points in Bowling to Columbine, largely obscured by Moore’s vainglory and persistent evasion of intelligent counterparties or viewpoints. I do think he can be funny (liked the couple of episodes of TV Nation I saw), and thought his thesis that media-induced fear is at least partially to blame for the disportionate quantity of firearm murders in the U.S., was interesting.
I really don’t want to pay to see one of his movies. I just watched another moore film yesterday - the big one. Ugh. Painful. He plays to such a captive audience and really just lets people with no focus or ideas babble on in the hopes of getting sympathy.
The oddest part was the beginning. He creates fake organizations and has them donate to various campaigns just to prove they will take money from anyone. Well yes, do you really think Clinton was reading every $100 check sent to him? Which was really sad, because the check to Clinton was from the national hemp growers association. Which is bad because? He compared that to giving buchanen a check from a pro abortion group. I don’t see the comparison, but as I said the whole idea was faulty as was most of the movie.
He is just like anyone else, he found his niche, now he just plays to that crowd and they eat it up.
Chet
Which was really sad, because the check to Clinton was from the national hemp growers association. Which is bad because? He compared that to giving buchanen a check from a pro abortion group. I don’t see the comparison, but as I said the whole idea was faulty as was most of the movie.
Yeah, that’s pretty stupid. Clinton isn’t exactly vehemently anti-pot, but Buchanen is certainly pro-life. And even then, what does he care if some idiot wants to throw away their money?
He is just like anyone else, he found his niche, now he just plays to that crowd and they eat it up.
I use to like him alright, but he’s just devolved into into a slobbering super-lefty. Goes on Fox News for the sake of making ludicrous accusation to the delight of his rabid following. Might as well move to Germany and be worshiped as a king.
I’m no Moore fan by any means, but I can’t fault him on going after Charlton Heston. Toys in the attic or not, he deserves to be attacked for holding those obscene gun rallies following massacres.
I’m Canadian. I can’t believe that the suprise at walking door to door in Canada during the day and opening unlocked front doors.
Of course the Canadian woman who wouldn’t lock her door at night, even after being vandalized while sleeping, is nuts. But nobody really locks their door during the day (when at home). Or do they?
I generally do. It’s always locked when I leave and always locked at night, and I would guess it’s locked over half the time even if I’m at home during the day. Why take a chance? I remember that part of the movie, and the one Canadian guy saying something like “But then you’re a prisoner in your house,” and I’m thinking “Well, I’m not really a prisoner in that I hold the key to the jail cell.” I mean, why WOULDN’T you lock the door? By leaving it unlocked, you leave yourself open to the chance that someone will walk in (which is very small, but still exists), and all you gain is, uh…I guess you save the time of throwing the latch before you go out?
Wow. That just really suprises me. The way I see it, there just is no need to lock the door. I dont see there being any real chance of anything happening while I’m at home to bother locking the door.
Of course we lock up at night and when we go out. Theft is a concern. Violent theft isn’t.
That movie really made me happy to be Canadian.
Good film. Saw it, liked it, took it with a heavy dose of salt. Even after that I still liked it. Moore brings up some good questions about American gun culture that even Heston couldn’t answer.
Just different viewpoints on the world, I guess. I mean, I’ve never been the victim of a violent crime or even of an attempted violent crime, nor do I know anybody who fits that description (I take that back: my dad was mugged once). But to me, it’s just a needless risk to leave the door unlocked even if you’re home (although it’s a small risk and I often forget to lock it). I mean, people’s homes do get burglarized during the day. So it’s possible someone will try to get into your house while you’re there. Probably they would just take off, but there’s at least some chance that they will panic, or that they’re going to be too high to care, or just too depraved to care, or any of a hundred other things that might make them react violently even if you don’t do anything to provoke them. Why take the chance? It’s not like you gain anything by leaving your door unlocked. It’s an increase in risk with no benefit.
Its not so much about gain or loss as about a psychological implication… either you are mistrustful about your surroundings or you aren’t.
I’ve seen some areas in the United States where 15 years ago they left their doors unlocked and nowadays do not. The funny thing is that I don’t believe the crime rate has gone up during that time.