By: Lital, Katherine, and Evan
The documentary “Bowling for Columbine”, filmed in 2002, is a
documentary which touches on a sensitive topic in the United States; the
possession of guns. It is based on a shooting in Columbine High School on April
20th, 1999, which affected many family and children of the USA. Michael
Moore, the director of this documentary, also surfaces many issues related to
guns and how American feel about this topic.
In this two hour documentary, Michael Moore goes out and searches for different answers on this controversial topic. He explores more of this topic through the shooting of 12 children from Columbine High School, in which he bases the majority of this film on. He starts off the film with his experience with guns because that is a tradition in his hometown of Michigan. Moore uses comedy, tragedy and anger to get his point across of fear and violence that most Americans experience because of the gun ownership. He interviews people from the media like Matt Stone, Marilyn Manson, James Nichols and Charlton Heston. Between all the varieties of people interviewed, the ideas of guns change from how guns promote evil to how it is protection of the poor. Moore brings us through a roller coaster of emotions by the footage of the Columbine shooting, the scene with kids that have targets attached to them, the scenes of all the recent violence that occurred in the USA and many more. Through this documentary, Michael Moore shows us how having a gun doesn’t always mean protection, guns are not safe to possess out of fear, we are not fully educated on guns and that living out of fear is corrupt.
The topic of the art of convincing, discussed in class, relates to the Michael Moore’s rhetoric views on the topic of guns in America. Rhetoric is when there is an organization of events to express oneself, convince and persuade people. We discussed forms of address used in rhetorical, which are logos, pathos and ethos. Logos is the reasoning to construct an argument, pathos is the appeal to emotions to alter feelings and judgement and ethos is the belief in someone based on their credibly because of their social position. We learnt that rhetorical development can be reach through examples, definitions, cause and effect, circumstances and quotations. We also discussed propaganda which is a claim relating to reality and to truth. They use it to expose a point of view, to convince and to covert. Some of the techniques that are used by name calling, glittering generalities, transfer, false analogy, testimonial, plain folks, card stacking, bandwagon, either/or fallacies and faulty cause and effect. Lastly, we discussed the critical eye. The critical eye is an understanding that there is more than one to side to every story that we must be alert to uncover the techniques used to shape our understanding of a situation and to be able to make enlightened well informed choices.
In the documentary “Bowling for Columbine”, Moore uses a rhetorical image throughout the film; he persuades us by going back and forth with people pro guns and then the devastation involving guns. He makes the people who are for guns look extremely foolish by showing clips of the tragedy of guns soon after. Moore uses logos by the number of people who have died by guns in different countries per year and the last being the USA with 11,127 deaths; this also appeals to pathos. There is a use of ethos by Moore interviewing James Nichols and Matt Stone based on their credibly, ideas and rationality. He uses pathos by footage of dates and footage of events involving war and violence which the USA is included in, over the past 50 years and the song “what a wonderful world in the background”; this plays with our emotions. Michael Moore develops his arguments by using comparison, he shows two events that happened on April 20th, first the bombing in Serbia by the USA and how they bombed elementary schools and hospitals and compared that to Columbine shooting; he proves that America is violent. He uses cause and effect by taking the causes of bowling, poverty, broken homes or violent pasts to trigger a school shooting by teenagers. He uses a quote by Marilyn Manson to emphasize one of his points in this documentary, he states “fear created in the media results in consumption.” Moore uses propaganda and uses a lot of ordinary people from his home town, people who work at the bank, ex-convicts of Michigan to expose his point of view on guns. He also uses faulty cause and effect going through the list of effects that cause violence from teenagers such as violence in the media, metal music, Satan, Marilyn Mason etc. By the end of the film, the one-sidedness becomes more relieved and it leaves the audience with knowledge of this side of the arguments on gun control in the USA.
Introduction to Capitalism: A Love Story
A
documentary film very similar to “Bowling for Columbine” is “Capitalism: A Love
Story”. It was written, directed and produced by Michael Moore in 2009. The
movie is about two hours long and was filmed in the United States. Moore brings
us into a history class and explains to us how the Roman Empire had its own
greedy flaws, just like today. As time progresses, Moore brings us to the post
WWII era. The era where the US’s rivals, Japan and Germany, were busy cleaning
up their destroyed cities. While Japan’s and Germany’s economy was in the
toilet, Americans were thriving with heaps of money. The President, Franklin D.
Roosevelt was going to introduce the Second Bill of Rights, which would ensure
that everyone in the United-States would be happy. So why aren’t Americans
happy right now? Well Moore thinks it’s because Roosevelt died before
introducing the Rights, politicians made alliances with billion-dollar
corporations and that Wall Street was abolishing millions of jobs and
health-care for their own benefit. Moore explains how President Ronald Reagan
was controlled by Wall Street, which enabled them to do anything they wanted,
even steal money from the poor. Moore shows all sorts of examples of how
everyday people are getting robbed of their wealth and homes. For example he
shows a clip of an evicted family refusing to leave their home. With the
support of their neighbors, the authorities didn’t intervene. Moore also showed
a take-over by employees of a company. They wouldn’t leave the factory grounds
until the company owners gave them what they wanted. With the event making the
news, the employees were given support by thousands of people. According to
Moore, ‘support’ seems to be a huge problem for Wall Street. In fact Moore
explains that the poor have one advantage over the rich: the number of
individuals. Moore explains that if the poor get together and vote for a
politician that seeks to destroy Wall Street’s dream, then the billionaires we
know today won’t be as rich as they were yesterday.
If you don’t quite know a lot about
Wall Street, this article might inform you about it:
The two main
concepts that were covered in class were rhetoric and propaganda. This film
displays a lot of techniques associated with both concepts. The first rhetoric
form is logos, which is when someone uses reasoning to construct arguments
(using facts, numbers etc…) “Bowling for Columbine” showed many facts and
numbers to get a point across. In fact “Capitalism: A love Story” did the exact
same thing. Michael Moore send out a bunch or pretty looking numbers that made
some popular and rich people look bad. Although the audience has no clue where
Moore is getting his numbers from, they could be made up just so Moore can make
a point. For example Moore tells his audience that personal bankruptcies
increased by 610% since the 1980s. Yet these numbers aren’t referenced, so how
is the audience supposed to know Moore isn’t exaggerating a bit?
The second
rhetoric form is ethos. The documentary didn’t necessarily interview anybody
because of their credibility or of their social position, but it did show video
clips of different presidents talking to the American people. The third
rhetoric is pathos. In “Bowling for Columbine”, pathos was used quite often to
get Moore’s audience to agree with his points and it is exactly the same in
“Capitalism: A Love Story”. Moore shows video clips of the terrible conditions
the lower class have to live in. Families of twelve would be living in a truck,
thousands of families were evicted from their homes and it also showed how
organizations bet on their own employee’s deaths:
Or even how pilots only get paid 19 000$ a year:
Many propaganda
techniques were used throughout the film. The most common technique was Name
Calling and Card Stacking. Throughout the whole film, the rich and powerful
were portrayed as greedy and evil. That it was their fault for what has
happened to the United-States economically and politically, and Moore did a
great job at pointing his finger. If the movie wasn’t showing the audience
clips of the lower class, it was bashing the rich for what they’ve done. Plain Folks was used throughout the film. For
example there were two farmers who were getting their house evicted. The
farmers explained their side of the story which made the scene very biased
because Moore didn’t interview why the bank evicted the farm. Maybe the farmers
weren’t paying their bills, or owed the bank a large amount of money, the
audience just doesn’t know. The propaganda technique Testimonial was used to
make Ronald Reagan the 40th president of the United-States. Before his
presidency, Reagan was originally a Hollywood star and corporate spokesman
before convincing Americans he was right for the White House. Which, as Moore tells
his audience, was the beginning of the end of capitalism.
Personal Response to Bowling
for Columbine
Bowling for Columbine is a documentary that is all about
showing Moore’s opinion about guns and their relation to violence. We can
learn a lot about society and ourselves in general, as the documentary reflects
the easy accessibility to weapons and munitions. This accessibility shows that
different outlets, such as the news, violence in movies, television,
video games, and the media influence us and instill fear within us.
The emphasis on fear is central in Moore's film, showing the psychological
effects these outlets have on our minds, and the impact of such an acute
phenomenon that is a plague to our well being. These means of expression,
become our means of expression, teaching us to mimic what it is
we see; creating paranoia and enabling
people to make irrational decisions. It is important to see how
such tragic events such as the Columbine high school shooting, create a
globally controlling hold on many individuals. Some become a part of the
violence, while others seek protection from it by purchasing a gun. Even
for those that do buy weapons for their own protection, this action creates a
dualistic approach to the situation. On one hand, it is strictly for the means
of feeling more sheltered and in control of any possible violent
interaction, and on the other, it reflects a sad reality of what this world has
succumbed to, agony and terror, rather than peace and unison. What this world
needs is to validate the human race and accept that we are all human born
under one God. We must learn to open our eyes and learn that in the end,
the ones we hurt are each other. This influence depicts the disparity
between those that are weak and controlled by the influence of the media, and
those that choose not to become victimized by it.
Personal Response to Capitalism:
A Love Story
This documentary explores capitalism as
a corporate authority on the everyday lives of individuals. We learn
that people pay the price with their homes, savings and current employment
opportunities. Moore examines the homes of other people, and the devastation
that their infatuation with capitalism has created, destruction that has
accompanied and burned their lives in the name of love. Our world is
filled with greed where in relation to youth today, there is more interest in
finance than in science. This documentary portrays the evil in capitalism,
which Moore concludes should be replaced by democracy and ruled by the
people, rather than by the money. In reference to control, the money controls
the lives of individuals and creates the robbery of their innocent and fragile
lives. Goods and services are only provided for those who are capable
of paying for them, leaving out the sick, the old, the young, and those
that are incapable of working. Ironically, the documentary begins with
footage of armed robberies, which in my perception is a representation of
capitalism in society today; where money controls and oppresses the lives of
its victims. After seeing the documentary and examining the title: “A Love
Story,” capitalism cannot be lived with or without. The vicious money
hungry cycle that perpetuates our global economy is indeed a love story, even
when it may not necessarily be right or beneficial.
Links
Between Bowing for Columbine and Capitalism: A Love Story
When examining both films, Moore depicts gun violence
and those that fall prey to its plague as a means of attention and expression.
Meanwhile, to those that choose not to succumb to the violence, there is still
a great sense of fear that is instilled within us due to the platform such
outlets create for us. Whether it instills fear or is a gateway to acquiring
attention, violence is an emotion and a ploy for attention. Moore explores
capitalism as a weapon itself, leading to the destruction of our own well
beings, by perpetuating greed and following a vicious cycle that is dominated
by finance and the idea of money as what makes the world go around. Money does
make this world function and revolve, however it centers around the idea of
dominance and power over individuals. The liaison between both articles is the
concept of dominance, whether it is fear or attention when it comes to violence
in general, or how we choose to invest our money. The central brain of this
operation is the dominance of the media and its other mediums, social outlets
that have a big role in instigating and influencing our thoughts, perceptions
and beliefs, which are replaced by their expressions that soon become
ultimately ours. In relation to both articles, infatuation of anything leads to
its ultimate control and supremacy, where balance is no longer a priority.
In conclusion, both films were incredible and are
recommended to all those who seek to explore the global phenomenon of gun
violence and capitalism. There are lessons to be learned from these films, and
anybody could benefit by watching them and developing their own thoughts and
perception on them. The main themes make us all re-evaluate the world we
live in today, and the fear that is being instilled within us through the
media and its outlets. Things have changed and will continue to change as
time goes on, and we all have to adapt to these new changes. The concept of gun
violence and capitalism as two factors that contribute to an investment of
falsity and negativity, the issues, thoughts and concerns surrounding them we
essential in the development and understanding of the two films.
Capitalism: A Love Story(Trailer)
In Bowling for Columbine, it's unfortunate how it took an act of violence to open our eyes to the problems around us. While Michael Moore's film was extremely biased, I do partly agree with the fact that fear in America leads to many problems. However, I think it’s also an issue of trusting your government and in turn the government should provide basic social needs, which is exactly what’s missing in America.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting videos from Capitalism A Love Story but I couldn’t read the Wall-Street article because we needed to subscribe… otherwise it was a great review!
Serena Potts
Very interesting blog, well written and it had very good definitions of logos, pathos and ethos and how they were used in Michael Moore's documentaries. Only thing I might have added, in the first part, is when you are talking about fear, mention how the media enforces fear in its people. Other than that, great blog! I personally really enjoyed watching "Bowling for Columbine" and the way it made me feel many emotions all at once. I’d love to see what it would be like if Michael Moore re-filmed it now after the shooting that happened at Sandy Hook elementary school last December. What will it take for gun laws to be stricter?
ReplyDeleteYou guys did a really good job with your blog entry. You incorporated all the aspects really well and it was really interesting to read. I loved the videos of the interviews with Michael Moore. I liked how he addressed that his documentary is mainly based on his opinion. I like how he has a very real attitude towards his filmmaking and he doesn't put on an act.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the movie. I thought it was really well made and eye-opening. It was definitely shocking and disturbing at times, especially with some of the comments made my people who were against gun restrictions, like Charlton Heston. It makes you wonder whether people realize how many innocent people have lost their lives because of careless gun violence.
Nathalie Todi
That is an excellent blog entry. The team explained well all the techniques we've learned and how they are related to the movie. I would build a little bit around Marilyn Manson’s point of view that was extremely interesting and around people’s answer of this climate of fear of always protecting themselves by adding guns, guns and guns like a vicious circle. I found that it was an excellent movie even if we mostly see Michael Moore’s opinion. The interviews were very interesting for the purpose of the blog entry. I think that Michael Moore did a great job with his documentary to convince and inform some people of what’s going on in their country. This movie shows well how people’s mentality could be so different even if they are from the same country.
ReplyDeleteGood job team
Marc-Olivier Cheney
This is a great blog entry. You guys talked about all the important aspects from both documentaries “Bowling for Columbine” and “Capitalism: A Love Story”. I also liked how you guys brought in our class discussion about ethos, pathos and logos and connected it to both documentaries.
ReplyDeleteBeing American myself, I can clearly see how gun control and fear are big issues in the United States. When I went down to Maine in December, there were many stores where you can still buy guns easily. Michael Moore did a really good job showing examples of problems with guns and he made his point clear in his documentary.
Good job,
Matthew Palaic
A good entry, offering a good overview of the two films, but somewhat lacking in terms of engagement with the films.
ReplyDeleteYour presentation of the concepts is well led, but your examples are the same I used on the slides. I'm expecting a more personal reading of the films for the blog.
Also, you don't talk much about the consequences of Michael Moore' use of rhetoric and propaganda: what are the challenges for the viewers? How does it fit with our idea of what a documentary should be?
For the personal response, I'm also expecting you to make links between the two films and to reflect on their success as documentaries.
It was a good entry. It well summarizes both film and the material that we saw in class. I am absolutely conscious that Micheal Moore's films are biased but I am totally agree with his point of view. For my opinion, weapons have not their place in our society. The irony with this problem is that they think that they are protected if they have a weapon. But, in fact, they are creating a society more dangerous. We need to ask us, where we are going as a society? Also, I am against the capitalism because with this economic system, the world is based on the money. The typical story of the capitalism is: make money, make always more money. With this obsession about the money, sometimes we forget our real values. With the capitalism we become a society more individualistic and we forget that we are not alone. The goal of Micheal Moore is to defend his point of view and he successfully reached his goal.
ReplyDeleteJean-Dominique Gagné
You just said that you are against the capitalism. But in fact, what kind of society is better, capitalism or communism? It has good parts in each of those society systems. In communism everybody is supposed to have the same amount of cash. But is it the reality? Cuba's citizens are all poor but their dirigeants are rich. And Cuba's citizens can't exit their country because they are not allowed to. However, it is true that a capitalist society creates a me, myself and I society.
DeleteYour good friend
Philippe Leblanc
Good blog and good summary of the movie. I found that the movie made us alot more aware of gun violence. Michael Moore showed us different sides of the arguments on guns, but was clearly biased, being a gun-owner himself. He tended to interview a select group of people that agree with him, which took away from the bigger issue.
ReplyDelete-Devin.L
This was a well written entry that pretty much summed up what the documentary had tried to present to the audience. There were good examples used to explain the ethos, logos and pathos terms from the film, and I thought the passage about capitalism was really insightful. This movie was one that I felt triggered most emotion and like you explained, the pathos rhetoric was what stimulated that reaction! Well, good job to this group and keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteCommenting on "Bowling for Columbine". Even though some of the facts may have been dramatized, I agree with Michael Moore because he is trying to make the public aware of the real gun problem and the corruption in the United States.
ReplyDeleteCorruption and fear are truly demonstrated in the movie by the Media to make us understand why American's feel the need to take the law into their own hands.
You guys have done a great job on this entry, I like the way that you integrated what we've seen in class; Logos, Pathos, Ethos. Even though most of Michael Moore films are biased I totally agree with him on this issue, guns are a major problem in this country and it's not by supplying more guns to security guards that the problem will be solved. I think that it can be proved if we remember the recent event that had happened in Newtown, Connecticut and can conclude from that that the United-States needs to wake up and rethink their legislation in order to prevent such crisis to happen again.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading this entry, I felt like all the requirements were well met. I think that the element of fear in the documentary could have been covered and examined more in this entry, other than that every thing was brought together well. Michael Moore is a great film maker and he's great at grasping your attention and involving you emotions in everything he's made. "Bowling for Columbine" uses a lot of the techniques that were mentioned in this blog entry, to grasp our attention. He uses these techniques to make us understand his point of view while at the same time questioning and criticizing the opposing view.
ReplyDeleteI think that now, more than ever, the issues discussed in "Bowling for Columbine" are so important to question. How sad is it that it takes disturbing tragedies to happen for stubborn political advocates to realize that things need to change and laws on gun prevention need deep improvement. I'm very glad that this documentary was made because there are so many people that need to consider its message more.
The blog did a great job of outlining a huge problem in America. There are too many guns circulating and I was amazed to hear that our family friends have a gun collection nearing 50 firearms. Not one of the weapons is a leisurely hunting rifle. Americans love having the right to purchase arms freely. When Obama was first inaugurated into the White House, our friends, along with millions of other Americans flew to the stores to stock up for fear that the new president would tighten gun laws. In America, people live in fear of the many terrors lurking around the corner and so they purchase weapons they deem necessary for their protection. Ironically, those very same weapons are responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent Americans every year. Your blog team did a great job of displaying the idiocy that surrounds guns and a society propelled to take action into their own hands. The blog showed how crazy guns can make a country and shared the tragedies that surround lax laws for gun ownership guns.
ReplyDeleteVictoria Baylis
I find this entry to be very well thought out. As I read your blog entry I began to understand even more about the ways people interpret and talk about sensitive subjects like gun law and how the public opinion continues to be influenced by the propaganda techniques that are used in documentaries such as Bowling for Columbine. Sometimes documentaries like these make me wonder if comedians like Chris Rock describe the truth about gun law more directly in their jokes, than politicians do in their speeches.
ReplyDeleteI’ve also heard many times that Michael Moore is a poor documentary film maker because he expresses the democratic view of things and I find that to be a large generalisation. Although his use of card stacking and "finger pointing" in Bowling for Columbine made his approach partially biased, his focus on the subject didn’t change in my opinion. Your blog was very descriptive and I found it to be one of the more direct and informative blogs published so far.
Etienne Poulin
First of all, you guys did a great job at examining the films. While I agree that Michael Moore is not one of the most objective film makers, I believe it was important for someone to look at the extremely important and under looked issue of gun ownership as well as the fear of many people in the United States. I personally do not like Moore, but I think he did a good job at sending a message to the people of the United States as well as in other countries. His film left a lot of counter arguments out but I think this helped to leave a bigger shock on the audience which is what he wanted. If you want to create change, you need to shock people.
ReplyDeleteEvan Raelson
Great job Lital Sarraf, Katherine Vavaroutsos and Evan Raelson on the blog. I believe you did a particularly good job explaining how the documentary "Bowling for Columbine" was from only one point of view, Micheal Moore's point of view. I liked how you made it apparent that Moore's reason for making the film subjective was to give his audience a great deal of information about one specific side of the gun violence issue. At the same time you brought in the definition of the critical eye so to explain that we as viewer are free to make our own opinions on what we see from the film and are free to go exploring for more/new facts of the subject.
ReplyDeleteI would also like to ask a question about one of the things you wrote about in your blog. In the first paragraph it is written "...the ideas of guns change from how guns promote evil to how it is protection of the poor."
I didn't quite get that view from Moore's film and I cannot recall where it was said that guns are used to protect the "poor". Although it was said by one of the men Moore had interviewed "This is an american tradition. It is an American responsibility to be armed. If you're not armed, you're not responsible. Who is going to defend your kids, The cops, the Federal Government? It's your job to defend you are yours. If you don't do it,you're n declaration of your duty as an American, period."
but from this, I take that guns are suppose to be a protection of the innocent, not the poor.
As CEGEP students in Montreal we can all feel connected to gun violence in schools due to September 13th, 2006, the Dawson school shooting. Though not as severe as Columbine, two lives were lost that day along with 19 more students wounded. Gun violence is serious and terrifying. I believe that Micheal Moore's documentary may have opened up a few more eyes to how real it really is.
Danielle Mac Rae
This is a very good entry. You guys did a very good job integrating interviews of Michael Moore and relating this documentary to another. In my opinion, I think that USA doesn't have to change all their weapon's legislations but restrain their access. Mainly because it would be very hard to change everybody's mind in a short period of time and some people wouldn`t take the changes well.
ReplyDeletePhilippe Leblanc
Well done for the blog guys! You did a pretty good job in overall and you very well explained in details all the techniques used in the documentary. I was really shocked and surprised to see that weapons in United States are so easily accessible to anyone who is interested to own one. I can't believe that, especially after so many dead like young kids in few schools shooting and murders.US government did not even abolish the weapon law. Michael Moore as a film producer, always involved himself in government issues because he is a liberal activist. I support his opinions and I am a true believer of his philosophy.
ReplyDeleteChristophe Bertrand
Good job on the blogs! You guys did a great on outlining all key elements of film. Primarily, how the US are in state of fear. It took this horrific event to shed light on many people. Personally, laws in the States should be tight as they are in Canada in order to minimize violence on the streets and all of these tragedies. Guns are so availabe to anyone it is extremely shocking. I did not know it went as far as just opening a bank account. Hopefully, sooner or later it will come to an end.
ReplyDeleteHarshar Srinivasan
Job well done with the blog and especially how you guys made a connection with a different documentary by the same person. I feel very terrible on how gun violence increased within the united states and how innocent bystanders get killed because they are at the wrong place at the wrong time. Personally I believe that the government should abolish the second amendment (which is the right to bear arms) because it seems that firearms and other various weapons are very easy to obtain in the United States and how the law explains clearly that you are allowed to carry a firearm which is a tool that promotes violence. Personally I feel the United States should have or follow a specific law or amendments on gun control and abolishing firearms like Canada, so that horrific events like the Columbine shooting Massacre or even the most recent and horrific shooting that took place in Newtown should never ever happen again! Micheal Moore has changed people's ideal and beliefs by creating this documentary to show the true horror of living in a society that promotes the right to bear a firearm.
ReplyDeleteShashi Roy
I am commenting on how I felt after watching the documentary "Bowling for Columbine". I felt like the United States of America were represented as an insensitive, and paranoiac country. Sure it is normal to fear society or fear the government (for those anti-government citizens), but it is not a valid reason for those people to barricade themselves with guns. But, we see that some companies or persons are understanding of some events and decide to change things for the best, proving that after all, some Americans can think without the constitution. As for Canada, we looked ridiculous when Michael Moore opened all the doors in the neighborhood like noting, but I feel like it was all planed for the comedic side of the documentary. Still. Michael Moore did a great job to question the U.S.A's actions, and to make us realize that some of the things he says are true.
ReplyDeleteI really like Bowling for Columbine and I thought that it was a very well done movie. It was interesting and a little bit scary to realize all the propaganda techniques that were used in this movie because when I watched it I really didn’t notice them. It was only afterwards when discussing it in class that I began to think about the way the movie was filmed and the way the filmmaker tries to convince you of his opinion. I think that it definitely opened my eyes to being more careful about taking documentaries in general at face value and to reflecting deeper into how things are portrayed in these documentaries.
ReplyDeleteKatie Polley
Bowling for Columbine remains, for me, the most shocking documentary we have viewed so far. It's something about the fact that it can happen to any of us, any day, and that it is so close to home. Like Moore remembers the Columbine shooting, I and many Montrealers will never forget the Dawson shooting! I remember my brother wasn't allowed to leave the cegep and I was absolutely terrified. Seeing this movie, and hearing testimonies really left a huge mark. I agree that Moore did an amazing job in demonstrating his opinion, and truthfully, it was quite eye opening. Yes, it may have been biased, and as we saw in class and as you so clearly explained, he used many propaganda techniques, but I still think that his opinion is the right one. We saw the REAL consequences that gun possession has, and I honestly don't think I can get those raw image of the shooting or the actual 911 calls made out of my head! I have to respect the director for not literally coming out and saying that the second amendment should be changed, but rather giving us facts and allowing us to make our own decision on the matter. I love the fact that you posted interviews with Moore, because they really allow you to see how passionate and affected he is by the subject. No, he isn't against guns, he is a gun man himself, but he still shows us that something is wrong in the USA.
ReplyDeleteI must say however, that learning how filmakers can fool you was eye opening, because I am the type of person to believe information just because it was in a documentary. I am glad we learned this so it'll push me to watch out for what I so quickly take to be true.
Lucila Baldassarre
Really good job guys! I enjoyed having more information about Bowling for Columbine since it's one of my favorite movies. I think that we shouldn't be able to have such object in our possesion for the only and simple reason that his only function is to kill people. I really liked Moore's aproach to the topic, adding some humor made it more interactive. The real footage of the shooting and people's reaction to what it added by Moore gave me the same feeling that I felt when we watched Waltz with Bashir. We should all be concerned about the movie, it can happen anywhere, like few years ago in dawson.
ReplyDeleteGustavo Alvites