Hey,
last night I saw the documentary 'Bowling for Columbine' by Michael Moore. First of all I must admit, as a european, it knocked my socks off! And secondly, I started to understand the American politics a little bit better.
In this documentary Michael Moore takes the shooting at the highschool of Columbine as a starting point and he tries to find an explanation for the large number of murders in America. As he goes along he discovers that the various reasons for the large amount of killings in America have no ground, like the large amount of immigrants (other countries like germany have more immigrants), the number of guns (there are more guns in Canada), the violent history (the UK has an even more violent history) and so on. Moore also questions the NRA (National Riffle Association) and its policy (visiting towns a few months or even less after a drama took place) and he visits Charlton Heston in his home (which to me now is a sad old man).
Finally, the only reason for the amount of killings Moore can come up with is fear, plain fear. Created by the media, politicians, events like 9/11 and its aftermath and so on. Everyone buys a gun (very easy to get BTW) and bullets (even more easy: a 17-year old boy is able to buy the entire stock of a local store!) just to protect their family. It's just unbelievable! What happened to trusting someone? Moore even showed a town where everyone is forced to learn how to shoot. And now everyone feels safe because they can defend themselves?!?
Like I said, I'm completely perplexed by what I saw. It's just unbelievable. The only thing I can hope for is that Moore only showed a tiny piece of the American society and that not everyone thinks like that. Actually, now I think about it, it just can't be that every American thinks like that.
Anyway, if you have the chance to see it, please do! It's quite amazing and even absurd at times and it makes you think about what we people are able do to each other. And if there are people who have seen it, please let me know what you think of it.
Greetz,
L
last night I saw the documentary 'Bowling for Columbine' by Michael Moore. First of all I must admit, as a european, it knocked my socks off! And secondly, I started to understand the American politics a little bit better.
In this documentary Michael Moore takes the shooting at the highschool of Columbine as a starting point and he tries to find an explanation for the large number of murders in America. As he goes along he discovers that the various reasons for the large amount of killings in America have no ground, like the large amount of immigrants (other countries like germany have more immigrants), the number of guns (there are more guns in Canada), the violent history (the UK has an even more violent history) and so on. Moore also questions the NRA (National Riffle Association) and its policy (visiting towns a few months or even less after a drama took place) and he visits Charlton Heston in his home (which to me now is a sad old man).
Finally, the only reason for the amount of killings Moore can come up with is fear, plain fear. Created by the media, politicians, events like 9/11 and its aftermath and so on. Everyone buys a gun (very easy to get BTW) and bullets (even more easy: a 17-year old boy is able to buy the entire stock of a local store!) just to protect their family. It's just unbelievable! What happened to trusting someone? Moore even showed a town where everyone is forced to learn how to shoot. And now everyone feels safe because they can defend themselves?!?
Like I said, I'm completely perplexed by what I saw. It's just unbelievable. The only thing I can hope for is that Moore only showed a tiny piece of the American society and that not everyone thinks like that. Actually, now I think about it, it just can't be that every American thinks like that.
Anyway, if you have the chance to see it, please do! It's quite amazing and even absurd at times and it makes you think about what we people are able do to each other. And if there are people who have seen it, please let me know what you think of it.
Greetz,
L