What is Moore saying about American identity and values? Is
this an accurate representation?
I thought the documentary by Michael Moore called Bowling
For Columbine was very interesting and I saw a new perspective that I hadn't
noticed before. It addressed many difficult situations from polices, to foreign
policies, welfare system, and others. I found it interesting that Moore made it
seem like Americans all value guns. Some of the things he said angered me and
others I agreed with 100%. In the
beginning of the documentary he focused a lot on multiple people that possessed
multiple guns in their home. There were two young men that had been involved in
some trouble and they were suspected to be bomb threats. There was another
gentlemen that lived on a farm and kept a loaded hand gun near his bed. Michael
asked these men what he thought about gun laws and how easy it was for them to
get a hold of one and ammunition. For some reason Moore made me very angry when
he was holding conversations with these people. He never once addressed people that don't like guns and that don't have a loaded gun by their bed. Don't there perspectives count too? It is a democracy and people that don't currently possess a gun should have a say in the issue as well. There were not many people shown in the documentary that opposed gun laws besides Michael. It made me angry that he depicted all people in America as gun lovers. At least that's how I felt Michael came across. So no I do not think that was an accurate representation of America's values because not everyone values guns.
However, I did like some of the topics that Moore brought attention to. My favorite was the segment with Marilyn Manson because I thought it was interesting that people blamed him for the shooting. It is pretty ridiculous for people to think that so I'm glad Michael acknowledged it. It was also interesting that Marilyn said if he could talk to the shooters he would say that he would listen to them and here what they have to say. I think that is really interesting and cool of him to say that.