Film Interpret

Carlito Reyes

February 2010

The film “Bowling for Columbine” by Michael Moore presents many opinions and values on some of our biggest issues within America. These issues displayed throughout the film mainly pertain to the availability of guns and other firearms, as well as the usage of these weapons illegally. A viewer may receive many different points of view from the film about such gun violence and control here in America. The comparison of weapon usage statistics in our country in ratio to weapon usage of other countries can very easily change a viewer’s outlook on their own nation, as it altered my own thoughts repeatedly throughout the film.

There are many issues within our country of America, and every time there seems to be an important one, the filmmaker Michael Moore tends to link controversy through a film to the issue. Before seeing the film, I was honestly blind to the gun violence in America. What I see every day or throughout each week is gun violence, whether it is regular citizen against citizen, or authority against citizen it has become normal to me. Not only has the gun violence become normal to me, but just seemingly like a part of life something that you are supposed to go through. In Michael Moore’s film, he presents statistics from international countries that display the important numbers concluded from gun violence within certain countries. Once these statistics are on display to a viewer like me, you cannot stop yourself from persuasion into thinking you do not live in a normal environment due to these comparisons. The comparisons, which show overwhelming numbers between our country’s gun violence and that of the country of China and other nations, are quite absurd. With this route of persuasion, Michael Moore does a good job of expanding the viewer’s mind.

The statistics displaying gun violence amongst our country comparing to other international nations do play a great part in the director’s favor...