English - Bowling for Colmbine
VISUAL TEXT – “Bowling for Columbine”
Question: It is the director’s purpose to manipulate the audience to the point where they feel uncomfortable.
“Bowling for Columbine” directed by Michael Moore, is a well-directed documentary that informs people about gun violence in America. Michael Moore is successful in showing that America has been going through many gun tragedies; and portrays the sense that America’s problems are out of control. He conveys this through statistics, archival footage, and interviews. He uses these techniques in a way to manipulate the viewers in order to make them feel uncomfortable.
Throughout the Documentary Michael Moore throws many cold statistics on the screen that makes it obvious that the strong nation of America is violent. One key fact that stood out to me, as the viewer of this documentary, was the number of deaths caused by guns in America per year. In comparison to the other countries, America has an outstanding “11,127 gun related deaths a year”. This is ten times more than all the countries together that are mentioned in the documentary. With this extreme comparison it shows us that there is something in America that is making people turn on their fellow man. As a viewer, the use of statistics made me feel uncomfortable as the numbers made clear America’s gun culture is out of control.
In this documentary, Moore also uses archival footage to give his statements a sense of validity as it gives video proof of events he talks about. One key scene that showed the effect of archival footage was the opening scene. The first image of the film was promoting the National Rifle Association. A man dressed in an Army uniform says, “The National Rifle Association has produced a film which you are sure to find of great interest. Let’s look at it”. As the man is talking Michael Moore adds footage of bombed up buildings which he then refers to as “the little town in Colorado where two boys went bowling at six in the morning.” These
Question: It is the director’s purpose to manipulate the audience to the point where they feel uncomfortable.
“Bowling for Columbine” directed by Michael Moore, is a well-directed documentary that informs people about gun violence in America. Michael Moore is successful in showing that America has been going through many gun tragedies; and portrays the sense that America’s problems are out of control. He conveys this through statistics, archival footage, and interviews. He uses these techniques in a way to manipulate the viewers in order to make them feel uncomfortable.
Throughout the Documentary Michael Moore throws many cold statistics on the screen that makes it obvious that the strong nation of America is violent. One key fact that stood out to me, as the viewer of this documentary, was the number of deaths caused by guns in America per year. In comparison to the other countries, America has an outstanding “11,127 gun related deaths a year”. This is ten times more than all the countries together that are mentioned in the documentary. With this extreme comparison it shows us that there is something in America that is making people turn on their fellow man. As a viewer, the use of statistics made me feel uncomfortable as the numbers made clear America’s gun culture is out of control.
In this documentary, Moore also uses archival footage to give his statements a sense of validity as it gives video proof of events he talks about. One key scene that showed the effect of archival footage was the opening scene. The first image of the film was promoting the National Rifle Association. A man dressed in an Army uniform says, “The National Rifle Association has produced a film which you are sure to find of great interest. Let’s look at it”. As the man is talking Michael Moore adds footage of bombed up buildings which he then refers to as “the little town in Colorado where two boys went bowling at six in the morning.” These