Are we a nation of gun nuts or are we
just nuts?
Jurassic
Mark
SCORE: 4 Stars
Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine has
nothing to do with the freedom of Iraq. Nor does my review of
the film. Personally, I hope the U.S. wins a quick war against
our Muslim antagonists. First, we must vanquish Saddam.
Then, we must democratize the foreign infidels. Lastly, we will
convert the heathens to Christianity. The last part will be the
easiest because Allah cannot provide as much food as God (the original
"manna maker").
Michael Moore is against the war on Iraq.
He is not a "bleeding-heart liberal." According to
Michael Moore, George W. Bush belongs to the same political party as
Bill Clinton. To paraphrase Moore, we don't need a
"third party," we need a "second party."
Anybody who tosses Michael Moore in with liberals, left-wingers
or Democrats has not paid attention to Michael Moore. Democrats
have merged with Republicans. We suffer the consequences.
All of this has nothing to do with
Bowling for Columbine the movie, nor has it anything to do with
Bowling for Columbine's Oscar award. Moore was recently awarded
an Oscar for Best Documentary by a group that "boo'd"
and "cheered" Moore's acceptance speech. Anti-Moore
groups insist the boo's were louder than the cheers. Perhaps
louder is better. Staunch Moore supporters claim the
cheers were bolstered by less boisterous, but, nonetheless, genial
voters who beamed radiant smiles while Moore spoke. They were
many. Harrison Ford was the most obvious. This doesn't
constitute "name-dropping" because it was harder to count
smiles than it was to hear "boos." If you wanted to
hear cheers, you would have heard a long standing ovation for the same
speech the previous night when Moore won for Best
Documentary at the Independent (Spirit) Awards.
Forgive me for getting carried away with
pro-Moore vs. anti-Moore sentiment. After all, he did win the
Oscar. Everyone who voted for Moore knew that as a political
activist, he would not, could not, pass up the opportunity to
voice to 3/4 of a billion people his view on the war.
I expected Moore to do something even more
outrageous. I expected a sit-down. Imagine the
embarrassment of dragging portly Michael off the stage, chained to the
podium. Instead, Moore used the 45 seconds allotted him and the
worst he said was "shame on you" to the President.
Ooooooh! Cover the children's eyes and ears! Remember
Adrian Brody's speech that went way beyond the time limit and spoke of
God and Allah and how he was more sensitive to war because he made a
movie about the Holocaust. Talk about pretentious.
Remember the standing ovation for Brody. Clearly, a standing
ovation is a random event.
On to the movie. Bowling for
Columbine has nothing to do with the war against Iraq. Bowling
for Columbine is about gun control in America. Moore is
concerned about 11,000+ Americans (any Americans) dying from gun
related injuries each year.
Moore deals with a lot of facts: He
notes the annual average of 65 gun deaths in Australia, 165 in Canada,
255 in France, 381 in Germany, 68 in Great Britain, 39 in Japan and
11,127 in the U. S. But, wait, all those countries have a lot
less guns than America, right? Yes, with the exception of
Canada. Canada has 7 million guns for 10 million households.
Yet, we are over ten times more likely to get shot in the U.S.
Moore travels to Canada and establishes a
theory that tries to explain the enormous disparity behind the
statistics. His theory is interesting if not quite scientific.
However, Moore does an excellent job dispelling the myths about the
dangers of violent movies, video games, lack of prayer in school, and
all the ridiculous excuses given in this country for our violent
behavior. The citizens of all these countries watch
violent movies and play violent video games (Japan???). None of
them allow prayer in public school.
I'm not going to summarize Moore's theory.
It's difficult to prove. However, it is intellectual miles ahead
of NRA President Charlton Heston's theory. Heston points out
that these other countries do not have our ethnic diversity. Way
to go Chuck. The colored people are no doubt planning to rape
your children with their giant genitalia and round out the
evening with a late run through the KFC drive-thru.
Bowling for Columbine is funny and
creative (check out the animated sequence from the South Park guys).
It is also disturbing. I'm glad Moore is out three doing his
thing. The filmmaker is largely responsible for (shaming?)
the decision makers at K-Mart into pulling their entire inventory
of ammunition from all of their stores. I doubt many members of
the Academy have gone through as much trouble to fight for the things
they believe in as has Moore. But, the Academy was smart enough
to realize it by awarding him the Oscar. I just wish they could
have been "extra" gracious and given the guy his 45 seconds.
And, remember to shake your "manna
maker."
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