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Bowling For Columbine Documentary Essay

500 Words2 Pages

Michael Moore, director of the world-famous documentary, Bowling For Columbine is notorious for his truth-twisting and ultimately biased filmmaking ways. Through his arrangement of other successful films, the impression of whether or not the truth he puts forward is really the truth at all, becomes increasingly evident. So much so that columnist and author, Christopher Hitchens, believes that his films are “a spectacle of abject political cowardice masking itself as a demonstration of "dissenting" bravery.” Though perhaps, that is a little harsh. Journalist, Maddy Basham reports on the truth and lies of Moore and his ability to produce a version of the truth that audiences blindly accept. In today’s society, there is no doubt that along the ‘grapevine’ of futility, there will always be some element of truth amongst the lie. From horror films based on a “true story” to documentaries that present their opinion …show more content…

However, despite the many elements of truth, Moore continues to uphold his philosophy for only including evidence that supports his argument, which can be seen through his choice to only focus on arguments that share the same opinion as him. Upon first watching this documentary I found myself intrigued by the choices he made in regards to what made it into the film. Within the first 10 minutes of it, he is purchasing a gun from a bank in Ohio. This clever foreshadowing of the documentary’s message becomes clear as Moore begins to delve into the topic of gun control and the ease of accessibility to buy weaponry in the United States. Shortly after, snippets of Charlton Heston - gun lover and president of the National Rifle Assosciation, see him portrayed as a gun-obsessed, callous maniac. Between the short videos of Heston in this documentary, it largely flips between segments from anti-gun rallies where mourning families plead for gun laws to change, to Heston proudly holding a gun above his head crying “from my cold dead

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