Movie Reviews

There's a moment in Bowling for Columbine when the producer of "The World's Wildest Police Videos" says that his show portrays violence because that's what his audience finds entertaining. Nobody, he says, would care to watch a reality show about people being compassionate and making compromises with each other. I wonder if maybe a similar argument could be made about Bowling for Columbine itself: this documentary takes a very strong one-sided approach to the subject of gun-control and gun-violence. I occasionally found myself wishing that the writer/directer Michael Moore would offer more of a rounded, two-sided perspective on the issue, but at the same time, I think it's that very single-mindedness that serves to make the film so fascinating.

There's certainly a lot of stuff here that many people will disagree with. But this is the kind of movie that everyone should see -- if only to make people think about these issues -- but also because it is a well-made, funny, moving, and provocative film.

I'll probably never be able to look at Charlton Heston the same way again...