Bowling for Columbine

"Is America a nation of gun nuts? Or just nuts?"

Bowling for Columbine is a 2002 award-winning Documentary film by Michael Moore, which examines the effects of gun violence in the United States, and attempts to give a reason for the motivation of the killers involved in the Columbine massacre.

The film explores what Moore suggests are the causes for the Columbine High School massacre and other acts of violence with guns. He focuses on the background and environment in which the massacre took place, and some common public opinions and assumptions about related issues. The film also looks into the nature of violence in the United States.

Moore talks to many people — including South Park co-creator Matt Stone, the National Rifle Association's then-president Charlton Heston, and musician Marilyn Manson — as he seeks to explain why the Columbine massacre occurred, and why the United States has a high violent crime rate (especially crimes involving guns).

Tropes used in Bowling for Columbine include:

Canada, Eh?: Subverted; Canada is portrayed in the film as a very sensible (and very laid-back) society, where all the kids go to movie theatres, Windsor is a great place to live, and no one locks his door. Some of the people interviewed do have slightly noticable accents, though.
Could This Happen to You?: Spoken by several reporters during a montage of news broadcast clips.
Documentary of Lies: Moore was called out for editing the responses of some interviewees to say the opposite of what they meant (e.g. see here).
- In another scene, Moore goes to a bank which was giving away a free rifle to anyone who opened an account with them. The bank clerk is shown handing a rifle to Moore immediately after he opens an account, no questions asked. This was staged; what the bank actually handed out was a certificate for a free rifle at a gun store down the street, and the gun store performed the same background checks and waiting-period requirements as if a customer had walked in to buy a rifle with cash.
- The scene with Charlton Heston, in which Moore pleads for Heston not to go away. Heston in general gets a really bad misrepresentation, with Moore making it seem like he chased after tragedies to hold "big pro-gun rallies" (he never did, a fact that can be corroborated by many official accounts). Heston also had cancer and Alzheimer's by this point.
- One website documented so many inaccuracies, falsifications, fabrications, and outright lies that they declared that effectively it would have taken less time to state the things that were true.
DVD Commentary: By Moore's interns and secretary, no less.
Extended Disarming
Film the Hand: Several times, most notably by Dick Clark and Charlton Heston, who leaves his interview with Moore and walks away, slamming a door behind him.
Hitler Ate Sugar: The point of the title. Moore points out that media watchdogs and social commentary pundits were alarmingly quick to point towards all sorts of societal influences that supposedly caused Harris and Klebold's rampage, including video games, bullying, violent movies, and the like. He then questions if they might as well blame the sport of bowling for what happened, as both killers were attending school classes in bowling and even played a game the morning before the shooting.
- Of course, the documentary itself is an example. It essentially tries to say that since the Columbine shooters were products of American society who had guns and therefore did violence, every American with a gun is prone to violence.
Hyperspace Arsenal: A student demonstrates how someone could walk into a school with a weapon unnoticed by removing more than a dozen guns and rifles from his pants. However, the amount of guns is somewhat unrealistic, as the student would only be able to walk very slowly at best. This is shown to demonstrate the culture of fear that news channels were coming up with.
Lost Aesop: Guns are bad, guns are bad, guns are bad. Whoops, no they're not. It's actually the news.
- This actually happens several times over the course of the film. Moore also accuses the news media, American foreign policy, exploitative working conditions for single parents and race relations for the proliferation of violence in American society.
  - Condensed version: It's not guns, it's America's fault for being terrible. This is basically the true aesop of all of Moore's films, replacing whatever their subject is for "guns".
Montage
Moral Guardians
The New Rock and Roll: Mocked heavily by Moore during the film.
Only Sane Man: Bizarrely, Marilyn Manson comes across as this.
Pillow Pistol: Moore interviews the brother of Oklahoma City bombing perpetrator Terry Nichols, who keeps a gun tucked under his pillow every night.
Quote Mine: The movie was accused of this with Charlton Heston; observant viewers noticed that his clothes changed during a single speech.
- They also cut his post-Columbine speech at the line "we're already here," making his point (that NRA members were part of the emergency personnel of the tragedy) sound more like a smarmy mockery of his anti-gun opponents.
Scary Black Man: Lampshaded heavily during a segment on the American news media.
Soundtrack Dissonance: Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World" plays over footage of wartime atrocities.
You Can Panic Now: Seen in a montage during the film.
Your Door Was Open: In Canada. All the time.