Bowling for Columbine : Reviews & Acclaim : Articles & Press

Calgary Herald
September 9, 2002
Open-door policy shocks American: Film-maker examines U.S. gun culture
Angela Pacienza

When America's leading rabble-rouser, Michael Moore, was filming a documentary about gun culture in the United States, he had a hard time believing Canadians don't lock their doors.

So one night last spring, armed with a camera crew, he set out to test the urban myth in downtown Toronto, only to find 70 per cent of the doors unlocked.

"I thought, 'I cannot show this to an American public. They'll think you're all crazy up here that you don't lock your doors,' " he said at a news conference at the Toronto International Film Festival. Moore's latest film, Bowling for Columbine, was shown to a North American audience for the first time Saturday.

Clad in his traditional uniform of saggy jeans and a baseball cap, the filmmaker admitted that despite his fearless demeanour, he was apprehensive about testing the theory.

"I was afraid. The concept of just opening up somebody's door. First of all it's illegal . . . so I waited until the last minute," said the director of films including Roger and Me, The Big One and Canadian Bacon.

"Those people had no notice I was coming. I randomly ran up and opened those doors and hoped that I wasn't going to get shot 'cuz I'm thinking in an American frame of mind."

Bowling for Columbine, which won a Cannes jury prize in May, is a scathing look at gun culture in the United States. After an opening sequence which sees Moore open an account at a Michigan bank in order to receive the free gift of a gun, the filmmaker crosses the United States and parts of Ontario in search of an answer for America's obsession with guns. He asks why Americans are more likely to kill one another with guns when seven million registered weapons are inside Canada's 10 million homes.

"That's a boatload of guns. You have to be willing to accept that you are different, culturally, socially, and ethically," he said after a reporter suggested Moore might have simplified gun statistics of the two countries. "Don't leave my movie as Canadians saying the reason is because you don't have Uzis and handguns. . . . Even with a rifle and shotgun in the house, when you get into an argument with a boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, wife, neighbour, or a co-worker, for some reason, you don't reach for the gun and I think that's a legitimate question to ask."

"Why do you get to have all these guns lying around and you don't kill each other and we do? That's not right. You're no better than us."

The title of the film, bankrolled by Halifax's Salter Street Productions, is a play on the whereabouts of the two young gunmen in Colorado's 1999 Columbine high school shooting -- the pair went bowling before they opened fire at school, killing 13 people and then themselves.

On a deeper level, the film explores America's psyche.

"Guns and Columbine are just my entry point into the much larger discussion that I wish would take place. I'm much more concerned about the fact that we've just gone nuts as opposed to whether we've got too many gun nuts in America," said the author of the current best-seller Stupid White Men.

Moore ventures outside of the Columbine tragedy, looking at the Oklahoma City bombing (during a visit to James Nichols, a one-time buddy of Timothy McVeigh), U.S. government policy overseas, the shooting death of a six-year-old girl by a six-year-old boy in his home town of Flint, Mich., and the sensitive topic of Sept. 11.

He also challenges Charlton Heston, the president of the National Rifle Association, about the high number of gun-related deaths in the U.S. After saying that America's gun problem might be due to its multicultural makeup, the star of The Ten Commandments walks away from Moore during an interview at his Beverly Hills mansion.

"I was surprised when Charlton Heston made that comment in the film," Moore said. "I didn't ask him about race even though race is a big part of the film."To be honest, when I heard him say it, I felt bad for him. I felt he was having his Jimmy the Greek moment."

Moore said he regrets not having challenged Heston's remarks.

"I was too shocked," said Moore, who once purchased a lifetime membership to the NRA in the hopes of beating Heston at the organization's presidential elections.

Despite Heston's announcement he has Alzheimer-like symptoms, Moore said he had no qualms about the clip.

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