2003-02-08

I can understand why people get their backs up about Michael Moore, especially if they don�t happen to agree with his viewpoint. There are also a lot of people who point out (correctly) that he often contradicts himself wildly and that some of his �facts� and �statistics� are�um�creative, and I have to admit, I do wish sometimes that he would present information in a less misleading way. For example, in Bowling For Columbine, he tells us that there are over 11,000 gun deaths in the US per year, compared to 165 in Canada. That seems shocking, until you put it into context�the US has approximately 290 million people, and Canada has approximately 31 million. This is not to say he isn't correct, but rather than just listing the number of gun deaths per year in a handful of given countries in terms of raw numbers, I think it would have been more effective if he had presented the information in a clearer way.

One of the main complaints I�ve heard about this movie is that although it�s supposed to be a documentary, it�s biased and subjective. I think that there are a lot of people who are under the impression that documentaries are supposed to present the gospel truth in an unbiased way. Those people are kidding themselves. The images in any documentary are manipulated by the filmmakers to present their version of the truth; that�s the nature of the medium. This is not to say that there aren�t some documentaries that are more neutral or objective than others, and Michael Moore�s documentaries are definitely at the opposite end of that spectrum. However, I don�t think he ever makes any claims to presenting THE TRUTH. He�s pretty much just presenting his truth, and that�s what all documentaries do.

Seeing Bowling For Columbine in a packed audience of Canadians made the experience a lot of fun. There was a lot of laughter and catcalling during the parts where Michael Moore makes his grand, sweeping generalizations about our home and native land, especially when he goes to Toronto and starts opening doors at random to prove that Canadians don't lock their doors. Then he takes the viewer through a �ghetto� in Toronto (looked like some fairly nice social housing) and invites us to laugh at the idea that Canada has any poor neighbourhoods. Anyone who�s ever been through Vancouver�s Downtown East Side can tell you, we have ghettoes. And some of us do lock our doors. Still, it�s hard not to feel flattered when you hear people saying nice (if misguided) things about your country.

However, the best part of the movie, for me, was the interviews. I�ve never met Michael Moore in person, but he must be a hell of a charming guy in order to get people to talk that candidly about themselves. He�s great at giving people just enough rope to hang themselves with. The best interview, the one that made me giggle in disbelief, was the one with the brother of Oklahoma city bomber Terry Nichols. Weird doesn�t even begin to describe this guy. He�s an organic soy farmer who believes passionately that having a massive personal stockpile of weapons is a dandy idea. He�s not totally sure about including, say, nuclear weapons, but you get the feeling he�s considered it. Why on earth is Bush concerned about Saddam Hussein when this guy is wandering around loose? Yikes.

The other interview in the movie that I really liked was the one with Marilyn Manson. Now, I am not a particular fan of this man and don�t like his music at all, but he�s actually very bright and articulate, and he has some surprisingly insightful things to say about the nature of fear in America, and the way that it drives people to arm themselves against an enemy that is mainly composed of themselves. On the whole, I would say that this is Moore�s thesis, and it�s a good one: the reason that Americans are so protective of their right to bear arms, at any cost to human life, is that they live in a nation of fear. In fact, the manufacture of fear and �the other� (see the TV show COPS) is leading to a country that has become so focused on false enemies that it can no longer see the real one: a government that continues to carry out the same oppressive foreign policies that it blames other countries for. Shoot first, ask questions later, indeed.

Overall, I thought this was an entertaining, thought-provoking film that, despite its flaws and occasional inaccuracies, serves as a nice counterpoint to the jingoistic rhetoric that we�re all being fed these days in North America. Michael Moore may not have all the answers, but at least he�s asking the questions.

Posted by polarcanuck at 2:00 p.m.

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