Bowling for Columbine
Bowling for Columbine is a 2002 documentary film written, produced, directed, and narrated by Michael Moore. The film explores what Moore suggests are the primary causes for the Columbine High School massacre in 1999 and other acts of gun violence. 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, and American violence abroad.[4]
Bowling for Columbine
Michael Moore
Michael Moore
Kathleen Glynn
Jim Czarnecki
Charles Bishop
Michael Donovan[1]
Kurt Engfehr
Michael Moore
Michael Moore
Kurt Engfehr
Jeff Gibbs
MGM Distribution Co. (United States)
Alliance Atlantis (International)[2]
- May 16, 2002 (Cannes)
- October 11, 2002 (United States)
- October 18, 2002 (Canada)
120 minutes
English
$4 million
$58 million
A critical and commercial success, the film brought Moore international attention as a rising filmmaker and won numerous awards, including the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, the Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary Feature, a special 55th Anniversary Prize at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival,[5] and the César Award for Best Foreign Film.[6] The film is widely considered one of the greatest documentary films of all time.[7][8][9][10]
Release[edit]
Critical reception[edit]
The film earned mostly positive reviews. On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, it holds a 95% approval rating based on 173 reviews, with an average rating of 8.20/10. The consensus states, "Though it may not always convince, Bowling for Columbine asks important questions and provokes thought."[32] Another score aggregator, Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating in the 0–100 range based on reviews from top mainstream critics, calculated a score of 72 based on 32 reviews, signifying 'generally favorable reviews'.[33]
Michael Wilmington of the Chicago Tribune wrote, "It's unnerving, stimulating, likely to provoke anger and sorrow on both political sides—and, above all, it's extremely funny."[34] A.O. Scott of The New York Times wrote, "The slippery logic, tendentious grandstanding, and outright demagoguery on display in Bowling for Columbine should be enough to give pause to its most ardent partisans, while its disquieting insights into the culture of violence in America should occasion sober reflection from those who would prefer to stop their ears."[35]
However, the film had its detractors as Desson Thomson of The Washington Post thought that the film lacked a coherent message, asking "A lot of this is amusing and somehow telling. There was a parody of this movie called 'Bowling for Midway', a conservative Utah family movie to counter Moore's movie, and this paralleled the Docudrama, 'This Divided State'. But what does it all add up to?"[36]
MPAA rating[edit]
The film was rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America, which means that children under the age of 17 were not admitted to see the film theatrically unless under supervision. Film critic Roger Ebert chastized the MPAA for this move as "banning teenagers from those films they most need to see".[37] Ebert had criticized the MPAA rating system on previous occasions.[38] The film was noted for "some violent images and language".[39]
Gross revenue[edit]
With a budget of $4 million, Bowling for Columbine grossed $58,008,423 worldwide, including $21,576,018 in the United States.[40] The documentary also broke box office records internationally, becoming the highest-grossing documentary in the United Kingdom, Australia, and Austria. These records were later eclipsed by Moore's next documentary, Fahrenheit 9/11.[41]
During the screening at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival the film received a 13-minute standing ovation. It also won "Most Popular International Film" at the 2002 Vancouver International Film Festival.
Moore was both applauded and booed at the Academy Awards on March 23, 2003, when he used his acceptance speech as an opportunity to proclaim his opposition to the presidency of George W. Bush and the United States-led invasion of Iraq, which had begun just a few days earlier.[43][44]
In 2005, it was voted the third most popular film in the British Channel 4 program The 50 Greatest Documentaries of all time.[45]
Home media[edit]
Bowling for Columbine was released on VHS and DVD by MGM Home Entertainment in 2003. The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray in a digital restoration with supplementary features by the Criterion Collection in June 2018.[46][47]