So, I watched "Bowling For Columbine" the other night

And I didn't hate it.

Let's get a few things straight, though. I still think Michael Moore is an odious human being. My esophogus revolted at the shameless display of self-righteousness when he laid the photo of the girl who was shot in Flint on the walk at Charlton Heston's house. The movie was also a half an hour too long, and I think the last half hour was when his message became a bit confused. It might have been a more effective film if he had decided if it was the fault of the media, or of capitalism that Americans tend to shoot each other. Setting aside MM's casual acquaintance with facts, I still think the film suffers from this confusion.

He and I perhaps agree that the mainstream media is completely out of control, often with disastrous consequences. I mean, John Kerry almost got elected president, for chrissakes! Moore makes a large, sweaty effort to point out that other countries have more guns than America per household, watch the same violent films as Americans, and have similarly violent cultural histories. He stops, then, before saying that America is much wealthier than other countries, even socialist ones! And yet he seems to advance the thesis that because the evil General Motors corporation, in a heartless bid to stay in business, is responsible for the resultant poverty in Flint, and that that poverty caused the shooter's mother to be absent from home when her little boy came across the gun that killed his classmate. And that if K-Mart hadn't sold the Columbine kids the bullets, then nobody would've got shot. But more people die in car accidents than gun violence every year, but Moore protests the closing of the General Motors plant. And while he tells the audience that in George W. Bush's America, poor people don't matter, he neglects to point out that it was under the Clinton administration that the nation's most sweeping welfare reform package (of which welfare-to-work is a large part) was signed into law. I mean, come on, that's just a no-brainer.

I also thought the animated segment of the film was ludicrous. By drawing an explicit comparison between the KKK and the NRA, is Moore implicitly calling himself a violent racist?

I don't know. I could go on, but something tells me I'm in for some pretty colorful comments as it is, and this is already the most depressing day of the year. I don't think I could handle it, kids.

I didn't read this site before the movie, though I knew it was out there, cos I wanted to give the movie a fair shot. But in reading it afterwards....well, there's some pretty outrageous shit. I recommend it if you're a fan of the movie or of Moore. And it's got links the links to back it up.

Anyway. I just wanted to say that I watched one of his stupid movies. It was very, very funny. And the guy uses music in his film almost as well as Tarantino. But I think it comes across as a dishonest, sloppy, hatchet job, and reading the stories behind it convinces me it is.

It might take me another few years before I can watch "Fahrenheit 9/11."