How Bowling for Columbine is Constructed to Target an Audience

Bowling for Columbine is a critically acclaimed documentary which was produced, directed, written and presented by Michael Moore, a very famous documentary-maker and figure in media who has gained notoriety for his very powerful documentaries, which tend to focus on serious issues that Michael Moore himself tends to feel passionately about. Bowling for Columbine is one of many of those kinds of documentaries.

Who Was It Made For?

Bowling for Columbine was made certainly made to target those who are pro-gun and perhaps those who support the NRA (National Rifle Association) who certainly have a high-profile in the United States of America due to the problem in the country regarding gun violence and gun legislation laws, with the USA generally looking favourably on the liberation of owning guns, which is something that Michael Moore highlights in Bowling for Columbine, as owning a gun and having the power to take another's life in the USA is certainly more accessible than in most of Western Europe for example, who are proclaimed to share similar 'Western' values.

I also believe Bowling for Columbine to be targeted at young people as well, because the Columbine Massacre was a school shooting, which is often carried out by students of the school who commit acts of terror and mass-murder within their educational institutions. Perhaps one could consider Bowling for Columbine to be a warning to young people, one that they should heed to be on the right side of change and to challenge the ideals of associations like the NRA. The youth are the future and school shootings concern them above all else, as the children within these places of education.

How was Meaning Created?

Shock is used to give meaning to the messages presented in Bowling for Columbine, the montage at the beginning with footage of gun violence while 'Happiness is a Warm Gun' by The Beatles plays, sheds light on the pain and destruction that is caused by guns and their availability to the American people. Perhaps the song by The Beatles playing in the background with its challenging title, highlights how pro-gun laws tend to be portrayed as positive by the American government (at the time) and the NRA, but as this message is portrayed by these parties, we are seeing the harm that these laws can cause, guns being accessible to civilians is incredibly dangerous and a threat to everyone's safety. When certain people get their hands on such weapons, such as the school shooters who commit the atrocities of the Columbine Massacre, there is irreversible pain, damage and loss which is not worth the risk in the slightest.

Observing the suffering caused by such laws and policies gives the audience a clear representation of the pain that guns and gun violence cause and how pro-gun laws are harmful, which Michael Moore puts across very well.

The camerawork in some of the documentary feels almost guerilla, with cuts not being present in some parts of the documentary which makes the audience feel a sense of intensity in the documentary, we are to believe that Michael Moore is perhaps trespassing or somewhere that he should not be, as more stable and conventionally professional camerawork is not present. A lack of editing gives the audience a feeling of anxiousness regarding the scene, something could go wrong, or maybe something bad is already happening. During a scene where Michael Moore ventures into a K-Mart, the camera's exposure is blown out and the audience can barely define any objects from each other and this is certainly the case during the tense walk into the K-Mart which in turn adds to. the anxious nature of the scene and certainly gives the scene a tense atmosphere, however once the camera and Michael Moore enter the K-Mart, the exposure is perfect, which does indicate that they had previously traveled inside to adjust the camera's exposure.

The mise en scene is positively typical of Michael Moore, with a "man-on-the-street" feel being adopted, similar to that of 'Roger & Me', a reflexive and expository documentary which Moore had himself produce years prior to Bowling for Columbine. The mise en scene is relatively simplistic and close to home, streets and rooms and all of the places that one could expect to see throughout a normal day, which perhaps is intentional to represent how gun violence is something that could indeed affect any one of us and certainly, something that is not too far away from Europeans as well, even if we have a better record of gun-related crimes in schools, with very few school shootings having ever happened in Europe as a continent, particularly in Western Europe with some countries in our continent having never seen a school shooting to date.

The language and behaviour of Michael Moore is certainly reserved yet emotional, maturely yet passionately touching on the pressing issue of gun-violence, particularly in the United States of America. Michael Moore is our voice of reason, observing the twisted world of gun-crime around him and offering us a look inside through his eyes. I would assume that many see things how Michael Moore sees them, however many would oppose Moore's views, but as an expository documentary, Michael Moore is pushing a view, gun-violence is a massive problem in the U.S.A and more should be done to prevent these atrocities from taking place, with associations like the NRA stagnating the progress of a world tired of seeing their children going to school with the horrifying chance that they could fall victim to a massacre just like Columbine.

Bowling for Columbine certainly helped others find their voice and did trigger feelings of resentment and anger towards the politics of the U.S.A, as well as the NRA and their role to play in the legislation of owning a firearm as a civilian, but also as a child. In my opinion, guns have no place anywhere and Michael Moore did a superb job at exposing the gaping issue in the U.S.A of gun violence.