A look at Michael Moore's Documentary

1. Year 12 EAL
Bowling for Columbine:
Introduction to
DOCUMENTARY
2017
Mr. Wallace CSC

2. What is documentary?
 Documentary texts “aim to document reality,
attempting veracity in their depiction of
people, places and events” (Media Know All,
n.d.).
 They provide examples of “the creative
treatment of reality” (Grierson, 1926).

3. Why are documentaries made?
¨ “to achieve something in addition to entertaining
audiences and making money” (Ellis & McLane,
2005, p.4).
¨ Renov (1993, p.21) believes there are 4 distinct
(although sometimes overlapping) purposes of
documentary film:
Ø to record, reveal, or preserve
Ø to persuade or promote
Ø to analyse or interrogate
Ø to express

4. Constructions of reality
“It is important to remember that although one
of the purposes of the documentary is to
present reality, it is constructed and can only
be a representation of reality. By using specific
techniques to form the production,
documentarians can make their footage seem
like the absolute truth and control to a large
extent how the film is received by the viewer”
(Huffman, 2001).

5. How it’s done...
 Premise of the documentary/scene
 Language used (emotive, sarcastic)
 Footage spliced together (pieces of interviews)
 Music
 Camera angles (close up, panoramic shot)
 Selection of interviewees (whose opinions are
voiced?)
 Framing of interview questions, questions posed
 “Research” performed, experiment conditions
 Voice over technique
 Graphic depictions of people/places/events
 Captions and graphics

6. Bowling for Columbine?
Michael Moore's "Bowling for
Columbine," is a documentary
that is both funny and painful to
watch. Americans live in a nation
of millions of handguns and
other automatic weapons, but is
that what is really concerning
Moore? Is it perhaps the culture
of fear and violence in the USA?
Canada has a similar ratio of
guns to citizens, but a 10th of
the shooting deaths even when
you allow for a smaller
population. Moore tells the story
of the Columbine massacre but
he also looks carefully at how
Americans live (and die..).

7. Reviews
Roger Ebert:
“The movie is a mosaic of Moore confrontations and supplementary footage. One moment that cuts to the core is
from a standup routine by Chris Rock, who suggests that our problem could be solved by simply increasing the price
of bullets--taxing them like cigarettes. Instead of 17 cents apiece, why not $5,000? "At that price," he speculates,
"you'd have a lot fewer innocent bystanders being shot."
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/bowling-for-columbine-2002
Peter Bradshaw
“This is a remarkable film in its way. It isn't afraid to go back to first principles, or to sound callow or
earnest or uncool. And Moore really does look like a lone figure in the American media mainstream,
challenging gun culture - a heresy in which the rest of Hollywood's pampered progressives have no
interest. For most of them, there are no votes, and no ticket sales, in saying that guns aren't sexy.
It's a pleasure to a hear a dissenting voice.”
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2002/nov/15/artsfeatures4
TheHappySpaceInvader
“Whatever you may throw at Michael Moore's methods, there are
some points made in the film that are valid. ”
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0310793/reviews

8. References
 Ellis, J.C. and McLane, B.A. (2005). A New History of Documentary
Film. New York: The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc.
 Media Know All (n.d.). Documentary. Retrieved 15 May, 2010 from
http://www.mediaknowall.com/Documentary/definitions.html
 Grierson, J. (1996). First Principles of Documentary in K.
Macdonald and M. Cousins (eds.) Imagining Reality: The Faber Book
of Documentary. London: Faber and Faber.
 Renov, M (ed.). (1993). Theorizing Documentary. New York: Routledge.
 Huffman, N. (2001). New Frontiers in American Documentary Film.
Retrieved 15 May, 2010 from
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA01/Huffman/Frontier/intro.html