(no subject)

[nibot]

Fear, uncertainty, and doubt (and outright lies?) in Bowling for Columbine. Thanks to Alex for the link.

The point is far more fundamental: Bowling for Columbine is dishonest. It is fraudulent. It fixes upon a theme, and advances it, whenever necessary, by deception. To trash Heston, it even uses the audio/video editor to assemble a Heston speech that Heston did not give, and to turn sympathetic phrases into arrogant ones. Moore's object is not to enlighten or to document, but to play his viewer like a violin, to the point where they leave the theater with heartfelt believe in that which is, sadly, quite false.

Comments

[easwaran.livejournal.com]

It's true. I believe it was www.smokinggun.com or something that someone showed to the Columbae list that exposed some of the falsehoods in that movie. (Apparently, the first scene where he gets a gun at the bank was totally staged. The actual bank didn't keep guns in the bank, but just gave you a certificate to go to an actual gun shop. Sorta spoils his point about "don't you think it's a bit risky to be giving out guns in a bank?")

But still, I think it was quite a good movie that pointed out good facts (I assume all the factual information was correct, even if the footage was misleading) and dealt with the issue of gun violence in some very tough ways. I see it as being like the Simpsons take on guns: fairly complex, not entirely pro or anti gun-control (after all, Canada apparently doesn't have it), but having its main point about the media creating a culture of fear, which is the actual problem with America.