What techniques are used by Moore in Bowling For Columbine? Moore has used a countless number of techniques in his documentary to manipulate the viewer to accept certain facts and reject others. Moore uses interviews with authoritie and important people throughout the documentary to position the viewer to feel a certain way. These include an interview with the surprisingly articulate and opiniotive Manson, who seems to raise some valid points, therefore positioning the viewer to reject the fact that Marilyn Manson’s music has created “teenage monsters” such as the 2 boys who went on a rampage at Columbine high school. Controversial footage of the 2 gunmen is used as they patrol their own school with rifles. This footage brings an emotional response from the viewer, and encourages the viewer to look for answers to how something like this could happen. Giving Moore the opportunity to somewhat “brainwash” the viewer.
The central problem of why do Americans kill each other at such a high rate, is another technique used by Moore. This technique keeps the audience engaged because they want to find the answer. Interestingly in the end Moore doesn’t really have a solid answer. Michael Moore is the focaliser in Bowling For Columbine as he is in all of his documentaries. By creating himself as this character, he personalised the situation with the audience. Conflict is a documentary technique used by Moore.
The Essay on Bowling for Columbine Is Not a Documentary
Michael Moore’s ‘Bowling for Columbine’, the film which won an Oscar for best documentary, is not in fact a documentary, but rather more of a persuasive essay in film format. The widely accepted definition of ‘documentary’ is a film emphasizing or expressing things as perceived without distortion of personal feelings, insertion of fictional matter, and minimal editting, and ‘Bowling for Columbine’ ...
However Moore struggles to make a solid conflict with anybody in particular. There is Charlton Heston and various other characters that we disagree with throughout the documentary but there is no central antagonist, or villain. As he does in all his documentaries, Moore uses the archetypal narrative. The underdog vs. the foe, such as the time he and 2 students take on K-Mart and win.
The viewer is encouraged to side with the underdog, because he is supposedly acting on behalf of everything that is “good.” Editing is a controversial tool used by Moore to manipulate the viewers into believing certain things, which may have been taken out of context. Examples of this include the Lockheed-Martin and Nuclear Missiles, which were actually only satellites. Much of the NRA criticism was unfair on behalf of the NRA for a number of reasons. Firstly, Charlton Heston has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. The NRA has over 4 million members and meetings are planned years in advanced. As the NRA holds their annual meetings they generally have days of entertainment including luncheons and dinners, shoot outs and other activities, these were all cancelled in light of the shooting tragedies.
There are many other examples of Moore manipulating the footage in this way. By doing this he creates a certain image in the audiences mind, which may be misleading such as his criticism of the NRA.
