Free Showing of "Bowling for Columbine" Sells Out Consecutive Nights

Author: Peter Yordan

Last week Middlebury students flocked to Dana Auditorium in unprecedented numbers to see this year's incendiary documentary "Bowling for Columbine." Michael Moore's newest film, which was given two extra showings in Dana Auditorium to accommodate the overflowing throngs of students and local residents who swarmed the theater in hopes of seeing the celebrated and controversial movie, was the first must-see cinematic event at Middlebury in some time. Rarely does a documentary film attract such attention on campus, but then Moore's film is no average documentary. "Bowling for Columbine," this year's Academy Award winning full-lenth documentary, is the most successful non-fiction film of all time, having already grossed over $40 million worldwide since its initial large scale release last fall.
On Monday, April 28 so many eager patrons packed Dana Auditorium that Security had to be called to clear the clogged aisles of seat-less people. A second screening was hastily arranged for the next evening to accommodate the overflow, and when Tuesday night's attendance was equally flush a third showing was added for the next day. Word of mouth quickly spread throughout the college of the must-see film's hard hitting and hilarious look at gun violence in the United States. "I have to say, I was quite surprised at the response from students," said Leger Grindon, professor of film and media culture. "We show a lot of good movies here, but I don't ever remember a documentary getting an audience like this."
Professor Grindon pointed to several factors that may have contributed to the film's on-campus success. He noted that the film is still not out on video and that there was a strong word-of-mouth effect between students talking about Michael Moore's views on guns and American society.
Moore, the principal filmmaker of "Bowling for Columbine," is himself a controversial figure. A famously outspoken member of the American Left, his previous theatrical documentary from 1989, "Roger and Me," a scathing attack upon General Motors for its role in the economic destruction of Moore's hometown of Flint, Mich., was dubiously disqualified from the Academy Awards over accusations that he manipulated events to further his arguments. This year, in his acceptance speech for his Oscar, Moore's harshly critical statements about the Bush Administration were met with a loud mix of cheers and boos from the star-studded audience. "Michael Moore has a fan base now that he's a success. People know Moore's politics and if they subscribe to those they will be attracted to the screenings," said Grindon. "He's one of the few stars of documentary."
Moore himself is everywhere in "Bowling for Columbine." He is a constant presence on camera, the star and principal voice of his film. Moore leaves no doubt in the mind of the spectator that "Bowling for Columbine" is at every moment his film. So overpowering is Moore's role and personality that most Middlebury students based their opinion of the film on their opinion of Moore himself rather than on the content of his arguments. "I exist in my films as a stand-in for the audience," Moore said during an interview with The Guardian of London. "I'm just there doing what you probably would like to do and holding back from wanting to choke a few of these people."
Slovenly, unshaven and overweight, Moore assumes an ironic, often hilarious Everyman persona during the film. He has a fine sense of the comic and the absurd, and his ability to underplay ridiculous scenes leads to some of the funniest moments of the movie, like his interview with a discontented Littleton, Colo. youth who was upset because he was only number two or number three on the bomb threat list. Moore set out to demonize the American gun laws as the cause of U.S. gun violence, but soon found that the Second Amendment was a far too simplistic and unsatisfactory cause for bloody massacres like the attack at Columbine. He is merciless in his depiction of American society, brazenly showing footage the 9-11 attacks on New York as the end result of America's international actions. He turns a hard eye on the mass media and the racism and fear that permeates White American society.
Yet Moore's approach is also at times obnoxious and manipulative. He loves to badger his interview victims, at one point harassing a police officer about being unable to read the Hollywood sign through the dense Los Angeles fog. Many students were also uncomfortable with his use of some emotional material where Moore's interviews brought some of his subjects to tears. At one point he films himself comforting the crying principal of a Flint school where a six-year-old boy shot his fellow student. "It was obvious that he really cares a lot, but you wonder if he cared a little more would he have shown that?" said Michael McCarthy '03, a fan of the film. "He needed to have you see that he cared because he was in his hometown."
Bernadette Gunn '04, like many students who studied abroad last semester, first saw "Bowling for Columbine" outside the United States where it was widely distributed. "When I first saw the film I felt like he always went a step too far but looking back I realized that's his role to take that extra step that no one else takes."