Much of the documentary is funny (well, not so much funny as horribly, terribly scary, but to the point of ridiculousness), including blithely self-unaware comments from the likes of John Nichols, brother of Terry of Oklahoma City bombing fame. A great animated sequence (that sounds like it comes from the South Park boys) satirizes white people's fears throughout the history of the country. To my delight, the piece blames many of the nation's problems on suburbia (I believe everything wrong in the country can be blamed on either sprawl or climate change or both, and I have the newspaper articles and reports to back me up). And Moore comes up with clever stunts (the one in Canada is hilarious) and interesting people and places to visit.
But he shows some horrifying images with no warning, from Bud Dwyer shooting himself at his press conference (other Pennsylvanians may be the only ones who remember this) to graphic warfare to the World Trade Center towers. You know, I've spent a lot of effort, particularly around Sept. 11 this year, trying to avoid these images -- if I never again see the second plane smashing into the tower, it'll be too soon -- and I resented Moore shoving them in my face. Yeah, yeah, show on a gut-wrenching, intimate level how horrible violence and guns are, but you know what? I already knew that, and probably most of the documentary's audience will know it, too.
Moore starts out with school shootings and hits the National Rifle Association early and often. (The NRA had the repugnant insensitivity and craven opportunism to hold spur-of-the-moment conventions in Denver days after the Columbine shooting, and in Flint, MI, again within days of a local tragedy -- a six-year-old boy shooting a six-year-old girl.) He tries too hard to find some deeper reason for these attacks beyond "a kid is angry, the kid has a gun, the kid doesn't give a shit about human life." It's a stretch to claim that the Columbine shooters went on their rampage because many people in Littleton worked at Lockheed Martin, evil weapons manufacturer, or because the US bombs other countries with unilateral arrogance (does he truly believe the Columbine shooters were assiduously watching the news every night and thinking, "Well, as long as my country is propping up illegitimate regimes and bombing hospitals and schools, it's okay for me to shoot up my classmates?" That's the kind of moronic justification some Republicans put forth to explain the spate of corporate malfeasance, saying that it was thanks to the lying, permissive, unaccountable atmosphere created by Bill Clinton).
From there, Moore meanders through an over-long, overly detailed presentation of his various theories about why the US has more gun deaths by far than anywhere else in the world. Some interesting ideas surface -- one researcher presents a neat assessment of the difference between real but mostly ignored threats (like pollution) versus unlikely but publicly feared threats (such as being shot on the street), much like the people who, after the terrorist and anthrax attacks, refused to open letters or fly, yet continued the rest of their lives with no adjustments, even though the risks of being killed by something quotidian, such as driving or crossing the street, are vastly larger than those of being a terrorism victim. And, although he never teases it out as a stand-alone theory, Moore makes interesting points about the culture of individualism in the US versus the sense of community that prevails in other countries, like Canada (he did the impossible -- he actually made me want to move to Canada). But by and large, the theories ramble with little hard evidence and too much explication.
Moore frequently turns his wrath and his publicity stunts against tangential targets; for example, he hounds Dick Clark after finding out that a welfare-to-work mother has to commute a couple hours each way to work at Dick Clark's American Bandstand Grill. Like Dick Clark personally created the welfare-to-work policy? Like it would be better for him not to offer jobs to people being forced off welfare? A worthier target is Charlton Heston (it's chilling to watch him at the NRA meeting just after Columbine, clutching a shotgun and growling, "From my cold, dead hands!"). Moore's initial contact with Heston is pretty funny (he literally finds Heston's house with one of those Hollywood star maps), but his interview reveals Heston as heartless, defensive, and racist. Regardless of whether the interview was done before or after Heston announced he has Alzheimer's, he's clearly alert and coherent; if he stumbles for words, it's to back himself out of what he suddenly realizes is an unpopular position.
For all Moore's faults, he clearly cares about people, a quality that is obviously, sorely missing from Heston, the NRA, and the various murderers seen in clips throughout the movie. I recommend the movie as reaffirmation for the gun-control crowd, thought-provoking and humorous for the middle-of-the-roaders, and... who am I kidding, no right-wingers would go to see this and, if dragged to it by a well-intentioned loved one, would defensively block out its arguments anyway. (And I sure hope there are no right-wingers on this email list.)
Postscript,
Nov. 1, 2002
Yet again, the NRA is callously celebrating guns a scant few days after
a shooting tragedy, this time in Tucson.
And guess who was front and center: that’s right, Charlton Heston.
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