Bowling For Columbine (2002)
English
Michael Moore

Perhaps Moore’s best work till date, Bowling For Columbine (2002) examines the ever-increasing gun crimes especially among the youth of the United States of America. Though the truth value of the facts stated in the movie are constantly debated there are some scenes that you can’t resist appreciating.

One of them is the part where the movie tries to provide a brief history of America to trace back the gun culture. Playing just over three minutes, the scene is a completely animated sequence with South Park like caricatures being used to describe the progress of events. The narration is rapid and comic with lots of slang and voice modulations. The fast narration is interwoven with these caricatures that, from time to time, utter some weird but funny lines. You can view the scene here:

For those who do not have speakers (such as me), here is the transcript of the scene (Bear with me, its long!)

Once upon a time, there were these people in Europe called pilgrims and they were afraid of being persecuted. So they all got in a boat and sailed to the New World where they wouldn’t have to be scared ever again.
– Oh, I’m so relaxed.
– I feel so much safer.
But as soon as they arrived, they were greeted by savages.
– They got scared all over again.
– Injuns!
So they killed them all. Now, you’d think wiping out a race of people would calm them down, but no. Instead, they started getting frightened of each other.
– Witch!
– So they burned witches.
In 1775, they started killing the British, so they could be free. And it worked. But they still didn’t feel safe. So they passed a 2nd amendment, which said every white man
– could keep his gun.
– I loves my gun, loves my gun.
This brings us to the genius idea of slavery. You see, boys and girls, the white people back then were also afraid of doing any work. So they went to Africa, kidnapped thousands of black people, brought them to America, and forced them to work very hard for no money. And I don’t mean no money like:
-I work at Walmart and make no money.
I mean zero dollars. Nothing, nada, zip. Doing it that way made the USA the richest country in the world. So did having all that money and free help calm the white people down? No way. They got even more afraid. That’s because after 200 years of slavery, the black people now outnumbered the white people in many parts of the South. Well, you can pretty much what came next. The slaves started rebelling. There were uprisings and old masters’ heads got chopped off and when white people heard of this, they were freaking out. They going
– I want to live!
– Don’t kill me, big black man.
Well, just in the nick of time came Samuel Colt, who, in 1836, invented the first weapon ever that could be fired over and over without having to reload. And all the settlers were like:
-Yee-hah!
But it was too late. The North soon won the Civil War and the slaves were free to go chop the old masters’ heads off. Then everybody was like:
-Oh, no, we’re gonna die.
But the freed slaves took no revenge. They just wanted to live in peace. But you couldn’t convince the white people of this.
So they formed the Ku Klux Klan and, in 1871, the same year the Klan became an illegal terrorist organization, another group was founded: the National Rifle Association. Soon, politicians passed one of the first gun laws, making it illegal for any black person to own one. It was a great year for America. he KKK and the NRA. Of course, they had nothing to do with each other; it was a coincidence. One group legally promoted responsible gun ownership; the other shot and lynched black people.
That’s the way it was till 1955, when a black woman broke the law by refusing to move to the back of the bus. White people just couldn’t believe it.
– Huh? Why won’t she move?
– What’s going on?
Man, all hell broke loose. Black people everywhere demanded their rights. White people had a major, freaky-feel meltdown
and they were all like:
-Run away! Run away!
And they did. They all ran fleeing to the suburbs, where it was all white and safe and clean. And they went out and bought a
quarter-of-a-billion guns. And put locks on their doors, alarms in their houses, and gates around the neighbourhoods. And finally, they were all safe and secure and snug as a bug. And everyone lived happily ever after.

Though this is a gross simplification of the truth, it still has the potency to grab your attention. In just 3 minutes, it gives us the outline of how the country has become what it is now. Without being a documentation or making a serious issue out of it, the scene gives a blow by pin-pointing the mistakes of the nation and the consequences, all in the typical Michael Moore style!