Bowling for Columbine

Bowling for Columbine
November 15, 2002
United Artists etc.
Documentary
DVD
B

Written, directed, and starring Michael Moore, this documentary is not what it seems.  Like the book Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man by Susan Faludi, it is as much about the literal and figurative journey to find answers to a complex question as it about the answers and the question.  Here the question begins with, "Why did the Columbine tragedy happen?" and then expands to raise questions about violence, fear, and racism, obviously overlapping categories.  The movie is often assumed to be anti-gun, but Moore is an NRA member and he points out that Canada is just as "gun-loving" as the US, but with much lower murder rates.

The movie is interesting and entertaining, if sometimes painful to watch.  It captures the way the late '90s led to the very early oughts.  My main complaint is that, while I recognize that this is propaganda, and doesn't really pretend not to be, the cards are very clearly stacked.  And not just with the issues.  Everyone that Moore dislikes, like Charlton Heston (coming off as even blinder than he did in Celluloid Closet, which is saying something), seems like an insensitive clod.  But everyone he likes is painted glowingly, himself most of all.  It is self-serving to show himself as either comforting the suffering or zinging the callous.  I understand that the persona of "Michael Moore" is a big part of his movies, but it is distracting.  I will probably revisit this issue when we look at Fahrenheit 9/11.  For now, I'll note that in a way that movie is a sequel to this one, in that the portions of this documentary set after September 11, 2001 obviously show where violence, fear, and racism can lead.

Chris Rock does a funny routine about bullets, showing how he could've been used more effectively in Dogma, making points without the heavy-handedness of that script.

The Celluloid Closet

The Celluloid Closet
March 15, 1996
HBO etc.
Documentary
VHS
B

Although this remains an insightful and often funny look at the history of gays and lesbians (and to a lesser degree transfolk and bisexuals) in a century's worth of movies, I don't think it has aged entirely gracefully.  There are two things, not unrelated.  One, almost twenty years have passed, and the way we look at "gay movies," and indeed the LGBT (etc.) community/communities has changed.  Homophobia definitely still exists, but there's a lot more mainstream tolerance, as evidenced in the progress with the gay marriage issue.  Also, sexuality (which now includes asexuality) is by no means a binary subject anymore.  (Not that it ever was, but people are more conscious of that.)  And two, although this is better organized than Hollywood Uncensored, I felt it didn't do a good enough job of putting things in context with the larger culture.  For example, there's only a brief mention of the medical view of homosexuality and some mention of Catholic censorship, but Hollywood was heavily affected by the perspectives of the dominant culture.  Still, the movie continues to offer a different way of seeing the movies, and I know I've never been able to watch the gymnasium scene in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes without grinning.

With the exception of Will H. Hays, I've decided not to tag everyone in the film clips, but instead focus on those who are interviewed (Gore Vidal is hilarious of course), as well as Tomlin, who narrated.  At the time this movie was released, she wasn't officially out, but then she was never exactly closeted either.  Interestingly, Paul Rudnick would soon write In & Out, which was quite an experience to see with a mainstream audience.

The movie is based on a much more pessimistic book by Vito Russo, who had died in 1990.

"I just went gay all of a sudden!"