Bowling for Columbine

[Dr Breakfast]

Scarier than any horror film I've seen.

Channel 4 now

 

[Beach Hut]

Watching a repeat of training day in the office - very funny

 

[Cian]

I bought the DVD of this. f*** knows where I put it though - haven't seen the case let alone the disk in months.

Even taking the fact that it is by Moore into account, it doesn't paint a pretty picture of the hellhole across the pond

 

[Beach Hut]

If you have state laws that allow you to carry guns then it is highly likely they will be used at some point.

Not to hard to work that one out is it but if you're an American.........

 

[Cian]

Just turned it off again - can hardly make myself watch it anymore.

How the hell did a country THAT stupid get to be the worlds superpower?

 

[Brightonfan1983]

Watching a repeat of training day in the office - very funny

My favourite episode. Gareth's fantasy, Brent's guitar - cringe!!!

 

[¡Cereal Killer!]

Im watching it on DVD right now.

Love the cartoon history about America

 

[Beach Hut]

My favourite episode. Gareth's fantasy

Hilarious

 

[Braders]

Watching a repeat of training day in the office - very funny

A rose, you never used your thorns,
The ones you loved abandoned you,
Your angel face made hearts so warm,
You helped the sick but who helped you ?
Then rushing through the Paris night,
They hounded you, you lost control,
We prayed that you would be alright,
The news came through - Your body cold...

(Chorus) Good night, my sweet princess...

 

[Juan Albion]

How the hell did a country THAT stupid get to be the worlds superpower?

How the hell can anyone be so stupid as to accept everything they see in a one-sided documentary as being really representative of a whole nation? Good grief.

If you look hard enough, you will find stupid things in every country on earth.

 

[Dr Breakfast]

I don't think MYOB based that judgement on the documentary alone.

There is more than enough evidence to back him up on that one

 

[Juan Albion]

I don't think MYOB based that judgement on the documentary alone.

There is more than enough evidence to back him up on that one

Yeah, right... I must be lucky then, because all the Americans I deal with on a regular basis seem to be fairly normal human beings (some, I suspect, a lot more normal than MYOB). Mind you, I haven't met all 300 million of them yet.

BTW, I like Michael Moore, and I like the nice things he says about Canada in that movie to make the States seem even worse. Is it realistic? Well, I would like to think so and I rarely lock my front door. But Toronto alone averaged more than a murder a week in 2003, and no doubt a fair number of those involved guns.

 

[Lord Cornwallis]

Fair comment Juan, there are stupid people who do stupid things the world over. Maybe it's highlighted a lot more when it comes to Americans.
They do seem to think they are so much better than Canadians.

Tell them that America just lives in Canada's basement and they get quite upset.

 

[Juan Albion]

Tell them that America just lives in Canada's basement and they get quite upset.

Truth hurts. Of course many of them think Canada is just a state anyway, don't they?

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

Juan, what is the Canadian education system like? I only ask because the majority of the Canadians that i've met here (Japan) have had an incredibly sketchy knowledge of history. An extreme example is my housemate who asked what d-day was about and then expressed surprise that France had been invaded(why would anyone want to invade France?)...

And no, she wasn't joking.

I'm curious to know what they teach in history lessons because they've all been intelligent people, just lacking entirely in even the most basic historical facts.

 

[beorhthelm]

If you have state laws that allow you to carry guns then it is highly likely they will be used at some point.

Actually one of the important points that come across is that Canada has the same levels of gun ownership, yet virtually no gun crime (less than most european countries).

Whats not really gone into is why that should be. He attempts to get some answer to that question out of Heston, but then just drops the point entirely and ends the film. Big mistake in my mind as that would have made it really worthwhile.

 

[Scarface]

Thought it brought up some interesting points.

The gun deaths statistics for a year were quite alarming; 300 odd in Germany, 200 in France, 70 in Britain, 50 in Australia, 30 in Canada...and over 11,000 in the US.

One of the parents of a murdered student making the point that his son was not shot with a rifle but a Tec-9, which is not used to kill deer. He could understand people owning rifles and weapons like that for hunting purposes but not semi automatic weapons like Tec-9s that are really only for killing people.

Thought that the cartoon history of the US was funny though! As was the bank that was also a licensed firearm dealer and gave you a free gun if you set up an account. Moore's question when he has been shown how to use his new rifle, 'So is it a good idea to be handing out guns in a bank?'!

 

[Hatterlovesbrighton]

I like the gun part of the film. I did though detest the other parts of the film filled with Moore propaganda.

 

[Juan Albion]

Juan, what is the Canadian education system like? I only ask because the majority of the Canadians that i've met here (Japan) have had an incredibly sketchy knowledge of history. An extreme example is my housemate who asked what d-day was about and then expressed surprise that France had been invaded(why would anyone want to invade France?)...

And no, she wasn't joking.

I'm curious to know what they teach in history lessons because they've all been intelligent people, just lacking entirely in even the most basic historical facts.

The system seems pretty good to me. There is a bit of a drug problem in some schools so she probably 'missed' that lesson. That and the fact that she was female. Was she blonde?

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

I like the gun part of the film. I did though detest the other parts of the film filled with Moore propaganda.

Whilst I like Moore it always amazes me how he ties everything to the backwater that is Flint, Michigan. If he put his mind to it he could relate Smith's 83 Wembley miss to the social housing conditions in Flint in the late 70s/early 80s.

Also trying to make a connection between Lockheed Martin being in Columbine and the massacre was ludicrous!