The purpose of documentary film is to enlighten, inform, and entertain.
There are many things that come to mind when a person say the word documentary.
Some of the things that come to mind are that documentaries are usually educational and
are not too exciting. That is not to say that a documentary cannot be exciting, although
documentaries express the facts of the topic and do not have fictional ideas to make it
more exciting. While documentary films rely on fact to present their story, not all films
must be a documentary to be based on a fact or true story. It can also be said that
documentaries are not necessarily completely true but are based primarily on reality.
Some documentaries are directed more towards history or telling a story of some sort and
are usually made with real people, not actors.
Michael Moore's documentary "Bowling for Columbine" is a very thought
provoking film, released in 2002, it takes a close look at violence in the United States
today as well as throughout the country's past.
Bowling ball
Woman bowling, circa 1950
Bowl Me OverIn the film, Moore looks into the
gun culture of the United States and tries to find out why in America there are
significantly more gun-related murders than other societies. Moore constantly asks why
America has over ten-thousand gun murders per year, while other countries like Canada
and Japan, who have similar media, cultural, and societal outlooks, have so many fewer
gun murders. He recruits people from many different walks of life to help find him
answers and focuses on several small towns where schools have seen several shootings.
Moore incorporates different images ranging from Charlton Heston speaking to the NRA
to an interview with James Nicholas of Michigan.
Bowling for columbine shows the good as well as the bad in relation...