This film should NOT have won best oscar for documentary, though I rather enjoyed Moore's speech. Primarily, this is because it isn't a documentary but a good film nonetheless. I rather enjoyed this film and firmly believe its plot structure (and villainization of the NRA) while embellished for dramatic effect, is excellent. I also thinks its amazing that a film that was political and reality-based in nature could have gained such a wide release. I think I know why. It engages one's narrativity in the same way most feature film does, in a way documentaries often don't. I agreed with many (though not all) of the political points made on gun control before I entered the film. Yet, I can admit many of Moore's statistics to be highly misleading. Let's face it though, as a documentary this is the least objective thing I've ever seen, and as journalism, it's even worse. At least Triumph of the Will didn't have a voiceover narration. Moore even interacts with the events he's supposed to be documenting . Objectivity is completely non-existent in this film. This IS a propaganda film, a liberal one, and a damn good one at that. The editing in this film is brilliant and makes a coherent plot out of seemingly unrelated issues. While his racial theory of the nature of gun violence stretches at times, as a whole this political satire is still intelligent, incisive, funny and interesting. It's nice to see someone evening the playing field so that finally we have filmic counter-attacks to the recent barrage of pro-war propaganda, but it seems shameless to label this a documentary (though that might have been a studio decision) and ironic that the man who brought us "The Awful Truth" is so good at bending it. I guess propaganda film doesn't sound as good. Highly Recommended, and enjoyable if you could picture celluloid comeuppance for conservatives (like me), and are intelligent enough to realize not everything you see onscreen existed in the chronology in which it appears and statistics are often taken out of context.
Review of Bowling for Columbine
