One of the most controversial documentaries of recent years and winner of the 2003 Academy Award for Best Documentary, this film has contributed to the larger than life profile of writer and filmmaker, Michael Moore as a radical and provocative satirist of current American policy.
Taking the events of April 20th, 1999, when two students at Columbine High School in Colorado went on a killing spree, Moore sets about exploring the possible causes of such a tragedy. He questions the US constitutional right to bear arms and suggests that the relentless news reports and tv programmes about criminal gangs have terrified suburban Americans into arming themselves. He draws on interviewees as diverse as a spokesman for Lockheed who make missiles and the Columbine victim Richard Castaldo who is now wheelchair bound. Although there are some questionable moments in Moore’s approach, the resulting film is generally brave, sometimes hilarious, and always challenging.