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Michael Moore's new movie and fear in America 2002-10-26 - 1:04 a.m. 
Sometime last semester of my senior year I knew a bright-eyed theatre directress. Her name was Claire. Claire lived in the African Heritage House on campus and had many black friends there. One time during a meal with her, she told me alot of her friends had arrived and she wanted to sit with them. She smiled at me and chatted away as we sat at a full table of black people. I was scared; I felt out of place. After half the table had left as we sat down, a young black man sitting across from me caught my eye and said, "She don't know any better." I didn't know any better. The people who left might not have either.I have alot of fears. Every time a car passes by me, I hope they don't pull out a gun and start shooting. I live in white suburbia; I've never seen or handled a real gun. Is there any need for this fear? Where does it come from? I thought about these fears as I watched Bowling for Columbine, a documentary by Michael Moore that tried to piece together the gun culture in America: why the murder rate was so high, why guns and ammo were so accessible, trying to piece together what singled out America when Canada had 7 million guns in 10 million households and the murder rate wasn't even in the hundreds. I could just say "any American out there should see this movie," but plenty of people have undoubtedly done that. Instead, I'll say that Americans should see this film not only because of the gun issue, but also to see someone articulate how focused North America is on fear. I'm paranoid of my own neighbors, of the DARE girl who rang my doorbell the other day, with me sitting scrunched up and pretending I'm not home. Maybe I just don't want to be disturbed, but I see these intrusions by strangers as threatening. In crowds of strangers I feel threatened and on guard unless it's obvious they're oblivious. I don't know if British or Canadian or Australian people feel similarly (do any of you?). I do know that, for me, fear is a powerful force and 'Bowling for Columbine' articulates many facets of it well with regard to violence and death. That's a typical sales pitch tactic, but I'm a typical American. Not a typical person, I think, but a typical American undoubtedly. Besides all that education, the film is brazenly entertaining and offers a great narrative by Moore. He loves irony and satire. What I myself find ironic is that one of my short stories is about fear, racial hatred and coming to ally with the race you hate in times of crisis and learning to respect them. This didn't consciously occur to me. It's just something that I felt I needed to make concrete, tenable...and I think Michael Moore made his newest movie for the same reason. He really does care. I enjoyed it. |
