It was not our intention to
invite Mr. Colt as well. Instead, someone
is entering our rolling stage who is
how should we describe him?
a type like out of a Western saloon,
massive, never to ignore, a lumbermans
shirt is hanging over his trousers, a
baseball cap on the somehow greasy hair,
in the face a brushy beard.
We welcome the man who, in front of a
recording camera, opened an account in a
banks branch in a little town in
North America and who received in return
a gun as a gift.
Michael Moore, it is this scene that
opens your documentary which made you an
Oscar-winner and the recipient of
countless other awards.
I wanted to show how easy it is to
get a weapon in my home country. When I
was a little boy I was given by my father
already a membership-card of the National
Rifle Association.
The National
Rifle Association is an
U.S.-American organisation, which trains
the safe handling of weapons and which,
especially, defends the right to own
weapons privately. The NRA was founded
shortly after the American Civil War had
ended by officers of the Union who were
shocked how badly soldiers of the Union
had been trained in shooting. They took
as an example the British Rifle
Association which was founded in
1859. The NRA calls itself the oldest
civil rights organisation of the United
States of America; according to their own
statistics there are some four million
two hundred thousand individuals and some
ten thousand seven hundred associations
members.
What objection do you have against an
organisation of sporting riflemen, Mr.
Moore? In Germany, local rifle
associations are marching through
villages and towns every year
With guns carved out of
wood, as far as I know! And above all,
German rifle associations are very much
restricted in their activities; they fall
under tough weapon-regulations and
limitations regarding children and youth
as well. You dont get there a gun
for free once you open a bank account.
At home, in the
U.S.A., two pupils of the
Columbine High School in Littleton shot
in 1999 twelve other pupils, one teacher
and themselves. It was this
school-massacre which caused my
investigation into the fact that in the
United States of America the rate of
crimes committed with weapons is higher
than in any other democratic state like
in Germany, France, Japan, Great Britain,
Australia and especially in Canada.
What do you try to tell us with
the title Bowling for Columbine?
Well, it was disturbing that the
Columbine-massacre was mainly explained
by the fact that both boys who had
committed the crime had listened to the
tunes of Marilyn Manson. Introducing the
fact that both were bowling before I
simply forwarded the question whether it
would not make sense to make bowling
responsible for their crime.
It is now known that both had
actually tailed the bowling-course
its a pity for the title, of course
But somehow did we also miss the
conclusion of your documentary. You argue
the higher rate of weapon-based crime in
the U.S.A. cannot be connected to the
fact that there are a great number of
weapons available, the reason: as many
weapons if not even more would also be
available in Canada.
You introduce other reasons and reject
them at the same time: the violent
suppression of the Indians in the past
would not be a valid argument since other
nations with similar violent background
would have a lower crime-rate today; and
you give as examples Germany
(Nazi-period), Japan (massacres in China
during World War II), France (torture in
Algeria). Also militarism, racism,
aggressive forms of unjust social
organisation all this will be
introduced but declared as invalid. Much
space is given to reflections about the
U.S.-American media-landscape with its
focus on violation and crime, which may
contribute to a general feeling of fear.
Well, that is perhaps the answer of
my film: we in the U.S.A. are living in a
culture of fear.
But then we like much more an
observation noted by a critique of your
presentation:
In one
instance, an
interviewee shrugs the shoulder
acknowledging ignorance; Moore shrugs the
shoulder as well: one moment one would
like to freeze. But before one can be
impressed the stream of pictures
continues, the moment is forgotten.
Mr. Moore, you are in a hurry,
the next stage is waiting. Where will it
be?
In the venerable London
Palladium-Theatre. I am going to tell a
British audience something about my next
documentary, titled Fahrenheit 9/11.
The film focuses among others on
the business-relation of the family of
President Bush with Arab businessmen,
especially with those who belong to the
Bin-Laden-family. I am describing the
policy of my government following the
destruction of the World Trade Centre in
New York on 11th September 2001, known in
short under: nine-eleven or
9/11.
And before you ask again: the title of my
film quotes the novel Fahrenheit
451 by Ray Bradbury and the movie
with the same title by François
Truffaut. They referred Fahrenheit
451 to the temperature which burns
paper; well in my context is Fahrenheit
9/11 the temperature that burns
freedom
By the way, my researchers came up with a
little story, which I did not use in the
film. But it may be of interest to your
Russian guest here, and I dont mean
Mr. Trotsky
When your invention, Mr. Kalashnikov,
turned sixty, a couple of books were
published. The author of one, Michael Hodges, tells an
anecdote with regard to Osama bin Ladens
first AK47: it is said that
this particular carbine was taken as
booty from Palestine fighters during the
1982 attack of the Israelis against
positions in Lebanon. This weapon was
then handed over via the CIA to Bin Laden
when he was fighting in Afghanistan
against the Russians, but still supported
by the American Secret Service. Well, it
is said that it is this AK47
which he presented in his first video
after 9/11.
Thanks, Mr. Moore, and we are
adding a bit more to that topic bad
weapons good weapons.
The American
magazine Movies and Methods
describes the function of the rifle in
the film Winchester 73
as a somehow godly object
which in a changing world stands for
something being constant, perfect
and beautiful to be compared with
the kind of weapons in mediaeval
romantic which alone by being
present would show human behaviour.
Well, this reminds us of the rather
positive role which Karl May has
dedicated throughout his work to your
rifle, Mr. Henry, as a weapon which
cannot be handled by the Evil.
|