Starring: Michael Moore, Marilyn Manson, Charlton Heston Director: Michael Moore Category: IIB Maverick film-maker Michael Moore's riveting documentary finally comes to our screens after playing to critical acclaim across the globe for 12 months. Perhaps the distributors were wondering just how much relevance it would have to a Hong Kong audience. But it is relevant: it is perhaps the most important film to come out of the United States in recent times. Moore (right) has his critics - and there are times during Bowling For Columbine when his heavy-handed antics become too much - but it is a film that stirs the senses. In Bowling For Columbine, Moore - a card-carrying member of America's National Rifle Association (NRA) - probes America's fascination with firearms. He uses the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School as a focus but, as he digs deeper, lays bare a nation fixated with violence and fear. Part of Moore's motivation is that he comes from a town just like Columbine, and grew up with the same kind of kids who were pulling the triggers on that day. Part of his attraction is the fact that he is just your average, crumpled Joe. And he is at his best when showing just how odd the whole thing is: banks that give out free guns and maniacs who really do sleep with a gun under their pillow. He lets the people involved appear in all their straight-faced stupidity. There are surprises, not the least being shock-rocker Marilyn Manson, who looks the weirdest, but speaks the most sense. And poor old Charlton Heston, a former president of the NRA, is shown simply as a man caught out of his time. Moore manages some sort of balance between the shocking and the downright absurd, but he poses more questions about guns, violence and a culture of fear than he answers. Maybe that's his point. In the end, no one really knows what's going on. Bowling For Columbine opens today.
