Preview

The Persuasive Techniques Used "In Bowling for Columbine".

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2237 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Persuasive Techniques Used "In Bowling for Columbine".
The movie "Bowling for Columbine" was made after the shooting in Columbine high school and tries to explore the reasons for America's violent nature. Moore believes that there is one main reason for this, the fact that there are relaxed gun laws in America. Therefore, Moore uses a number of different persuasive techniques in order to try and persuade the viewer to believe that this is the case. He uses certain visuals, music, sequences the scenes in a specific order and uses facts and opinions to achieve this.

The first scene that shows persuasive techniques is "The Wonderful World" sequence. In this sequence, it shows horrible images of dead people, with various facts and figures shown at the bottom of the screen. In the background, the song "What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong is being played. There are many persuasive techniques used in this sequence, being the visuals, the camera movement and editing, the sequencing, the audio and uses of facts and opinions.

The visuals used in this scene are very persuasive as they are very striking and are horrible images. We see images of suffering and death which are shocking and appeal to the emotions which, in turn generates sympathy. The images used are of suffering or death of real people which makes the reader feel very disgusted and shocked at how the USA was linked to this and would side with the viewpoint of Moore, that the USA is very insensitive.

The camera movement and editing of the sequence is also very persuasive. The main way in which Michael Moore persuades the viewer is by only showing one side of the argument. By introducing this element of bias, the viewer only has one view to believe and by doing this, the viewer believes this viewpoint to be true, as it does not know of any other. The viewpoint that Michael Moore is showing is that the USA is very insensitive. Moore makes the government seem insensitive by displaying pictures of dead corpses caused by US government-funded wars. He then

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    On April 20th, 1999, a school shooting took place in the Columbine High School. Two students, fully armed with a variety of firearms, murdered numerous students. This catastrophe resulted in numerous disputes over the issues with gun control laws in relation to the Second Amendment of the US Bill of Rights, which gave US residents the right to bear arms. Later in 2002, Michael Moore explored the causes of the Columbine shooting and such violence in his documentary Bowling for Columbine. In this documentary, Moore uses logos, pathos, and ethos to convey the message that US social media, along with the freedom to bear guns, plays a major role…

    • 834 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The documentary Bowling For Columbine is based around the terrible occurrences that took place on the 20th of April, 1999. In which two boys, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, walked into Columbine State High School and murdered thirteen people including one teacher and injured a further twenty one in the process. Michael Moore uses this event to his advantage by investigating America’s fear culture and why it has developed into something so large. During the documentary, Moore uses a wide selection of film techniques to invite the audience to accept his version of the truth. He does this by carefully choosing and disregarding certain information. This technique is known as selection and omission. Moore also takes use of editing and sequencing shots, which helps to produce his adaptation of the truth. Michael Moore deliberately developed Bowling For Columbine to privilege and marginalise certain groups and to position the viewers to believe the ‘truth’. Moore aims to expose the fact that Americans have an unusually large culture…

    • 1203 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    A multi-award winning documentary written and directed by Michael Moore released in 2002. The film quickly gained critical acclaim for its hilarious and shocking footage centred on American gun culture. The film follows Moore as he investigates America’s, sometimes fanatical, fascination with guns and asks why, statistically America has the highest death rate with fire arms in the western world. To answer this question he interviews various groups, people and organisations directly related or involved with gun use, paying close attention to such tragedies as The Columbine High School massacre and The Shooting of Kayla Rolland. He also uses a great deal of archive footage to illustrate the history of gun obsession and intentionally inserts himself into the film.…

    • 2419 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    The emotions that arise from the video are angst, dread, compassion and rebellion. The emotions angst and dread were aroused by the graphics and sound effect of the video in example throughout the video the sound effects where very eerie and fitting to the subtopic discussed at the moment. The whole video is illustrated with graphics that were hand drawn; they were colored in mostly in different shades of black and white to portray a grim and clandestine environment in exception to red which was used to portray blood. An example that the illustrations were used to portray dread and compassion are a drawing the illustrator did of a small child working at a sweat shop and then a drawing of another child scavenging through waste. The emotions compassion and rebellion where influenced by the videos graphics but they were mainly affected by the words chosen to describe offshoring. The choice of vocabulary for the video was calamitous, it made corporations be viewed as destructive entities that the audience needs to stand up against. It chose phrases such as “the vast lawless oceans” (morph,2013) and “the powerful hide options to avoid responsibilities” (morph,2013) to express the corruption corporations seek to better benefit themselves. The…

    • 1512 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Good morning/afternoon Teachers and peers, today I will be talking about Michael Moore’s need to persuade us into believing that America is a gun driven country. In this documentary, Bowling for Columbine, Michael Moore has used many persuasive techniques to get us to believe that every person in America feels safe to have a gun somewhere in their house for protection and that there are many terrible things that happen in America. To prove that Americans feel safer with a gun in their house and how America has many tragedies I will deconstruct 2 scenes from the documentary Bowling for Columbine. First I will be talking about selection and omission of James Nickles. Second I will be talking about the juxtaposition, and gaps and silences in this documentary.…

    • 472 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The lives of many were to change on the day of April 20th, 1999, at Columbine High School. With the death of twelve students and one teacher, it was to be the deadliest mass murder committed on an American high school campus. The massacre, committed by senior students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, sparked debate over gun control laws; whether the availability of guns across the United States, especially to young people such as these, was socially acceptable. This event is what sparked Moore to create his documentary, ‘Bowling for Columbine’.…

    • 767 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Bowling for Columbine

    • 1334 Words
    • 6 Pages

    I’m here to talk about Michael Moore’s film ‘Bowling for Columbine’ and some of the techniques that are used in the film. Michael Moore uses persuasive film techniques to position the audience to accept his version of the truth. Some of the techniques used by Michael Moore to position the audience are editing, sequencing and music. He uses them by editing parts of the film to marginalize the NRA and gun owners. He sequences the film into a certain position to make the movie more effective and uses music to position the audience to feel a certain way.…

    • 1334 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Waiting For Superman

    • 316 Words
    • 1 Page

    1. A. What do you believe is the main argument presented in this documentary? B. Describe how at least one of the children’s personal stories illustrates his argument.…

    • 316 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The art of persuasion is a feature that can oftentimes, work to one’s advantage. In order to be persuasive, one must use persuasive techniques to convince a reader or listener to one’s viewpoint. Old sermons, such as Jonathan Edwards, “Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God”, are written to drive home a message or to bring the sinful back to the church. Beth Chapman’s modern speech, “Stand Up for America Rally Speech”, is proposed to convince Americans to support the troops who are laying down their lives for our freedom. The two authors use the persuasive techniques of repetition, appeal to emotion, through charged words and the appeal to reason, through common sense, in order to influence their listeners and persuade their audience that their viewpoints are correct.…

    • 582 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    11,127 is the number of Americans killed in the United States last year with a gun. 381 is the number of Germans killed with a gun, which is the closest statistic country to the U.S. Why is there so much gun violence in the U.S? What is so different in the U.S. that gun crime is so prevalent? What can we do to change it? All questions Bowling for Columbine poses in the film documentary by Michael Moore. Like the documentary, there is not one simple answer and there are no easy solutions.…

    • 776 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Bowling for Columbine

    • 592 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Bowling for columbine is a documentary that was made in 2002 detailing the events surrounding the Massacre that took place on April 20 1999. In Bowling for Columbine, Michael Moore deals with the issues of gun and gun crime in USA. One of the purposes of this film is to persuade American’s to change their ideas about guns and gun laws, Moore shows this in his film by showing small clips and photos of people using guns in a inappropriate manor. Michael Moore constantly refers to other countries such as Canada and their gun policies to back up his arguments for increase gun regulation. He is successfully able to counter argue any reason given by pro gun supporters as to the reason why America has the highest gun related crimes and deaths, even though other countries have similar attitudes toward violence. The scenes selected for Bowling for Columbine display Moore’s ability to successfully persuade the audience to accept his point of view. Michael Moore born April 23, 1954 is an American filmmaker, author and liberal political commentator. He is the director and producer of Bowling for Columbine, Fahrenheit 9/11, Sicko and Capitalism: A Love Story, four of the top nine highest-grossing documentaries of all time. All of Moore’s films are documentary based where he tells his point of view and tries to persuade the audience to see what he thinks is…

    • 592 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Columbine Shootings

    • 686 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The documentary “Bowling for Columbine” is an award-winning documentary directed by well-known filmmaker Michael Moore. The film won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, as well as an Independent Spirit Award, a Cesar Award and many others. This bold movie criticizes America’s large number of gun related deaths annually compared to other countries around the world. He discusses why America seems to have such a problem with violence and how it has led to tragedy’s involving firearms like the imfamous shooting at Columbine high school in Columbine, Colorado. Since the Columbine shooting in 1999 there have been other school shootings that seem to closely resemble it, such as the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting and the recent 2012 Sandy Hook…

    • 686 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Bowling for Columbine

    • 715 Words
    • 3 Pages

    ‘Bowling for Columbine’ juxtaposes the innocent pastime of bowling and the violence associated with Columbine. On April 20th 1999, the morning of the Columbine High School massacre Eric Harris and Dylan Kleebold went bowling. Mike Moore interviews two girls from Eric and Daniel’s bowling class. They stated that the boys were not very social and “they were chucking the ball down there, not really caring how they bowled”. Moore questions “Why wasn’t bowling blamed for warping the minds of Eric and Dylan to commit their evil deeds?”. He questions how going bowling wasn’t a plausible cause to murder opposed to the Music of Marilyn Manson. In the documentary the audience is shown that well known armed force the Michigan Militia use bowling pins as shooting target practice as they have similar proportions to a human figure and how this could have triggered the Columbine High School massacre. Moore shows the audience that Columbine is almost like a breeding ground for murderers, with Columbine High School not too far away from Lockheed Martin, an arms manufacturer for the US Military. Bowling for Columbine compares bowling and the tainted, violent reputation of Columbine as a town.…

    • 715 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    There are many dangers that plague us in today’s society. One of the most pressing issues is that of driving under the influence of alcohol. This is a problem for many reasons. Firstly, driving while intoxicated is illegal. It shows the rising problem of substance abuse, and most importantly, driving drunk is deadly. According to "Drinkinganddriving.org" (2008-2013), "900,000 are arrested each year for DUI/DWI and a full 1/3 of those are repeat offenders”.…

    • 1181 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Bowling for Columbine

    • 2360 Words
    • 10 Pages

    The Academy Award winning documentary film “Bowling for Columbine” by Director Michael Moore attempts to find a reason for the Columbine High School, Colorado shootings and leads to an investigation into gun laws and gun violence. Through a series of interviews, stunts, cartoons, commentary and media pieces, we are left at the end of a blunt and revealing journey wanting the answers to the various moral and ethical questions raised. Moore travels across America and Canada to get a broad pool of opinion and not only takes the trip to find a reason for the gun violence in the first place, but he takes the long road by not blaming the usual suspects (video games, angry music, and a bloody history as a nation) and investigating other investigations. Moore reveals disturbing and frightening truths about the US’s gun possession statistics and gun related death figures. Moore shows his skill as a filmmaker in “Columbine” in his ability to keep the audience, not only attentive, but entertained also. Although the film is based around the tragic Columbine Massacre, Moore makes the best of a bad situation and tries (when appropriate) to make the film humorous and light hearted.…

    • 2360 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Better Essays