The Use of Logos and Pathos in The Documentary Bowling for Columbine

“Our children get turned into little monsters, but who's to blame?” Could it be the video games? Or maybe even the heavy metal music? What about social media? Michael Moore poses these questions in his documentary, Bowling For Columbine, in which he brought awareness to different aspects of gun violence. Michael Moore centers his attention on the tragedy at Columbine High School, a massacre which murdered 13 students, one teacher, and injured 21 additional people before the two shooters pulled the trigger on themselves. This school was victimized by two students for unknown reasons. Michael Moore effectively uses logos and pathos to enlighten his viewers on the idea that America needs a form of gun control.

Michael Moore effectively utilized pathos in his documentary. This appeal is very strong throughout Bowling For Columbine. There had been numerous instances where Moore evoked sadness and agony for the victims, anger towards the killers, and ambition for the families left scarred from this terrible tragedy. Chris Rock, American comedian, made an appearance at the beginning of the film spitting out jokes about gun control. Rock made a memorable quote stating, “I think all bullets should cost $5000. You know why? If a bullet cost $5000 there'd be no more innocent bystanders.” Although Moore uses humor to get his point across, the documentary undertakes questions of American history. Moore also made sure to include security camera footage with 911 calls from inside the school and the media playing in the background. A panicked teacher can be heard in the background screaming, “Under the table, kids! Heads under the table”. After watching and hearing the events of the massacre, the audience is left feeling demoralized. A cartoon scene is also shown with a “brief summary of the USA.” This eight minute clip goes to show that Americans don’t believe that this massacre occurred due to the availability to guns, but the American media.

In the film, logos is presented by statistics of deaths per year in different countries: Japan: 39, Australia: 65, United Kingdom: 68, Canada: 165, France: 225, Germany: 381, United States: 11,127. But what sparked Moore’s interest was the United States having the highest death rate over any other country and he was determined to figure out why. The opening scene of the documentary is very shocking and drives anticipation to the audience. Moore enters a bank to open an account where a complimentary gun is handed out after the account is open. He questioned the obvious, don’t you think its a little dangerous handing out guns in the bank? Like others, Moore can’t decipher why America is more violent than other countries, but he can provide examples with what he thinks could be the cause of it. He believes that Americans fear many things from killer bees, to razor blades in candy on Halloween, etc. The documentary concludes that fear is unreasonable and that Americans are the only real threat towards Americans.

As a result of this documentary, logos and pathos were the two strongest appeals used by Moore.