The United States of America is notorious for its astronomical number of people killed by firearms for a developed nation without a civil war. With his signature sense of angry humor, activist filmmaker Michael Moore sets out to explore the roots of this bloodshed. In doing so, he learns that the conventional answers of easy availability of guns, violent national history, violent entertainment and even poverty are inadequate to explain this violence when other cultures share those same factors without the equivalent carnage. In order to arrive at a possible explanation, Michael Moore takes on a deeper examination of America's culture of fear, bigotry and violence in a nation with widespread gun ownership. Furthermore, he seeks to investigate and confront the powerful elite political and corporate interests fanning this culture for their own unscrupulous gain.
Written by Kenneth Chisholm (kchishol@rogers.com)
In May 2002, became first documentary to compete in the Cannes Film Festival's main competition in 46 years.
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Goofs
Factual errors:
A clip of a Godzilla-type monster roaring is shown while showing gun-related death rates for Japan. The clip, however, is from
Gorgo, which was a UK production.
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Quotes
Michael Moore:
In George Bush's America the poor were not a priority. And after September 11th correcting America's social problems took a back seat to fear, panic and a new set of priorities. George W. Bush:
[Archive speech]
One way to express our unity is for Congress to set the military budget and the defense of the United States as the number one priority, and fully fund my request... See more »
Crazy Credits
During the opening, archive footage is presented that claims the movie is
presented by the National Rifle Association (NRA).
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"Battle Hymn of the Republic"
(ca 1856) (uncredited) Music by William Steffe Lyrics by Julia Ward Howe (1862) Played as background music twice
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