Using a mixture of roving interviews, statistics, historical documentary footage, cartoon animation and the set-ups familiar to fans of his TV Nation series, Moore teases out appalling truths about gun proliferation in America. He's able to obtain a rifle by opening a bank account and shows that the bullets used in the Columbine massacre were still available at K-Mart--until he confronts their management with victims of the shootings. But it's not just gun proliferation that's the problem. Canada, Moore discovers, is similarly rife with firearms yet has a far lower murder rate. The problem with the US, Moore believes, is an irrational climate of fear that has driven the country to reactionary extremes since the days of the pioneers, persuading citizens that they need to be armed to the teeth.

In a film short on lowlights, the highlight is Moore's confrontation with NRA President Charlton Heston. Moore's deceptively genial, shambling, regular American dude appearance (as well as his NRA membership) wins Heston's confidence and Moore teases from the actor an inadvertently racist slip of the tongue, before turning up the heat, at which point Heston terminates the interview. In this moment, the sort of anger Moore demonstrated at the 2003 Academy Awards ceremony surfaces briefly as he brandishes a picture of a gunshot victim to the retreating Heston. Funny, shrewd, righteous, hard to deny, Bowling for Columbine is uncomfortable and irresistible film-making. --David Stubbs

On the DVD: This two-disc special edition of Bowling for Columbine contains an updated voice-over introduction from Michael Moore on the first disc, as well as a direct-to-camera talk on the second disc in which he discusses reactions to the film and his reaction to winning an Oscar. (He has to recite his celebrated acceptance speech because the Academy refused permission for him to show a clip.) Other extras are good, thoughtful, funny and provocative interviews with ex-Clinton press secretary Joe Lockhart and with film critic Charlie Rose, plus a moving return to Littleton, Colorado--home of Columbine High School--to find out what local people thought of the documentary. --Mark Walker

Special Features

• Exclusive Michael Moore interview on Oscar win & his acceptation speech
  
• Feature commentary by interns with introduction by Michael Moore
  
• Moore's interview with Clinton's press secretary Joe Lockhart
  
• Teacher's guide
  
• Return to Littleton/ Denver 6 months after Bowling For Columbine
  
• Film Festival scrapbook
  
• Moore on The Charlie Rose Show
  
• Marilyn Manson Fight Song music video