In 2002, Michael Moore (everybody’s favourite all-American dissenter) scored a painful body blow against the US establishment with this excoriating documentary, which was acclaimed at the Cannes Film Festival and crowned at the Oscars. 

Using the horrendous 1999 shootings at Columbine High School as a starting point, Moore sets out to ask just what makes Americans uniquely violent – both towards each other and in their relationships with other nations. En route, of course, there’s no lack of humour, straight-talking anger and even pathos – as when Charlton Heston, confronted by Moore with the implications of his actions as President of the National Rifle Association (NRA), simply abdicates the argument, a broken old man bereft of a script.

DVD Extras:

Disc One gives us the movie, the trailer and a three-minute intro by Moore in which he explains he hasn't done a voiceover commentary but handed it over to "the people on the bottom rung" a group of PAs, interns and secretaries who worked on the film. Admirably democratic, but all we get are giggling asides and pointless chatter.Disc Two contains the supplementary material: Moore talking to camera about how it felt to be booed and cheered at the Oscars ("You wish you had more moments like that in our society, when people cared enough to react like that"); excerpts from a speech he gave in Denver six months after the movie was released; a friendly public chat with Bill Clinton's ex-press secretary Joe Lockhart at the US Comedy Arts Festival; an interview on TV's The Charlie Rose Show; and three minutes of Marilyn Manson doing his thing in his 'Fight Song' video. It's all diverting enough to watch, but sheds little light on Bowling For Columbine or the ideas and arguments behind it." Pretty much everything I had to say," remarks Moore in his Disc One intro, "is located within this film." As it turns out, that's just about the truth.