arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

Q. Why is the movie called “Bowling for Columbine”?
A. First off, let me make it clear that this is not a bowling movie. Bowling fans will be disappointed if they come expecting to see a number of exciting bowling maneuvers.

It is also not a movie about the Columbine tragedy, although that sad event is revisited briefly in the film.

The title is taken from the little-known fact that the two killers, Dylan and Eric, were supposed to be in bowling class at Columbine High School on the morning of the murders. At least five witnesses, including their teacher, told the police that they saw one or both boys that morning at the bowling alley for their first hour class. Some school and law enforcement officials later maintained that the two boys skipped that class that morning yet no other witness has come forward to say they saw Eric and Dylan anywhere else that morning.

One reason the film is called “Bowling For Columbine” is that, after the massacre, all the pundits and experts started blaming all the usual suspects that are wheeled out for blame whenever a school shooting occurs—evil rock music (in this case Marilyn Manson), violent video games, and bad parenting.

My point is that those scapegoats make about as much sense as blaming bowling. After all, Eric and Dylan were bowlers, they took bowling class at Columbine—was bowling responsible for their evil deeds? If they bowled that morning, did the bowling trigger their desire to commit mass murder? Or, if they skipped their bowling class that morning, did that bring on the massacre? Had they bowled, that may have altered their mood and prevented them from picking up their guns. As you can see, this is all nonsense, just as it is nonsense to blame Marilyn Manson.

The title suggests other metaphors for the state of the nation which are best left to the viewers and their imagination.

Q. Is that bank that hands out guns for real?
A. Yes. North Country Bank (with branches throughout Northern Michigan) offers you a wide choice of guns when you open up a certificate of deposit account. In effect, they are giving you all of the interest the account will earn in advance in the form of a gun. The bank is also an authorized federal arms dealer so they can do the quick background check right there at the bank. I put $1,000 in a long-term account, they did the background check, and, within an hour, walked out with my new Weatherby—just as you see it in the film. (I did have a choice of getting a pair of golf clubs or a grandfather clock, but they didn’t have either of those hanging on the wall like they did those three rifles). I learned about the bank’s gun offer from an ad in the local paper that showed a gun across the top with the heading, “ More Bang for Your Buck” from North Country Bank. I still have the account and the gun to this day (though I plan to legally “auction” off the gun for charity, and creatively have it destroyed—more on that later!)

Q. Are you really a member of the NRA?
A. Yes. I currently hold a “Life Membership.” I was a junior member and won the NRA Marksman Award when I was a teenager (back when the NRA was known as a gun safety and sportsman organization). I went hunting with the neighborhood kids but there were never any guns in our house. After Columbine, I decided that I would run against Charlton Heston for the presidency of the NRA. If elected, my plan was to try to return the NRA to a gun safety organization, instead of its current agenda of gun fanaticism. The rules said that to run for president, you had to be a member for the past five years or buy a lifetime membership for $750. And that's what I did. But after a while I realized this endeavor was going to take too much time, so I decided to focus all my attention on the movie I was making.

Q. When you went into the bedroom with James Nichols and he cocked his gun, what were you thinking?
A. That this was really a bad decision on my part and that the gun could go off any second.

Q. How did you convince Lockheed to let you in their missile factory in Littleton?
A. Well, first of all, the Lockheed PR people would disagree with your use of the term, “missile.” They now call their Titan and Atlas missiles on which nuclear warheads were once (and still are but in less numbers) attached, “rockets.” That’s because the Lockheed rockets now take satellites into outer space. Some of them are weather satellites, some are telecommunications satellites, and some are top secret Pentagon projects (like the ones that are launched as spy satellites and others which are used to direct the launching of the nuclear missiles should the USA ever decide to use them).

Lockheed Martin is the largest defense contractor in the United States. They gave us the MX missile and are now heavily involved in developing the nutty Star Wars missile defense shield. They have five facilities in and around the Littleton and Denver area and they are the #1 private employer in the school district that contains Columbine High School.

How did I get their permission to film there? I threatened them with bombing, of course.

Q. Did the United States really do all that stuff in the Wonderful World section?
A. Yes, we did. You can read more about it here. More updates will be posted there in the coming weeks.

Q. How did you get the security camera footage of the Columbine shooting?
A. We asked for it, and the sheriff’s office sent it to us.

Q. The teacher we see on the footage as he dives through the cafeteria—was he OK?
A. Yes. We do not show anyone being shot or killed at Columbine in the movie.

Q. Did Columbine High School give you permission to film inside the school?
A. No. So we just walked in and filmed the empty hallways. It is very easy for anyone to just walk right in to the school. There is virtually no security still at the school.

Q. How did you get a tape of all those all calls the day of the Columbine massacre?
A. The sheriff’s office provided a CD-Rom to the press of selected phone calls but tried to block the rest from being heard. We unscrambled them and were surprised to hear how many media outlets were tying up the emergency lines that day with their demands that they talk to “someone live on the air.” Calling 911 without a legitimate emergency is a crime.

Q. Why is Denver the center of so many weapons of mass destruction?
A. There is nothing unusual about this. We are a nation that had, at one point, 40,000 nuclear warheads. You could pick many, many other areas of the country and show similar activities taking place.