With enough firepower, even a beagle can be an effective guard dog.

It was only a couple days after the 2002 election and my embittered soul was in need of a good, liberal rant. Luckily for me, Bowling for Columbine was playing.

Bowling for Columbine is the latest sharply pointed documentary by Michael Moore, who has made a career out of skewering corporate America in movies like Roger and Me and The Big One. This time he takes on our violent, gun-lovin', fear-ridden culture and, while his scattershot approach may not provide any pat answers, you've got to love him for asking the questions.

In this case, FDIC stands for "Firearms Distributed Immediately to Customers."

The title refers to the horrific massacre at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. Moore uses this tragedy as a starting point and touchstone for an examination of why America has so much gun-related violence. The movie takes him from K-Mart headquarters in Michigan, where two teenaged survivors of the massacre try to return the bullets, still lodged in their bodies, that their assailants purchased for seventeen cents a pop, to Beverly Hills, where Moore conducts a surreal interview with NRA president and former Planet of the Apes resident Charlton Heston. He visits a bank where you can get a free rifle with a new account, and talks to Oklahoma City bombing suspect James Nicholls, who insists that he had nothing to do with that crime before telling us, his voice quivering with intensity, that it's the responsibility of every citizen to rise up against tyrannical governments and, when they do, the streets will run red with blood.

Moore peppers his film with comic asides, outrageous stunts, and even an animated segment to make his points, but he has just as many moments when he reminds us that this is a serious issue, including chilling security camera footage of the Columbine shootings. The shifts in tone between comedy and drama can be jarring, but they're used to great effect, the piercing satire serving to make the tragic realities that much more poignant. The movie feels unfocussed and disorganized at times, but in a way that's the point. The problem Moore is tackling is so complex that to boil it down to a few simple ideas would be a disservice to the audience.

"I've got my camera and I've got my gun. Let's see Roger avoid me now."

At the center of everything, of course, is Moore himself, whose schlumpy populism and boundless idealism have never been backed with so much righteous anger. There's no mistaking that he's a man with strong opinions. Is this a strictly objective documentary? Hell no. Watching the film, one wonders sometimes what was left on the cutting room floor, what questions weren't asked, what the camera ignored. My advice: don't dwell on it. Moore's aim is to provoke thought more than to provide answers, and in that he succeeds.

So did I get the liberal rant I was craving? Why, yes, I did. (And judging by the cheering — yes, actual cheering — from the audience, I wasn't the only one who needed it.) But I hope you conservatives won't let that put you off. Michael Moore, after all, is a member of the NRA. If Charlton Heston can give him a chance, can't you?

Gorilla Pants rating: 4 out of 4 bananas