Columbine High School massacre in modern culture

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The following is a list of cultural references to the Columbine High School massacre.

Contents

[edit] Music

  • References to the shootings have appeared in popular music. Members of KMFDM, one of the bands blamed for the massacre, had formed a group called MDFMK and wrote a song called "Witch Hunt".
  • The massacre inspired Finnish symphonic metal group Nightwish to write "The Kinslayer", for their Wishmaster album (1999).
"I'm Back":
"I take seven [kids] from [Columbine],
stand 'em all in line,
Add an AK-47, a revolver, a nine
a MAC-11 and it oughta solve the problem of mine,
and that's a whole school of bullies shot up all at one time".
"The Way I Am":
"When a dude's getting bullied and shoots up the school
and they blame it on Marilyn, and heroin and 'where were the parents at?"...
"Remember Me?":
Came home, and somebody musta broke in the back window
and stole two loaded machine guns and both of my trenchcoats
Sick sick dreams of picnic scenes, two kids, sixteen
with M-16's and ten clips each
And them shits reach through six kids each.
"Who Knew?"
Quit tryin to censor music, this is for your kids amusement
(the kids!) but dont blame me when lil Eric jumps off of the terrace
...
How many retards'll listen to me
And run up in the school shootin when theyre pissed at a
Teach-er, her, him, is it you is it them?
Wasnt me, Slim Shady said to do it again!

Eminem's song in 2003 called "Go To Sleep" for the movie Cradle To The Grave even though it's a diss song to Ja Rule and Benzino, the last part of the song was lyrically about the Columbine shooting.

"I'm about to enroll in [Columbine] and finish the fucking job."[citation needed]
  • In 2004, shots of surveillance footage of the Columbine shooting spree appeared in the music video for "Alert Status Red" by Matthew Good.
  • Filter's 2002 album, The Amalgamut, is social commentary with one song ("Columind") displaying a disturbing portrayal of the Columbine shooting.
  • Contemporary Christian Musician Michael W. Smith released This Is Your Time in 1999, which was inspired by the Columbine massacre; especially the title track "This is Your Time," which is about Cassie Bernall and her affirmation of her belief in God.
  • Nu-metal band Limp Bizkit also made reference to the Columbine shooting in their song "Head for the Barricade".
  • The band The Calling has a song called "One by One" which was written about the Columbine shootings.
  • The band Flyleaf has a song entitled "Cassie", which is about Cassie Bernall being asked if she believed in God.
  • Underground rap artist Ill Bill released an album which includes the song Anatomy of a school shooting.
  • Frank Ticheli visited the school after the massacre, and wrote an Alma Mater for the school after discovering that the school did not have one. The song was later self-quoted in An American Elegy, a piece written for band.
  • Marilyn Manson put out an entire record that incorporated reflections concerning the shooting of Columbine: Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death). It was the band's first album since the Columbine High School massacre, for which the band was blamed by some media. The album focuses on America's celebrity culture, its obsession with guns and its fascination with death and martyrdom, and especially the fame - driven by the national media - which violent death can bring. Songs such as "Disposable Teens" and "The Fight Song" were directly written about the Columbine incident. The slower, thought-provoking "The Nobodies" concludes with the lines:
Some children died the other day;
We fed machines and then we prayed,
Puked up and down in morbid faith -
You should have seen the ratings that day.

In the Michael Moore film Bowling for Columbine, Manson himself is asked backstage before a concert in Littleton what he would say if he could talk to Harris and Klebold. He responded, "I wouldn't say a thing. I would listen to what they had to say, and that's what nobody did."[citation needed]

  • The band Pitchshifter has a song entitled As Seen On TV Lyrics: "Another group of monster teenagers shot up their school today. What makes them do it? Video games? Marilyn Manson? Oh it can't be the parents, or the fact that school sucks, or that the jocks do get patted on the head every time they beat up the weirdos and the jobs you get once you graduate from school are stupid, boring, meaningless, and a dead end to insanity."[citation needed]
  • Alice Cooper's Brutal Planet album, released in 2000, includes a song Wicked Young Man which explicitly refers to the Columbine massacre, including such details as a title character who "just lay[s] in...bed, dreamin' [sic] of the day when everyone is dead" and who has "a pocket full of bullets" and "a blueprint of the school". In a later album "Dragontown", Cooper sends the "Wicked Young Man" to hell with lyrics such as: "There's a Wicked Young Man, cooking slowly in a frying pan."[citation needed]
  • In the Chumbawamba song, Everything You Know Is Wrong, the lead character (the song is from the point of view of the man in the background of conspiracies) makes reference to both Columbine and the two semi-associated events, the Waco Siege and the Oklahoma City bombing:
In the canteen at Columbine with the bags they never found;
striking matches up at Waco when they burnt it to the ground.
Without me, Oklahoma wasn't possible at all[citation needed]
  • The Chumbawamba song We Don't Want to Sing Along, was based on the Columbine incident with the protagonist first learning how to make a bomb in an internet chat-room and is abandoned by a friend who dismisses the idea of action. They finally warn the bullies to watch their backs because, "We don't want to sing along," it is left ambiguous as to whether the incident takes place or not.[citation needed]
  • In the song Loyal to the Game (remix) on the Tupac album Loyal to the Game, rapper Dj Quik says:
"And Columbine is not new/In Compton they shoot up schools too."[citation needed]
  • Columbine students Jonathan and Stephen Cohen wrote a song called Friend of Mine, which briefly received airplay in the US after being performed at a memorial service broadcast on nationwide television. The song was pressed to CD, with the proceeds benefiting families affected by the massacre, and over 10,000 copies were ordered.the lyrics are as follows

Columbine, flower bloom, tenderly I sing to you. Columbine, roseblood red, heartbreak overflow my head. Columbine, flower bloom. Columbine there's hope for you. Columbine, friend of mine. To your gain, on the mark. With your love, love again. Comfort peace and sweet release come from you. Where, it's true, I hide myself in you. Can you still hear raging guns ending dreams of precious ones. In God' son, hope will come, his red stain will take our pain. Columbine, friend of mine. Peace will come to you in time. Columbine, friend of mine. Turn a page, to your gain. Keep your heart on the mark. Comfort us with your love. Love again. Christ of grace attend this place we look to you. Honor you. Fix you in our view. Columbine, flower bloom. Tenderly I sing to you. Columbine, roseblood red, heartbreak overflows my head. Columbine, friend of mine. Peace will come to you in time. Columbine, friend of mine.[1]

  • The Leftöver Crack song Clear Channel (Fuck off) makes a reference to the Columbine Incident when the lead singer Stza says "and sainted them Columbine kids." They also have a back patch with Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold holding guns and 40 oz alcoholic beverages, in the background are bodies lying on the ground. Underneath the photo are the words "Rock The 40oz", a song by Leftover Crack, to which the first line of the song is "Shoot the kids at school."[citation needed]
"All my rivals will see what I have in store
My gun
I’ve been harboring fleets in this reservoir
Red sun
And this nation’s about to explode"[2]
  • The video for Montgomery Gentry's song You Do Your Thing contains a few brief clips of Columbine High School during the massacre.
  • Amanda Palmer, one half of The Dresden Dolls, performed a song in solo live performances during 2007 that she stated was written some time earlier, possibly shortly after the incident although she did not clarified the time frame. As of November 2007, it was not clear if the song was intended for formal released.[3]
  • In 2008's Ice Cube's "Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It" clips of Columbine can be seen.
  • The song "Teenagers" by the band My Chemical Romance is partly based upon school shootings and teen violence.
  • Michale Graves' song "Nobody Thinks About Me" makes many references to Columbine.
"Good morning, Columbine, I'll get to my agenda/Sixth Period/ Jesus Christ, I'm the one you terrorized/ I'm too tired and it's too late/ To have this conversation/ I'm zoned into destruction/ the whole world ignores me/ So I'll Sit and I'll wait/ I'm born of all your hate/ cause in the hallways/ nobody thinks about me.../...gonna be the enemy/ smile and destroy..."
  • The song "Ready to Die" by Andrew W.K. is about orchestrated and 'revenge' shootings; the lyrics to the first verse are "This is your time to pay / This is your judgment day / We made a sacrifice, / And now we get to take your life."

[edit] Screen

[edit] Television

  • An episode of the National Geographic Channel TV Series The Final Report that aired on April 3, 2007, explained the order of events in detail before, during, and after the incident. Also, it explained the lives of the perpetrators before committing the crime.
  • The Law & Order episode "School Daze" was based on the massacre at Columbine High School.
  • The Law & Order: SVU episode "Manic" deals with the links between psychiatric drugs and school shootings. The Columbine massacre is mentioned.
  • The One Tree Hill episode "With Tired Eyes, Tired Minds, Tired Souls, We Slept" was partially based on the massacre.
  • The shooting has been portrayed in the documentary-style television program Zero Hour which portrays disasters that unfolded within one hour's time.
  • In episode 219 of NUMB3RS, a high-school massacre bearing remarkable similarities with Columbine occurred, seven students and one teacher were killed by three gunmen. The gunmen, like Klebold and Harris, were members of an online guild. Columbine was mentioned on several occasions.
  • In one episode of CSI: Miami, a boy was in a group called The Four-Twenty Boyz, referring to April 20, in which the plot was foiled, finding the boy beginning a shooting in his school.
  • In the Standoff episode "Peer Group" contains many elements of the Columbine massacre such as a notebook full of violent images, a list of students at his school, and the bullies vs. geeks revenge situation originally widely thought to be the cause.
  • The Season 4 premiere of Cold Case, "Rampage," is heavily based on the Columbine shooting.
  • The Degrassi episode, "Time Stands Still Part 2" was a Columbine based episode. The character Rick, after being humiliated, returns to Degrassi with a gun, determined to hunt down the people who pulled a prank on him. At first Paige unknowingly diffuses the situation, but when Jay sees that Rick in a bathroom stall, he and Spinner frame Jimmy. As a result, Rick shoots Jimmy in the back, paralyzing him. Rick's next target is Emma until Sean steps in to protect her and accidentally causes Rick to shoot and kill himself in the process.
  • The Veronica Mars episode, "Happy Go Lucky", depicts a high school janitor threatening students with a gun in the high school cafeteria because he has been fired from his job.

[edit] Film

  • Elephant - A film which plays in a dream-like state, following many students who are unaware of their impending death. Meanwhile, two students prepare to initiate a shooting.
  • Zero Day - A film shot entirely through handheld cameras or on security tape, expressing the view of the two killers leading up to the massacre.
  • The 2002 Showtime television film Bang, Bang, You're Dead was too inspired by the massacre. The film stars Ben Foster as a teenager routinely picked on at school and he joins a group of other bullied students to shoot things to make them feel better. The drama teacher (Tom Cavanagh) tries to get Foster to become part of a play he's organizing about a kid who shoots up his school and the PTA and other adults try to stop it. The teen mentions a list of school shootings in one of his home movies, one of which included was the Columbine massacre.
  • The 2002 independent film Home Room was inspired by the aftermath of the incident and the effects it has on students and teachers. Students, faculty and parents of Columbine High School were given a private screening of the film, and director Paul F. Ryan and lead actress Erika Christensen spoke to those present. The reaction to the film was generally positive, partly because of its perspective on the aftermath rather than the shooting itself.
  • The 2004 independent film American Yearbook was inspired by the massacre. The film has not yet been distributed, but has received positive reviews. It portrays a teenager who is bullied at school and as a result, decides to bring a gun to school and kill the bullies. It details the kid-next-door protagonist's struggle with being a school shooter, and ends in a highly dramatic fashion.[citation needed]
  • Kelly Rowland's character in the 2003 horror film Freddy vs. Jason refers to the sudden murders of several fellow high school students as "some Columbine thing or something."
  • Dawn Anna - The story about Lauren Townsend's mother and her life, including her struggles with cancer and eventual recovery which is soon shattered by the death of her daughter in the shooting.
  • Ekskul, an Indonesian film. The story is about an SMA student terrorizing his school with a handgun.
  • The Life Before Her Eyes, an American film which will tell the story of a woman (Uma Thurman) who suffers from the destruction of her life style, due to the trauma from a Columbine-like high school killing when she was younger (young version played by Evan Rachel Wood).
  • In 2005, The Rachels Challenge Group announced at a school assembly that there would be a Columbine movie coming out in 2008.

[edit] Literature

  • In Marisha Pessl's novel Special Topics in Calamity Physics, a student describes a teacher as tweaked and says, "Wouldn't be shocked if she went Klebold."
  • An unpublished issue of Hellblazer by Warren Ellis (writer) and Phil Jimenez (artist) depicted a study of a series of fictional school shootings. The series is monthly and it would have been the September 1999 (#141) issue, however the August 1999 (#140) was followed by the October 1999 (#141) issue.[5][6]
  • The British novel Vernon God Little deals with similar, though fictional, events. It focuses on the suspicions placed on innocent students as a result to these shootings.
  • Lionel Shriver's 2003 novel We Need to Talk About Kevin was partly inspired by the Columbine massacre and similar school shootings. The protagonist is the mother of a boy who has committed a mass shooting at his own high school.
  • The satirical newspaper The Onion discussed the massacre in its article Columbine Jocks Safely Resume Bullying.[7]
  • Give A Boy A Gun is about a school shooting that two boys are planning to commit at a school dance, told from students and faculty at the school. The two boys are in fascination with Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold and hope to have a great impact like Columbine.
  • Stephen King has cited the massacre as a major reason that he has allowed an early novel to fall out of print: Rage, written under the Richard Bachman pen name, which deals with a high school gunman. (However, certain themes in the book were developed into the story of Carrie.) King actually referred to Carrie as the "female version of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold."[8]
  • Mark Rempel wrote a book Point Blank based loosely on the Columbine Shootings and their impact.
  • Jim Shepard's novel Project X was inspired by the events at Columbine.
  • Walter Dean Myers wrote Shooter, inspired by the Columbine shootings.
  • Francine Prose's After, a teen novel about teens in a school freaked by a local school shooting, calls the shooting "another Columbine."[citation needed]
  • In Book 11 of the Everworld series, a fantasy serial by K. A. Applegate, a protagonist, Christopher, describes another teen shooting at him as a "little Klebold-Harris psychopath."[citation needed]
  • Jodi Picoult's novel released in March 2007 Nineteen Minutes depicts a Columbine-like school shooting in New Hampshire, and contains direct references to the Columbine shootings.
  • A story arc in the online comic Jack revolves around a plot based on the Columbine massacre.
  • An upcoming novel by the young author Alex Mogg called Unknown Unknowns was inspired by Columbine and mentions it many times throughout.
  • In Zadie Smith's novel "On Beauty", character Kiki Belsey teases her son, saying, "You're not gonna put on a trench coat and shoot up your school, now, are you, baby?"

[edit] Video games

  • A free role-playing game for the PC called Super Columbine Massacre RPG! was released on April 20, 2005, the 6th anniversary of the massacre. This game delves into the morning of April 20, 1999 and asks players to relive that day through the eyes of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold.
  • The Newgrounds flash game Pico's School, which was inspired by the massacre, stars Pico, the survivor of a revenge-filled school shooting.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Sprengelmeyer, M.E.' Italic textFarewell performance for Columbine song. Denver Rocky Mountain News. 20 April 2000.
  2. ^ Pearl Jam - Rival lyrics. Lyrics Mania.
  3. ^ Amanda Palmer at the Speigeltent, Edinburgh Fringe 2007. YouTube.com.
  4. ^ Fox Pulls Bones in Wake of College Massacre.
  5. ^ Yarbrough, Beau. Unpublished School Shooting 'Hellblazer' Online. Comic Book Resources. 21 August 2000.
  6. ^ Yarbrough, Beau. JLA/Avengers Team-Up in the Works. Comic Book Resources. 19 July 1999.
  7. ^ Columbine Jocks Safely Resume Bullying. The Onion.
  8. ^ Stephen King: On writing.

[edit] See also