Being a fierce yet sensible liberal, I don’t know how to feel about documentary filmmaker Michael Moore. “Roger and Me” was a fantastic display of editing and brutal American capitalism, and “Bowling For Columbine” still ranks high on my favorite movies list. His last major picture “Fahrenheit 9/11” was a critical and financial hit, yet something about it never quite settled right with me, though I do love a good Bradbury reference.
I don’t think it’s Moore’s movies that make him so seemingly pretentious, but the way he publicizes his liberalist agenda is something that makes even me want to vote right wing.
Case in point his latest scandal. While filming “Sicko”, an upcoming documentary on the American health care system, Moore took nearly a dozen 9/11 survivors to Cuba so they could finally receive their necessary treatments, hoping to make the American system appear inferior to the Communist nation.
Surely he didn’t think he would get away with this. Even if the American government hadn’t found out now, they would when the film was released. Moore, in typical fashion, is now using this press to his advantage.
There’s nothing wrong with protest (as Thomas Jefferson once stated, “Dissent is the highest form of patriotism”) but you can’t expect to break trade embargo laws and outright refuse information without receiving some kind of punishment. I swear, it’s like Michael Fay all over again.
The bottom line: I wish Moore would just let his material speak for itself.
CBS News:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/05/10/entertainment/main2784703.shtml
If he didn't stir things up, that is. Don't get me wrong, I see where you're coming from. I can't take the guy in large doses. Very extreme. Still, if he worked only with what already was, instead of creating new circumstances that expose things that weren't visible before because nobody had challenged them, would he be as effective? He'd still have material, sure, but maybe not as interesting. And with America's attention span, it might not be enough.
Oh, and by the way: our health system IS inferior to Cuba's. And Canada's. We have the facilities, sure, but there are in fact better ways to make sure everybody gets coverage. So what's wrong with being inferior to Cuba in that way? So what if we are inferior, in one small aspect, to a communist nation?
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Oh, also: does anybody know the name of the song that plays during the dogfight scene of Cowboy Bebop, The Movie?
If so, please let me know @ gatorrelay251@gmail.com
Best movie EVER. Maybe. Definitely best Anime to hit the U.S.
I wasn't saying that he was wrong to show inferiority in the health care system, I think it was actually a pretty bold idea, I was just telling the story.
As for his stir it up policy, I think he could do just as much without making himself a martyr. Though, if anything, it does get him a lot of press and is more easily understood by the increasingly simplistic American puiblic.
~Rich, blogging about more than high school drama since 2007.