Michael Moore Newsletter
Sign-up to receive daily news on Michael Moore by email.
Michael Moore Filmography
Source:
Theiapolis
Michael Moore Resources
Table of Content
Michael Moore: Controversy and criticism
: The neutrality of this section is . Please view its talk page
Moore's body of work has engendered a great deal of criticism, usually because of its explicit political orientation (variously described as "left-wing", "progressive", "social democratic", or, in the American sense of the term, "liberal"). Some consider his criticism of the Bush Administration to be "unpatriotic", and some challenge the factual accuracy of his books and movies, as well as criticizing the use of carefully turned ("misleading", detractors claim) visual and textual suggestions in his works; others argue that he has a tendency to self-promotion
http://www.nyfa.org/level3.asp?id=256&fid=6&sid=17 http://charleston.net/stories/110203/boo_02bkdude.shtml, and that his concern for the working class is a feint
http://clark04.com/moore/ http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,6903,1222496,00.html.
Accusations have been made that some scenes in Moore's documentaries were staged or scripted without being clearly labeled so, and that other scenes were edited to alter the original intent of the speaker in the video.
http://www.bowlingfortruth.com/bowlingforcolumbine/scenes/bank.htm In
Bowling for Columbine, on-screen text was allegedly altered in a Bush-Quayle campaign ad, and footage edited into it from a non-campaign ad, in order to make it seem racist. Moore denied that this was done in the film, but is said to have slightly corrected the text for the DVD release.
http://www.spinsanity.org/post.html?2003_08_31_archive.html#10624779059990811 Weekly Standard editor Fred Barnes has claimed that a conversation purportedly with him published in
Moore's Weekly was in fact completely fabricated; Moore counters that Barnes didn't react to publication and news accounts of the 1988 interview until 2002
http://www.michaelmoore.com/warroom/wackoattacko/index.php?id=13, bringing the validity of the accusation into question.
Moore has set up a "war room"
http://www.michaelmoore.com/warroom/index.php to respond to some of the criticisms of his most recent film,
Fahrenheit 9/11; his website contains counterarguments to the most common arguments against him. Moore is diligent in publishing sources that back up his claims. These range from across the world and include many of the top news sources in America.
There has been criticism about the fact that since the success of his films and books, Moore has taken to living in luxury, with a $1.9 million home in New York and a $1.2 million beachfront house in Michigan, and for using a limousine and private planes for personal transportation. Detractors contend that he cannot be an ally of the working class if he lives in that manner, and that the various charges of self-serving financial dealings that he has leveled against various and sundry in the past appear to lose moral authority as a result. Supporters dismiss this allegation by noting that Moore made considerable financial sacrifices to begin his film career, such as putting up his home and numerous bingo fundraisers to finance
Roger & Me, and that being wealthy is not in itself grounds for criticism.
With the success of Moore's work, there have been works attacking Moore. These include most recently the book Michael Moore is a Big Fat Stupid White Man
, and the film titled Michael Moore Hates America. Some groups have gone further than attacking Moore in the media. The Christian group Focus on the Family published Moore's home address
http://efilmcritic.com/feature.php?feature=1162 in a July 2004 newsletter.
A more recent controversy surrounds Michael Moore's public support of the Iraq insurgency in a
memo released on his personal website, decribing the insurgents as "Minutemen". Detractors claim this is a show of affinity, while supporters say Moore was simply providing perspective on the Iraq situation.
Despite the controversy surrounding Moore and his work, he has had great success as a filmmaker and writer. His films
Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11 debuted as the highest-grossing feature-length non-music nonfiction films of all time, the latter making over 120 million dollars and won, among numerous other kudos, including the People's Choice Award for Favourite Motion Picture, an unprecented honor for a nonfiction film, and winner of Best Picture at the Cannes Film Festival.
When Moore accepted the Oscar for
Bowling for Columbine, he created a stir when he took the opportunity to denounce President George W. Bush for the 2003 invasion of Iraq:
:"Whoa. On behalf of our producers Kathleen Glynn and Michael Donovan from Canada, I'd like to thank the Academy for this. I have invited my fellow documentary nominees on the stage with us, and we would like to — they're here in solidarity with me because we like nonfiction."
:
"We like nonfiction and we live in fictitious times. We live in the time where we have fictitious election results that elects a fictitious president. We live in a time where we have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons. Whether it's the fictition (sic) of duct tape or fictition (
sic) of orange alerts we are against this war, Mr. Bush. Shame on you, Mr. Bush, shame on you. And any time you got the Pope and the Dixie Chicks against you, your time is up. Thank you very much."
The televised speech appeared to be met with mostly support from the audience; while some loud boos were heard during the speech, the audience shots in the telecast only show audience members either listening, smiling or applauding. In a backstage interview with Michael Moore afterwards, Michael insisted that the majority of the audience were, in fact, cheering. Michael repeated the part of his speech that had been cut short due to the orchestra starting to play music, and gave the reason "I'm an American" in defense of his choice of acceptance speech.
When the host
Steve Martin returned to the stage after Moore's speech, he said "It was so sweet backstage, the teamsters are helping Michael Moore into the trunk of his limo."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2003/03/23/state2309EST0088.DTL
In the 2004 satire film ', a marionette representation of Moore surfaces as a suicide bomber who blows up Team America's headquarters inside Mount Rushmore. He is later described as a 'giant socialist weasel'.
In the episode of the television show 'Arrested Development' 'The One Where Michael Leaves', an unnamed obese documentary film maker approaches Lucile asking if she would enlist her son in the military. Michael Moore asked the same question in 'Fahrenheit 9/11', except the responses he received were "no".
The 2004 Academy Awards opened with a satirical short film in which the host,
Billy Crystal, re-enacted the most memorable scenes of 2004. Moore was depicted holding a camera amidst a battle (the Battle of the Pelennor Fields from the
The Return of the King movie), and shouting, "Stop this war. Shame on you hobbits, shame on you. This is a fictitious war. This war was not elected by the populace."
MADtv comedian Paul Vogt is noted for his impersonations of Moore. In a 2003 skit, entitled
"Bowling for Christmas", http://www.slimindustries.com/mary_exmus/moore/ Vogt as Moore angrily accuses Christmas shoppers of supporting terrorism and Santa Claus of exploiting child labor. In each scene the inscription on Moore's baseball cap gets progressively more self-righteous: "Hero", "Saint", "Martyr".
<<
Writings and political views -
His published work >>
Table of Content
Latest Film News
See Also:
