I Cogitate
| Recent Posts | My Best Blogs | Archives | Favorite Quotes | Links | Contact |
Michael Moore and 'me'
Like it or not, like him or not, Michael Moore is an icon.
But, alas, he's human, like the rest of us.
Damn him--guess we'll have to remove him from the various pedestals on which we have installed him.
Moore has tackled subject matter that the moneyed 'suits' would never back, especially early on in his filmmaking career. He deserves enormous credit for doing so and for providing evidence that a lucrative market for such existed.
Moore's films are his creation, earning him every right to tell a story as he sees fit. The Washington Times, the Wall Street Journal editorial board, FAUX News--actual news providers and supposed practitioners of fairness--certainly do far, far worse in their respective daily editorial judgments.
"Roger and Me" partly involved Moore's quest to speak with Roger Smith, the CEO of General Motors. Now a new film is out, one appearing quite fair to Moore, that is titled "Manufacturing Dissent" but could be subtitled "The Hunt For Michael Moore."
Here's the beginning of an article about it and more, written by one of the filmmakers:
Taking on the big manGo here for the rest.
Debbie Melnyk
London Telegraph
15/04/2007
Michael Moore is used to dishing the dirt. But he turns strangely coy when the cameras are turned on him. Debbie Melnyk recalls the obstruction she faced when she tackled a taboo subject
We were almost finished editing Citizen Black, our documentary on the press baron and former Telegraph owner Conrad Black, when my husband and directing partner, Rick Caine, turned to me and said, 'What should we do next?
Having just made the film about a committed Conservative, we wanted to rinse our palate and take a look at someone who shared our Leftist ideals.
Then it hit us: what about Michael Moore? We like his films, we like what he stands for and we loved his Oscar speech. He has long had a soft spot for us Canadians; as fellow Lefties, we were almost certain he'd participate in this film.
For better or worse, Moore has become the unofficial spokesperson of the Left.
Raised in a suburb of Flint, Michigan, the son of car industry workers, he has crafted a remarkable career by challenging and exposing the ugly side, the hypocrisies of American society and political life, through a series of satirical documentaries.
He started with Roger & Me in 1989, which examined the massive layoffs in, and destruction of, his hometown by what was then the world's largest corporation, and followed it with a scathing indictment of America's gun-crazy culture in the Oscar-winning Bowling for Columbine, and in 2004 he attacked the Bush administration's war on terror in Fahrenheit 9/11.
In the beginning, we thought we'd make a straightforward biography looking at Moore's life. But somewhere along the way things changed.
Our film gradually became an examination of his film-making methods, and the serious political debates they provoked. As firm believers in Moore's political agenda, our decision to re-focus the film wasn't an easy one.
But as we kept having to remind ourselves, you can still be an old Leftie without swallowing everything Michael Moore says wholesale.
May, 2004: Moore's film Fahrenheit 9/11 was about to premiere in Cannes. It would be the perfect time to start talking to him.
We told an editor who was working on the Conrad Black film that we'd be back in four days. We weren't. The film ended up taking two-and-a-half years to finish.
top
RSS feed
| Recent Posts | My Best Blogs | Archives | Favorite Quotes | Links | Contact |