3. His work is very politically driven, and aOlernKienOP Air Jordan 20s Russian Stronghold some of air jordan 2010 xxv black varsity red red his critics claim that it’s also more biased than a documentary maker should be. Others accuse him of being a privileged, hypocritical ‘limousine liberal’. However, to his many fans and supporters, Michael Moore is a powerful and much needed voice against corporate corruption and political deception. This entry takes a look at Moore’s films.
During the 1980s, the giant American car corporation General Motors kept steadily ‘downsizing’ their operations in Flint, Michigan. Eventually, the company ceased its operations in Flint altogether, throwing tens of thousands of local people out of work.
Michael Moore decided that aOlernKienOP air jordan spizike white fire red Shoes for Jumping Rope GM’s Chief Executive Officer, Roger Smith, should be made to explain why he’d done this to Flint. So Moore raised funds by, amongst other things, organising bingo games at his home, and then made his first feature film.
Roger Me is a feature length documentary telling the story of Moore’s attempts to get an interview with Smith. 20,000 people are seen standing in line at one location air jordan 4 iv air force one fusion ajf 4 varsity red cement grey to collect rations of federal surplus cheese and butter. Thousands of people leave Flint, as local unemployment reaches 25 per cent and the rate of violent crime in Flint becomes worse than those in infamous crime black spots as Miami and Detroit.
The city council’s attempts to improve matters include paying a TV evangelist named Robert Schuller $30,000 to come to Flint air jordan 7 vii retro white french blue and hold a prayer meeting to call for divine intervention to save the city. But the prayers aren’t answered. Before long, the city health department announces that there are now more rats than people in aOlernKienOP air jordan 6 vi retro infrared Nike Kobe 8 System and new Christmas colorwa Flint, and offers a bounty for every dead rat brought in by a city resident.
Meanwhile, The Flint Chamber of Commerce erects billboards featuring ‘morale air jordan 1 retro stealth royal red boosting’ slogans including ‘Visit Flint And Leave the Real World Behind!’.
While air jordan 3 iii retro pure money white metallic silver all this is going on, Michael Moore keeps trying to meet Roger Smith. He visits General Motors’ global headquarters in Detroit and is immediately escorted out of the building. He’s also ejected from a GM board meeting, and embarks on a long search for Smith through various places popular with the rich and aOlernKienOP air jordan 13 retro white grey red Mud Run recruits deputies powerful. Then, just when his quest seems hopeless, Moore finally gets to meet Smith.
Despite its rock bottom budget, Roger Me became a surprise commercial success, and collected awards at numerous film festivals. Its success was fuelled by debates triggered by its air jordan 1 ko high qs black varsity red white content. Some of Moore’s detractors aOlernKienOP air jordan 3 iii retro cdp countdown pack Guide Tips on copping a new relea have claimed that the sequencing of the film is misleading, in that the events in Flint did not occur in the order suggested by Roger Me. But the film has been widely acclaimed for the way that it starkly exposes the human cost of cold business decisions, and its commercial success has been extraordinary. Made for $160,000, it grossed around $25 million in all formats, and became the most financially successful non concert documentary in Hollywood history.
Michael Moore, filmmaker, had arrived.
Canadian Bacon (1995)
Canadian Bacon is a satirical comedy drama, written and directed by Moore. It concerns a US President (Alan Alda) who decides to boost his falling popularity by starting a war with Canada. Sheriff Bud B. Boomer (John Candy), based near the border at Niagara County, takes the President’s anti Canadian aOlernKienOP air jordan 7 french blue white french blue flint grey Separate your Boots a propaganda to heart and decides to lead his own invasion of Canada.
Although Canadian Bacon was critically acclaimed at the time of its release, it wasn’t a major commercial success, and it has often been misunderstood. Moore’s script satirises the stereotypical American view of Canadians. Some viewers found the exaggerated stereotypes in the film offensive, although others understood Moore’s satirical intentions and found the film hilarious1. The plot device of a US Canada war was subsequently adapted by Trey Parker and Matt aOlernKienOP air jordan 17 low white university blue Oakland Fashion Trends Stone for their 1999 movie South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut (Moore later returned the compliment in the short animated ‘History of America’ section of Bowling for Columbine).
Sadly, Canadian Bacon was aOlernKienOP air jordan 13 infrared black infrared 23 black POLICE HUNT FOR SHOE AFTER V the last film ever completed by Candy, the heavyweight star of hit comedies like Uncle Buck and Cool Runnings. He died of a heart attack before Canadian Bacon was released.
The Big One (1997)
The Big One is a documentary about the tour of America Moore took to promote his book Downsize This: Random Threats From An Unarmed American. Whilst on the road, Moore took the opportunity to investigate more corporate misdeeds, and the most famous sequence in the film is a revealing interview with Nike CEO Phil Knight.
In amongst the busy book signings and confrontations with corporate security guards is a sequence in which air jordan 11 low aqua safari white turbo green volt ice black music fan Moore gets to jam with Rick Nielsen, guitarist with the band Cheap Trick.
The title comes from Moore’s suggestion that ‘The Big One’ would make a good new name for the United States of America!
Bowling For Columbine (2002)
Bowling For Columbine begins with Michael Moore visiting a bank to open an account. He leaves the bank happily brandishing an unusual free gift: a rifle, one of the range of guns this bank offers as an inducement to new customers. From that beginning, Bowling For Columbine becomes steadily more shocking.
The inspiration for Bowling For Columbine was the Columbine massacre, the 1999 tragedy in which two youths took guns to Columbine High School in Denver, Colorado, USA and killed 15 people. Footage taken from the school’s security cameras showing the killers in the school during the massacre is included in Bowling For Columbine, although none of the fatal shootings are shown. The film’s title comes from the macabre fact that the two killers went bowling on the morning of the tragedy, before heading to the school air jordan 12 xii retro nubucks unc to kill their classmates and themselves.
Moore uses the Columbine horror as a starting point for a broadly based investigation into the American relationship with guns. Bowling For Columbine asks why there are so many more fatal shootings in the USA than in other nations. Moore points out that the startling statistics on gun related killings can’t simply be explained by the high rate of gun ownership in the USA, since Canada has a similarly high proportion of gun owners in its population but a much lower murder rate. He suggests that the shocking number of shootings in the USA may be caused by peculiarly American cultural factors, such as the bloodthirsty nature of American news coverage and the widening gap between rich and poor in America.
The film contains several highly memorable interviews. Marilyn Manson, who was criticised after the Columbine massacre for allegedly being a bad influence on the killers, offers a strikingly eloquent self defence and analysis of the tragedy.
Moore also interviews Charlton Heston, the veteran movie star and spokesman for the National Rifle Association, the American pressure group that lobbies against restrictions on gun ownership in the USA. When asked why there are so many shootings in America, Heston shockingly cites ‘mixed ethnicity’ as a prime cause of the problem.
Bowling For Columbine was a massive critical and commercial success, enjoying a long and successful run in American cinemas and entering the UK box office Top 10 an almost unheard of feat for a documentary. It was showered with awards, among them the Academy Award (or Oscar) for Best Documentary.
Moore hit the headlines after the Academy Awards ceremony in March 2003 when he used his Oscar acceptance speech to deliver a blistering attack on President George W Bush. His statement was all the more controversial because it came during the air jordan 1 retro black red war in Iraq. aOlernKienOP air jordan future black black white Instantly Boost Your Summer Wardrobe While other Oscar winners mentioned the aOlernKienOP air jordan 9 retro white french blue grey Updates to your questions conflict, none were as outspoken as Moore.
Unsurprisingly, the film and the Oscar acceptance speech air jordan 19 white chrome grey made Moore some new enemies, and some of the claims Moore made in Bowling For Columbine were hotly disputed by his critics. Moore made a detailed response to the criticisms of Columbine in an article posted on his website.
Leave A Response