jmoiron.net

When I first saw Michael Moore's 2nd film, Bowling for Columbine, I was amazed that there were people in a position to make films and get them distributed that actually looked at some of the problems I saw. Of course, his 3rd comes after an Oscar, a Palm d' Our, and much controversy; so I viewed it with different people under different circumstances.

Many people are going to come out against the film saying that it isn't patriotic, or that it's anti-American. Anyone who has seen the film or knows anything about politics would realize that this is a purely political stance that has no bearing on truth at all. Anyone who is a liberal and has been active in the past 5 years would realize that truth has a smaller part in informing the people than politic does.

The film was good technically speaking. It was edited well and at many parts it was powerful; at others hilarious. There were a lot of surprised "Oohs!" and "Aaahs!" from the crowd, which meant that Moore had hit his target audience quite well. From this camp, however, I've been party to all of the things that Bush and his cronies has done as they have done it, so all I could do was smile with satisfaction as I mentally went down and removed items from my checklist.

7 of us went to see the movie, including a member of the Air Force, a man who drives a truck with "In Reagan We Trust" and "Clinton Happens" bumper stickers, and an Israeli citizen. The opinions that I got from the different people on the film were varied and interesting; one of the most interesting points was that Moore leaves Israel out of the film. Since he had left it out of the film to such an extent that I hadn't even noticed its omission, I was quite surprised. It seemed to be a deliberate maneuver.

Of the many both positive and negative reviews of the film I have read, the most interesting point I have seen was this point from this review:

Administration apologists will say that he took cheap shots at the Bush family, that he is unfair in the way he ambushes people and edits out of context to prove his point. But isn't that what the supposedly impartial news media has been doing, especially in the last couple of years? The press and TV have been overtly and unabashedly cheerleading the rush to war in Iraq. It was all done under the guise of news while they shamelessly broadcast the administration's lies that convinced a majority of Americans a preemptive war with Iraq was just.

And how has the movie done? Well, reports from Box Office Mojo had it at the estimated #1 documentary film after only the first weekend. By all accounts, the film is #1 in the country, ahead of what looks like a very poor comedy in "White Chicks" and shameless slapstick in "Dodge Ball". The film is already #8 all time for Palm d' Our winners, and is poised to easily overtake the next 5 and sit comfortably behind Pulp Fiction and Apocalypse Now. This is of course on a release of only ¼ the amount of theaters of the next 10 movies in the current box office charts.

As far as Moore's politics go, its no surprise that the film has a decidedly liberal slant, but in no way is it an endorsement for Kerry; in fact, he isn't mentioned. I think that Moore, as well as the editors of The Nation (my subscription finally started being mailed) believe that its more important to get rid of Bush than it is to get a decent replacement. We can withstand another 4 years to find a good president as long as the one who's in there is not doing the irreparable damage that Bush has done.

I felt that the film was actually fair to Bush. Most of the times, it painted bush as merely inept, rather than conniving and deliberate. It painted a man who was misdirected rather than one who was purposefully steering us foul. The feeling that 9/11 was done for the mutual profit of the Bush family and the Saudi Royals and Bin Laden family did come off from the film, but I think that was a mistaken impression that unfortunately many people will get.

The first theater we tried to get tickets at was sold out 2 hours in advance; the next theater we successfully got tickets to, and there were quite a few people being turned away at the door by the time we got there. I think the reception of the film was pretty good for the people who watched it (there was much applause), and hopefully it will galvanize many people into action this November. It might be muckraking sensationalism, but its about god damned time.