Manufacturing Michael Moore
Two films with
Michael Moore involved are upon us:
Sicko, Moore’s latest documentary broadside at the Bush administration
is ‘infecting’ cinemas as we speak (and breaking box office records). While
Manufacturing Dissent is a much anticipated DVD release that turns the critical
glare Moore has made his name on back onto the man himself. It’s out September
5.
Michael Moore is the first true documentary superstar. Literally
outweighing celebrity doc agitators before him (eg.
Nick Broomfield (Kurt
& Courtney),
Andrew Denton (God
On My Side) and the BBC’s Jonathan Ross), Moore first hit the big time
with
Roger & Me (1981). Made on a shoestring and grossing USD$6 million, it
charts the rise and fall of Moore’s hometown, Flint, Michigan.
MooreM and his camera crew arrived just as General Motors were closing
yet another of the car manufacturing plants the town was built on, ousting –
according to Moore - most of Flint’s populace from steady work. While filming
mile after mile of boarded up houses, shops and strip malls, he hit upon the
idea of tracking down GM’s then CEO – one Roger Smith – to make him
accountable. Moore hit upon a golden formula: to get thrown out of as many
board rooms, corporate buildings and country clubs as possible, on camera, in
an effort to stir the pot, get his political cause noticed all the while
entertaining those who’ve paid their hard earned cash to see the film. His
‘activism as entertainment’ ploy proved to be gold.
Moore’s next doc feature
The Big One (1997) offered more of the same political ‘punking’, with
the man touring America’s “heartland”, door-stopping Fortune 500 high flyers to
find sympathy for ‘the worker’. But his franchise really took root on the small
screen in TV Nation (1994-95, 1997), which later morphed into
The Awful Truth (1999-2000), where Moore and his merry band of
pranksters unleashed their ire onto all manner of corporate high flyer, middle
management and unthinking office schlub, to raise social awareness and
highlight capitalist unfairness.
But wait, there’s Moore!
Bowling For Columbine (2002) earned Moore an Oscar, a loyal global
audience and more money than any documentary in history. Horrified by the
Columbine high school shootings – where two teenagers went on a rampage
wielding automatic – Moore set out to discover how such an event could happen.
His investigation into America’s “right to bear arms” gun culture is at once
alarming and affecting, with the odd ignorant ‘no-one’ sacrificed to the cause.
As a result, Moore became ‘official hero’ to liberal America.
In
Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) Moore takes his anti-corporate crusade even
further. He investigates how the events of 9/11 justified the Bush
Administration’s push into the Middle East, suggesting an oil-related
conspiracy theory of mega-proportions. No Oscar this time but Fahrenheit 9/11
brought Moore more box office, notoriety and political clout than any activist
in history. Touring with the film he campaigned tirelessly against Bush’s
re-election, urging all Americans to enrol to vote - and then to vote him out.
It didn’t work.
Enter Manufacturing Dissent… Moore has always had his detractors, some more
extreme than others, but even many of his fans - while applauding his message -
have also felt uneasy with his hands on movie methods. Two of them decided to
make Manufacturing Dissent, a film that turns the critical glare back onto the
man himself, with some surprising results. In the most democratic spirit, it
asks the audience to be the judge, something even Michael Moore couldn’t argue
with...
Megan Spencer has spent way too much of her life in the dark, all for a good
cause though - watching movies as a professional film critic. For the last six
and a half years she has been serving the ever-increasing hunger for film and
DVD reviews as radio triple j's resident film critic, and a year ago joined the
new line up of long-running SBS-TV film review program, The Movie Show.
Every now and then she pops up into the light to make her own films,
documentaries (her latest is 'Fantastic Brutality', a documentary about an
obsessed wrestling fan, to be released next year). She has also written about
film for many publications including J-Mag, Limelight, Inside Film Magazine and
the Age Green Guide.
And the impossible question to ask a film critic: what's her favourite film?
"Blue Velvet would be at the top of the list, so would Fight Club... But then
again American In Paris makes me cry every time."
Megan has also been part of the Foxtel's Project Greenlight Australia as an
on-air panelist and judge.
