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What is Michael Moore's best film?

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marmar Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-05-08 01:23 PM
Original message
Poll question: What is Michael Moore's best film?
After watching "Sicko" with friends last night, the question came up and there seemed to be an even split between "Sicko" and "Fahrenheit 9/11," with "Roger and Me" holding its own in third place. I personally think "Sicko" is his piece de resistance. What about you?
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ayeshahaqqiqa Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-05-08 01:27 PM
Response to Original message
1. SICKO
because it has struck a chord with the most people, I think. After F911, there were many nay-sayers--and after SICKO, I haven't heard of one.
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SteppingRazor Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-05-08 01:28 PM
Response to Original message
2. I'd say Bowling for Columbine is far-and-away his best work...
and I say that as a gun owner.

The way he left the audience to fill in the blank that the only answer to the question "Why?" is "American media" was masterful. Not that the rest of his work isn't good, but Bowling was his masterpiece.
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uppityperson Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-05-08 01:33 PM
Response to Reply #2
5. I haven't seen SICKO, so join you Bowling.
I also liked how he left it as a question for all to figure out, rather than presenting 1 hypothesis and cramming it down the audience's throat.
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noonwitch Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-05-08 02:06 PM
Response to Reply #2
12. I agree-I don't think it was anti-gun, it was anti-crazy people getting guns
I don't have any problem with the average NRA member having a gun. I don't think that people like Dylan Kleebold should be allowed near a gun. I further think that the movie makes a good case that James Nichols shouldn't be allowed to have guns, either.


I did watch "Roger and Me" over the weekend-it is an excellent movie. I don't think Flint has changed that much since 1988. If nothing else, it is a tribute to the etiquette of security guards and public relations people all over the southeast Michigan area.
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graycem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-06-08 10:57 AM
Response to Reply #2
26. He's a gun owner too..
He admitted that he will probably give it away or auction it for some charity, but said he doesn't need it anymore since he has bodyguards. I was a little surprised, but I shouldn't be.

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SteppingRazor Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-06-08 11:10 AM
Response to Reply #26
27. Sure. He says at the beginning of the movie that he's a life-long NRA member. n/t
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graycem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-06-08 11:29 AM
Response to Reply #27
28. Yep, I guess I missed that...
because I didn't realize it until he said it on LKL a few nights ago. But it is important fact so that people cannot say he's a whackjob leftist that thinks the government should take everyone's guns. Gives him more credibility in my opinion. Not that I ever thought he was lacking.
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FVZA_Colonel Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-06-08 08:15 PM
Response to Reply #2
33. Anyone who says that film was automatically anti-gun didn't watch it.
It is quite clear where he thought the ultimate blame for much of the violence in America ought to be, and as you said, it wasn't guns.
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gaspee Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-05-08 01:30 PM
Response to Original message
3. I think "Bowling"
Because it shed light on the root of what I consider to be most of America's problems -- fear.

Though, Sicko comes pretty damned close by focusing on greed.
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marmar Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-05-08 01:37 PM
Response to Reply #3
7. I chose "SiCKO" .... but I really do like the way MM tackled America's irrational fear....
.... in "Bowling"
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Fox Mulder Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-05-08 01:31 PM
Response to Original message
4. God, it's hard to choose.
Edited on Mon May-05-08 01:31 PM by Fox Mulder
They are all great films.

But I think SICKO hits home for most people.
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matt007 Donating Member (299 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-05-08 01:42 PM
Response to Reply #4
8. Sicko was an eye opener for many...
anyone catch the comparative health systems special on pbs frontline? I missed it.
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marmar Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-05-08 01:44 PM
Response to Reply #8
9. Yes....And it really was good.....Even though I didn't like some of the framing.....
..... The host kept saying "socialized medicine" in a perjorative way.
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matt007 Donating Member (299 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-05-08 02:23 PM
Response to Reply #9
14. Figures........they've infected pbs as well.
I've used two different "socialized" health systems (U.K. and Korea)

I wish more could have that chance. Maybe a documentary about Americans abroad would be good............
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Juche Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-06-08 10:13 AM
Response to Reply #8
23. Its online
The story of Taiwan was amazing. They industrialized so fast that they had to build a healthcare system from the ground up. So they went all over the world and found the best ideas and discarded the worst. As a result they have a good healthcare system that covers everyone, no waiting lists, no gatekeepers keeping you from a specialist and all for 6-8% of GDP.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundtheworld/countries/
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tridim Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-05-08 01:33 PM
Response to Original message
6. I liked BFC the best, but I don't think he's done his best work yet.
Stay tuned.
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Sancho Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-05-08 01:48 PM
Response to Original message
10. I had to think about it...but BFC was the winner for me...
Sicko was good, but Bowling was genius. You could see how the society fostered the crazy teenagers, confused values, and thoughtless politics. I grew up in a gun-owning and hunting family, and after Bowling for Columbine, I could see how nutty the cowboy mentality warped gun-ownership. The interview with Charlton Heston was fantastic. Talking with the people in Colorado was one of the most revealing qualitative interviews that I could imagine.

Sicko was a good documentary. For me, Bowling was a masterpiece.


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aint_no_life_nowhere Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-05-08 01:56 PM
Response to Original message
11. Fahrenheit 9/11 gave me the most satisfaction
I was extremely angry over the war and Moore's film offered me something to really cheer about in a wasteland of war cheerleading in the media. And I think it was his most moving film, especially with the mother of the dead soldier. I think it was his most courageous film, because it was released at a time when there were still a lot of Chimp Fluffers who supported the monkey's debacle for oil. I also think it was his funniest film, with film footage of the Chimp providing the humor.
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LaPera Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-05-08 02:08 PM
Response to Original message
13. Moore is a great film maker - ALWAYS funny & informative. I love ALL of Michael Moore's films!
Edited on Mon May-05-08 02:09 PM by LaPera
:bounce:
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BlueIris Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-05-08 02:31 PM
Response to Original message
15. "The Big One." Editorial focus, would be my reason why.
And not a lot of unneccessary editorializing in that one. A consistent, yet inclusive perspective. Plus Phil Knight.
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FreepFryer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed May-07-08 09:28 AM
Response to Reply #15
34. Yes, I like the Big One also, second only to Roger & Me (with it's similar theme). Good show :)
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orleans Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-05-08 02:58 PM
Response to Original message
16. 911 or bowling would be my opinion. probably 911 first. n/t
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LaPera Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-05-08 03:14 PM
Response to Original message
17. Michael Moore is a great progressive & liberal...I love his efforts!
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marmar Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-05-08 05:44 PM
Response to Reply #17
20. Agreed. .... And he's brave. He took strong public stances when it wasn't popular to do so.
n/t
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HughBeaumont Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-05-08 03:19 PM
Response to Original message
18. SICKO, only because I think he could have gone way further with F911.
Nothing against F911; it was brilliant, funny and sad in many spots. But I thought it was a mere surface scratching compared to all that was covered in SICKO. Now, if he'd have consulted with Paul Thompson (author of The Terror Timeline) for some more information, maybe this would have gone differently. But the movie would have been three instead of two hours long.
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FreepFryer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-05-08 03:21 PM
Response to Original message
19. "Roger & Me" - it still feels the most like the Michael Moore I know and love (n/t)
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stanwyck Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-06-08 08:11 PM
Response to Reply #19
32. Roger & Me deserves another look right now
as it's emphasis on how the middle-class is under siege by under-employment and rising costs is particularly relevant. Again.
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Brigid Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-05-08 05:48 PM
Response to Original message
21. I went with "Roger & Me."
His first, and it has a raw, unpolished power that his later work, great as it is, just can't recapture.
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marmar Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-06-08 10:07 AM
Response to Reply #21
22. It definitely has that raw, organic feel.....That "starving artist" thing.
n/t
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Echo In Light Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-06-08 10:20 AM
Response to Original message
24. Hard to say which is "best." Roger & Me, and Bowling, likely..although...
Fahrenheit is very important {even though he uses kid gloves re many aspects} as it was the first widely known film to raise questions that most Americans were too stupefied and pussified to ask.

Sicko, of course...very eye opening!
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Blue_Tires Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-06-08 10:44 AM
Response to Original message
25. I like Sicko because it's the tightest and most complete
absolutely NO holes that the RW could try to exploit (you see they all but ignored the movie when it was out, as opposed to the PR offensives they launched after Bowling and 9-11)

Roger and Me was I feel his most significant, since back in the 80s no one ever dared to question the motives of the all-american freedom-loving corporation...The Big One, which is kind of a Roger and Me sequel, was very underrated, imo.
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marmar Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-06-08 03:30 PM
Response to Reply #25
29. True....The Reich Wing was conspicuously quiet on "Sicko".....
.... Only Sanjay Gupta made an ass of himself when the movie was released.
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Blue_Tires Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-06-08 03:55 PM
Response to Reply #29
30. i remember that
and also the most-used RW rebuttal to Sicko was nothing to do with his statements, but "OMG Moore went to CUBA! ARREST ARREST ARREST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
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marmar Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue May-06-08 06:25 PM
Response to Reply #30
31. "OMG Moore went to CUBA! ARREST ARREST ARREST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Yup. That's all they could come up with.
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