"I made this movie as if it was going to be the last movie I was allowed to make." Michael Moore

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mikeinthenews/index.php?id=14326

August 16th, 2009 1:23 pm
Capitalism: A Love Story



"It's a crime story," Michael Moore says of his latest documentary. "But it's also a war story about class warfare. And a vampire movie, with the upper 1 percent feeding off the rest of us. And, of course, it's also a love story. Only it's about an abusive relationship." Yes, that's right, the lightning-rod filmmaker whose previous movies have tackled such hot-button issues as gun control (Bowling for Columbine), terrorism (Fahrenheit 9/11), and the health-care crisis (Sicko) will be taking on the entire free-market economy in his archly titled new film, Capitalism: A Love Story. Moore started shooting about six months before the economy melted down last fall — talk about a lucky break! — but sees the film as a culmination of his life's work. "It's not about an individual, like Roger Smith, or a corporation, or even an issue, like health care," he says. "This is the big enchilada. This is about the thing that dominates all our lives — the economy. I made this movie as if it was going to be the last movie I was allowed to make." Oh, and by the way, Moore adds, "it's a comedy." – Benjamin Suetkey

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=6220614

A few weeks back.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhfzvzKm_xk

"i know what you're thinking: i already gave at the bailout"

:applause:

I can't wait to see this one. He is the quintessential American, IMO. He's Gary Cooper and Jimmy Stewart wrapped up in a bigger package. I love this man!

I think that's a pretty disingenuous and loathsome position to take, of course. More astoundingly, they assert that he "plays fast and loose with the facts". Uh, DUMB. Moore thoroughly fact-checks all of his material and has people at the ready to counter the serial questioneers and make sure he stays true to the topic.

Michael Moore couldn't be more right on . . .

Much of what America knows now about health care they've found out only

thru his film SICKO, IMO.

Michael Moore is a hero!

I logged in just so I could rec this thread. :evilgrin:

Shame.

represented them. I think of one right off hand. When he presented a selected French family as an average French family in Sicko, I was watching the film with a close friend who had lived in France for several years. My friend felt that he was representing a clearly upper middle class French family as opposed to an average French family. But then again, upper middle class American families are represented as average American families in the mainstream American media all the time.

There are other times in which I think he could have been a little bit more nuanced about facts he was asserting. He was not factually incorrect, but still less than absolutely precise when understood in full context.

If the standard is how is Michael Moore compared to the mainstream American media, Michael Moore compares very favorably.

I suppose Michael Moore is a propagandist in the sense that most of the mainstream American media are propagandist. He is just a propagandist from a perspective seldom represented in the mainstream media. - a perspective that challenges power instead of reinforcing it.

Still, Michael Moore is making a valuable contribution and is a great American.

I most certainly do kick and recommend this post. Michael Moore is great. One just needs to use their critical faculties whether it is Michael Moore or the nightly news.

kick and recommended.

...minus the personal anecdote.

What I find interesting are the people who are not RW nuts but are very quick to tell you how they don't like Moore and some of them can name things where "he's been dishonest". (Most of these seem to stem from videos "debunking" Bowling for Columbine, with a smattering of other stuff. Some I can counter, other's I don't have the information I need to assess the claim and weigh its veracity.)

A tactic I've started taking (because if simply defend Moore, you're liable to become pegged as "a Michael Moore fan") is to note their strong reaction and ask them why? Why Moore, and nobody else? Lead them around a bit, give examples of "other" people who are fast and loose with the truth, except faster and looser, but they don't respond with that same visceral negativity, and why is that?

It doesn't always work, but I have been rewarded with a few cases where the light went on and they started thinking about it. Which is probably more success than I would have had simply trying to counter their claims.

I am a great admirer or Moore's films but I understand that they fall halfway between journalism and entertainment. Moore is not infallible and sometimes he tries to simplify situations to help his story.

I was a huge "fan" of Michael Moore until I saw this Canadian documentary:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_Dissent

The worst part is that Michael Moore refused to sit down and answer questions, despite repeated attempts and invitations from the filmmakers. I found his attitude arrogant.

If Moore is proud of his work then he should be willing to answer questions from journalists.

No - this does not make me a right-wing troll.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TR1SG8WDbU

If the standard is perfection, Michael Moore falls short.

If the standard is the mainstream American media such as CNN - Michael Moore compares very well.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

The content of my posts is not consistent with the theory that I am a right-wing troll.

But my posts speak for themselves and you can believe what you like.

...how are you using your new-found skepticism? Are you applying it just to Moore? Or to commentators and documentarians of all sorts? Including Moore's critics? (A lot of those are pretty durn "fast and loose with the truth" themselves.)

And also apply it to the critiques themselves: do they actually undermine the larger point Moore is making to where it falls apart? Or not?

Not a historian or even a journalist. He has to make a film. He must do what he thinks best to make the film sellable. I don't believe this entails deceit or lies. It does involve some manipulation. All films do. Cutting from one image to another can be a very malleable thing....depending on which images are chosen (That's called editing) and it is part and parcel of making a film. Every time one edits or even frames a shot to include or exclude some detail, you have manipulation. It's not a bad thing and is essential to film making.

This is what most people complain about with a Moore documentary.

They can get over it.

It's Michael's film and he will make it is own. What? Did you expect G. Gordon Liddy's POV?

I go to a Michael Moore film expecting a Michael Moore film. I know he will set some things up to get an unsurprising and expected result. But there are always some great illuminating stuff and some good film making. Like in "Fahrenheit 9-11" not showing the attack on the WWT, but just letting you hear it. Very good! Your mind took you there without the help of visuals. And the eggs thrown at Bush's motorcade was a new and striking image. Moore's good at his job.

Some people think he makes these flicks to get rich off of others' suffering.

Most of them also listen to nitwits like Rush, not seeing any irony or comparison because Rush says things they'd rather agree with than to think about.

and that their little yellow ribbon magnets (made in China) support the troops.

happened. I feel dumb to have to ask....

real count way to see --- Interesting new concept. I just do my thing and don't even consider it when I rec a post.

Often people happen to notice that drop --

A small percentage of people are going to disagree with any given proposition, even within a community. I'm sure a few of them may be Freepers, but it's equally possible that they're people who just don't like Michael Moore. I am OK with him but really don't care for this style of documentary (ie narrator-centric). He's talented, I'll watch the film, it's just not a documentary format I like.

These 'x unrecs in the last y minutes' sub-threads are what I'm objecting to, though - pure self-indulgent wank which distracts from the point of the thread.

We're a stupid, stupid country.

What Repuke critics don't seem to get about his movies is that these are issues that affect ALL of us. This is NOT a black/white, Republican/Democrat, Blue/Red, Gay/Straight, Alien/Terrestrial thing. Corporate malfeasance, gun rights and violent culture, the reasons for starting occupations of aggression based on lies and predatory health insurers affect ALL of us daily.

These issues don't give anyone a special "out", nor can the Cons pretend they don't exist. We're being played like puppets who think the other puppets are the problem and not the ones controlling the strings. Our survival as a nation fully depends on the government, business leaders and the people to work out a reasonable solution for these problems and above all, make the profit motive secondary. That's why we got into this mess in the first place.

Who could afford to see it? I don't go to see many movies, and an already devout anarchist like myself isn't going to pay to go see this on a date when money is tight, I'm afraid - I think that means that very very few will watch it. Many theatres will refuse to screen it, and fat chance of getting it on TV.

Why are we buying into the whole "for profit" economy anyway?

Hopefully, he'll have some suggestions on just backing out.

I can't wait.

Lets see how many people actually wake up out of their 28-year slumber after watching this.

to see his films for the info they provide bothers to see them?

Because their line is that all liberals and leftists are "latte-sipping elites who live in Boulder or Berkeley."

He is so NOT that, dresses as if he just walked off the shop floor, and when I saw him in Portland a few years back, he walked into the lecture hall finishing off the last of a Wendy's drive-through meal.

In return the right puts up lies and smokescreens about Michael and his work in order to dis-empower him.

This is gonna be good!

and this is the movie I've been waiting for.

I agree.

Michael Moore may be a PITA to some people,
but he exposes the truth, something many
people can't stand.

I wrote a civilized letter to the editors of a local
uber-Repub. newspaper here in OC, asking them
to base their debate ( regarding healthcare reform)
on facts, not fiction and fear mongering.

They refuse to publish it.

No surprise there.

Welcome, again.

:hi:

I'm always in favor of someone who regularly speaks truth to power....:kick:

Unfortunately, those who most need to see it will not.

K&R

:kick:

due to a copyright claim by WMG. Who is WMG?

On edit;

the clip linked in the signature has been removed. :dunce:

They and universal music group are the copyright commissars of youtube.

Their rival companies, EMI and Sony, are far cooler about copyright.

I can't wait to see his new film. k&r

last night. I can't wait to see it. I still need to see Sicko. Why have I waited so long to see it?!? :shrug: :)

:hi:

I will never forget Moore at the Oscars; I will love him forever for that fearless moment of truth. Many liberals in the crowd tried to disown him after that - shame on them! He had the courage to say what few others would say.

He speaks for the common person.

He exposes lies.

He cares passionately.

I can't wait for his next film!!

do we get to see the "Jump, You Fuckers!" sign?

I can't tell you about it as I signed a non-disclosure agreement. I say you all will really like it!

Julie

:kick: for Michael Moore! He's done great work and it's not given the credit it should have.

Go Mike!

He finally realized his movies are too inaccurate and/or one-sided to be called documentaries?

backing up your slander about your claim of Mr. Moore's "inaccuracy", right?

State some said "inaccuracies" about his films, please, that haven't been debunked.

I have debated this with true believers and they can't even admit when More was playing games.

The list is long.

Sicko: Health care in Cuba. Only shown the well-stocked pharmacy and hospital for foreigners and party big-wigs. In reality pharmacies have a hard time keeping anything on the shelves and the hospitals are run down.

BforC: Cutting up multiple Heston NRA speeches to appear to mean something completely different from what was said in Denver. The pan shots and cut clips hide large segments of the speeches to put them into context. He completely misrepresented the entire situation.

Kayla Rolland: Made it look like Heston came in right after the shooting to push guns, but that was eight months later at a get-out-the-vote event at a time when Al Gore and others were in the state for the same reason. Remember the highlighted words "48 hours after Kayla Rolland is dead" from an NRA web site when Moore is talking about Heston? Yeah, the dimmed part shows it was about Clinton on the Today Show two days later leveraging the tragedy for an anti-gun agenda. But you can't catch that when you're watching the movie. You think it's about Heston.

The bank scene was classic. According to the bank workers what Moore did would never happen with an average person. The whole thing including being able to pick up the gun at the bank was pre-arranged for the movie. The bank doesn't even keep the guns locally.

I know these have been 'debunked' using twisted logic and extreme apologetics. I'd love to see something new that explains these away. Moore hasn't done a good job so far.

Too bad because overall his movies are entertaining and make good points yet he has this need to deceive along the way.

smokescreens and constant propaganda, instead of trashing Moore.

At least Moore tries to give a progressive perspective....every filmmaker edits to make their point.....

Even the head of the one of the largest insurance companies Cigna said "Sicko" was accurate and that Cigna went out of their way to discredit Moore & Sicko, for people like yourself who want to believe the worst because of their hatred of Moore and put more of their belief in the republican owned corporate media that allow the incredibly filthy rich Cigna's and the other corporations bullshit that you seem to favor, that pretends to come across as the truth, and the truly gullible eat it up!
http://crooksandliars.com/nicole-belle/bill-moyers-journal-cigna-chief-admit

By the way, what have you done that's even a fraction to help progressive causes as Michael Moore continues to do, even as you go out of your way to find minute details to trash Moore.

Jealousy is an awful thing dude....But you won't won't you will continue to find ways to trash Moore no how obscure the source.

It also makes a very good overall point.

But I have an objection to Moore's lies and deception. It only gives the RW ammo.

But I do notice you did nothing to refute any of the deceptions I listed.

I spent a lot of time years ago sifting through this crap - and I am satisfied that it is crap

Moore's explanations for many of the criticisms were good and invalidated them.

But many others remain where Moore's responses are absolutely not convincing.

There is just no way a rational person can defend equivocating the KKK with the NRA when the NRA was diametrically opposed to the KKK (you'd think so with the NRA being founded by Union officers). Two of the early presidents, Grant and Sheridan, were staunch enemies of the KKK. Hell, blacks organized NRA chapters to get guns to defend themselves from the KKK.

Yet I'm supposed to give a pass on the NRA guy helping the KKK guy with a can of gasoline to burn the cross?

:yourock:

to buy himself a senator.

:kick:

:think: Problem solved. :think:

And we should ALL be eternally grateful for that. I disagree with him at times, but despite that I have to admit he is a strong-willed, bright guy with real convictions. I do hope that one day, if he is hanging up his filmmaker suit, he runs for public office. Senator Michael Moore does have a rather nice ring to it. :)

:bounce:

And watch the attacks roll in for it. It'll make the dissent from the right and right-left for his other films seem like warm well-wishes.