(Citizen Black, The Frank Truth, Junket Whore, Manufacturing Dissent: Uncovering Michael Moore)
Producers:
Rick Caine and Debbie Melnyk
Writers:
Rick Caine and Debbie Melnyk
Music:
Michael White
Documentary filmmaker Michael Moore
makes movies that unsettle people because the powers that be don't like to hear an opposing viewpoint. A lot
of people are like that - your boss, for example, might not like it when you have better ideas than he/she
does because they know you're right - but whereas you've simply told them verbally, or by email, this man
goes out to put ideas onto celluloid and then lets the whole world take a look.
From the collapse of General Motors in Roger & Me, through the student mass-murderer documentary
Bowling for Columbine tied in with the US gun culture and Moore's 'war' against George Bush's war in
Iraq following the New York atrocities on September 11th, 2001, during which our stupid government got led
along as well - giving Tony Blair the appropriate moniker of being Bush's poodle, in the cleverly-titled
Farenheit 9/11, to the new movie Sicko, taking a look at the USA healthcare system and how
many Americans just can't afford it, which really makes me thankful for the wonderful National Health Service
which has kept me alive since day 1, as anyone will know who's read about
aortic valve replacement operation, his films do
have a lot of important things to say, even if they can tend to go on a little bit.
Manufacturing Dissent: Uncovering Michael Moore paints a negative picture of the man, as you
might expect, starting with his emphatic anti-war speech at the 2003 Oscars, claiming shortly afterwards that
he invited his fellow nominees to join him on stage prior to winning his award, but then stating that he
didn't do this because at an appearance two years later, in July 2005, he said how he basically made up the
speech on the spot and didn't have an acceptance speech planned. So, you get to make your own mind up, but
given the footage of the latter appearance I would say he wanted to play up to the audience, given his joyous
demeanour at the time, and that he had a lot to say back in 2003 and wanted to get it off his chest, regardless
of whether or not he asked other people to join him on stage - which would've looked damn good, had it happened.
Interviewer and co-director/writer Debbie Melnyk travels to his hometown of Flint, Michigan, and one man she meets says he dislikes Moore's criticism
of the NRA (National Rifle Association) in Bowling for Columbine because they do a lot for gun rights,
and if they had no gun rights then they'd be like Russia and Canada where they don't have any guns... but
surely that's a good thing? In the UK, we're not allowed to own a handgun for no reason, and with the way
this country's gone to the dogs I wouldn't like to walk down any street knowing that someone could legally
take a pot-shot if they were a bit of a mental.
There are several attempts by Debbie Melnyk to get an interview with Michael Moore him but it never works out,
as well as criticisms of how factually accurate some of the content of his films are. We also see chat from a
number of his past colleagues, the collapse of manufacturing in Flint, critic Dave Marsh who allowed
Moore to use articles from his Rock N Roll Confidential magazine for his own, but complained that he
was never paid the agreed $10/month, saying "it really frosted my ass". Hmm... he sounds a bit bitter(!)
This film also goes on a little bit but it while I agree that he does have a big ego, he does get a lot done
and cracks the right heads together, and by showing footage of his TV Nation programme, which I hadn't
seen before, it makes the man all the more endearing, rather than giving me negative feelings about him.
The film is presented in anamorphic 1.85:1 and looks superb for the information that it is presenting. I've
given it 8/10 rather than 10/10 because in terms of looks nothing could be classed as 'outstanding' but that's
only because the footage on view is mostly camcorder footage, so you know what to expect from what you'll see
and you don't need to have a fantastically high bitrate to deal with this, but what you can see looks
absolutely spot-on.
Sound isn't so great, though, since there are no subtitles on the disc and occasionally the thumping music in
the background - something TV programmes often get a lot of stick for, and quite rightly so - drowns out the
dialogue, causing you to rewind the film, and sometimes it's still not clear.
The extras aren't numerous and all come in 16:9 letterbox, beginning with a Documentary Discussion (7:18)
with some of the people who featured in the film who didn't like Michael Moore and are whining that he makes
more money than them. Then comes a the Trailer (1:32) and, finally, 11 Deleted Scenes (17:47),
some of which are extended from what you see in the main feature, and none of which I'd go out of my way to put
back into the film since there's enough there already and these are fine as supplementals.
The menus have a repetitive short piece of incidental music which gets on your nerves if you leave it playing
for a while, there are no subtitles and the chaptering is incredibly sparse, and somewhat random, with a mere
12 to the 97-minute running time.
Finally, one magazine quote highlighted late in the film says, "One-sided partisan communication tends to attract
an audience of believers and reinforces their beliefs rather than change their minds." - Indeed it does,
Debbie Melnyk, indeed it does...
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
