Manufacturing Dissent (pseudo-biopic of Michael Moore)

[Dumpy Dooby]

I just finished watching this film. It's floating around in the online "stores" for anyone that wants to get a copy. I figure people already know if they're interested in seeing this or not. But here's a moderately-sized review anyway.



Well, first off I should say that I don't like Michael Moore. I don't agree with his politics. I don't agree with his techniques. I think he's sleazy and manipulative, and I think he is purposely unapologetic for both of those qualities.


I liked that this film did not focus too much on the same stuff we've all read about before. About half of the film discusses Michael Moore before he made Bowling for Columbine. Specifically, they examine his work as a magazine editor, and they examine Roger and Me. But even then, the main focus wasn't to illustrate Moore's manipulative techniques. Most people already know about that. Instead, the main focus in the film was to illustrate that Moore, himself, is a phony.

There is a distinct parallel to the plot of Roger and Me, which I thought was too much of an homage to Moore, but perhaps appropriate given the context of this documentary. The film crew is constantly struggling to get an interview with Moore, and Moore consistently gives them the runaround.

So I guess one interesting aspect of the film is that they show how Moore is very willing to put other people in uncomfortable situations or catch them off guard so as to juxtapose their fumbling against his well-prepared rhetoric. However, when Moore is threatened with the same tactic by his opponents, he cowers and fights dirty to avoid it. He knows how chicken shit it is.



All in all, it wasn't that bad. It was a little boring at times, but I think it's worth watching.

[RMNIXON]

I suspect that when he made Roger and Me he really believed what he was doing even though it was documented that he changed events and when they happened to make his case. After that "money" was thrown at him and it was just too easy to take the next step. Who cares about facts and truth when you have enough suckers who will fill their personal library with your books and dvds? Even pay to see a movie in a theater! He is not taking money from me so I cannot object that much.

[Galactic Gigolo]

There's a documentary out now (or later this month, I had a screener) called Michael Moore Hates America. I went in with a negative attitude; not because I liked Moore, but because the title made it out to be like a hackjob, especially in light of the "Daily Show" appearance the filmmaker made a couple years ago.

It makes for a really good watch though. He takes all the fact spinning and general lying in Moore's infotainment films and tears them apart in an interesting way.