Filmspotting Poll
Sicko opens June 29th. To date Michael Moore's best work is: [525 votes total]

Bowling for Columbine (222) 42%
Roger & Me (149) 28%
If it's Moore, it's bad (88) 17%
Fahrenheit 9/11 (63) 12%
The Big One (3) 1%


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Posted By: Rod

Posted On: Jun 25, 2007
Views: 665
support for PaulT

Well-written comments, Paul.

As for Ford, I'd find your comments more credible if you had a basic understanding of English spelling.


Posted By: PaulT

Posted On: Jun 25, 2007
Views: 701
Conversation starter

I've enjoyed Moore's documentaries so far, and I do happen to share few of the world views he displays.

However, for me the point is this - who cares if the films are one-sided, or even totally accurate? The point of these movies for me isn't that you can take each movie as gospel (you can't), but it's that he wears his heart on his sleeve and that people *talk* about the movies. Regardless of how many people see the movie, people are talking about it. Hopefully that will lead to real discussion about the issue at hand, which wasn't being publically discussed until Moore came along.

As for Sicko, the same rules apply as with every Moore movie. Whether you agree with some of the specifics (having grown up in the UK, I can assure you that the NHS isn't perfect by a long stretch despite the glowing examples he gives in the doc), the movie forces you to consider the overall theme. In Bowling, that was the issue of guns (why so many school shootings in the US and so few in other countries with gun traditions?). In F9/11, the issue of whether we were right to go into Iraq, and whether we were given the real reasons for doing so.

In this case, the theme is that the US healthcare system is broken, controlled by corporate rather than public interests, and that no matter the objections from some parties, there are workable alternatives that don't leave people bankrupt or homeless if their insurance rejects a claim. Agree with Moore's evidence and methods or not, the movie forces people to discuss the issue.


Posted By: Ford

Posted On: Jun 23, 2007
Views: 877
Not a fan either

Fact check any of Moore's movies and see what you get...He's manipulative in a way that may be legal, but ethical?
I'm over it. He had me with Bowling until I did some fact checking, and I realized that I'd been duped.
Farenheit 9/11 one of the most influential movies of all time? Yes, it's influenced me to watch all documentaries with a more discerning and critical eye so that when Al Gore shows tidal predictions in the future with coastal cities underwater (a hyperbole of mythic proportions) I can realize "DING "DING"-I'm being manipulated!
Does the end justify the means? Is there anything wrong with lying (or using hyper-hyperbole) in a documentary to convey truth? At what point does this kind of thinking degenerate into a one-sided propaganda piece instead of an honest analysis of the way things are? Sure Moore may be no Riefenstahl, but should we applaud his methods when they teeter towards her's even though his goal may seem good on the face of it?


 
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