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Michael Moore

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This page is about the American author and director. For others of the same name, see Michael Moore (disambiguation).

Michael Moore (born April 23, 1954) is an American documentary film director and author known for his satirical advocacy of social democrat views.

Directing

Moore first became famous for his film Roger & Me, a documentary about what happened to his hometown Flint, Michigan, near Detroit, after General Motors closed its factories and opened new ones in Mexico, where the workers were paid much less.

In 1995, Moore released a satirical film, Canadian Bacon, which featured a US politician (played by Alan Alda) engineering a war with Canada in order to boost his popularity.

In 1999 Moore won the Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award in Arts and Entertainment, for being the executive producer and host of The Awful Truth, where he was also described as "muckraker, author and documentary filmmaker."

Moore's 2002 documentary Bowling for Columbine, probes the culture of guns and violence in the United States. Bowling for Columbine got special notice at the Cannes Film Festival and won France's Cesar Award as the Best Foreign Film. It also won the 2003 Academy Award for Documentary Feature. There has been strong dispute about the validity of information presented in the movie. The presentation of facts is also disputed (see links in article Bowling for Columbine).

When Moore accepted the Oscar, he created a stir when he took the opportunity to loudly denounce US President George W. Bush for the 2003 invasion of Iraq which was met with mixed reaction by the audience.

He has also directed two television series, TV Nation and The Awful Truth, both satires.

Moore's latest movie, Fahrenheit 9/11 examines America in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, particularly the record of the Bush administration and alleged links between the families of George W. Bush and Osama bin Laden. It was awarded the Palme d'Or, the top honor at the Cannes Film Festival; it was the first documentary film since 1956 to win the prize. Its distribution has been the subject of some controversy since its Miramax producers' funding company Disney flatly refused to put it in theaters despite having paid for the production and Buena Vista distribution. This may have been due to financing it recieves in the state where the President's brother Jeb Bush governs. Although Disney claimed that it was not "in the best interests of our company to distribute a partisan political film that may offend some of our customers," (see official response below), the company distributes and syndicates certain right-of-center radio shows such as Rush Limbaugh every day on its WABC radio station in addition to distributing a similar political movie during a Congressional election year, 1998's The Big One...directed by none other than Michael Moore.

Moore has directed several music videos, most notably for left-wing political rock band Rage Against the Machine, including "Sleep Now in the Fire", and "Testify", in which he shows the flaws of the USA's two party system, and once again takes the opportunity to denounce George Bush. He was arrested during the shooting of "Sleep Now in the Fire", which was filmed on Wall Street, after the city of New York had denied RATM permission to play there.

Writings

Moore has authored the three bestselling books Downsize This! (about politics and corporate crime in the United States), Stupid White Men, and Dude, Where's My Country? (both critiques of American domestic and foreign policy). The American magazine The New Republic has branded his writing "Chomsky for children".

Moore was previously a columnist for and briefly the editor of Mother Jones magazine and an employee of Ralph Nader. He left Nader's employment on bad terms, but they remained friends, with Moore vociferously supporting Nader's campaign for the US presidency in 2000. On January 14, 2004, Moore declared his support, on his website, for the candidacy of Democrat Wesley Clark in the 2004 presidential election (Clark has since withdrawn from the race, endorsing John Kerry). Moore recently drew attention after he claimed publicly that George W. Bush was AWOL during his service in the National Guard (see George W. Bush military service controversy).

Critics of Moore contend that Moore's films are not documentaries and that his books have factual errors. Accusations have been made that some scenes in Moore's documentaries were staged or scripted and other scenes were cleverly edited to alter the original intent of the speaker in the video. In one case, on screen text was allegedly altered in a campaign ad. Moore denied that this was done in the film, but is said to have slightly corrected it on the DVD release. It is said that Moore contends that these detractions are not from critics, but "nutcases" and "lunatics" who disagree with him politically, noting the fact that in all four of his books there has not been a single lawsuit against him.

On a non-related issue, the homepage of 'Michael Moore' is in third place after the biographies of George W. Bush and Jimmy Carter in the Googlebombing exercise that uses the query "miserable failure".

His published Work

List of books

List of films

List of TV series

Sources that challenge Michael Moore's statements

Michael Moore's official response to critics

  • Wacko Attacko - Michael Moore's official response
  • Moore, Michael. When You Wish Upon A Star. Retrieved Friday, May 7th, 2004

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