Oh The movies I’ve Seen Part 4

(A continuation of Part 1, Part 2, Part 3)

I really am trying to make an effort to watch less TV and read more books, but I do backslide every now and again. But I figured as long as I was watching some movies, I would post some thoughts on this blog.

1. “FahrenHYPE 9/11" and “Michael Moore Hates America”
It probably goes without saying that I’m not in the target audience for either of these movies. But I do like exposing myself to the other point of view every now and again. And I don’t mean that as a chore or something I have to make myself do. If you’re a political geek like I am, there’s something invigorating about watching something you disagree with just so you can gear up your brain to think of all the reasons why it’s crap. Or there’s the human fascination with a train wreck; perhaps the same impulse which makes some people enjoy bad movies makes us enjoy bad arguments.

I realize this isn’t something unique to me. I read once in a newspaper article the theory that a fair percentage of FOX news viewers were made up of liberals who loved to hate it. I’m not sure if any studies have been done to support this thesis, but antidotally it seems true. I know of several liberals who get a perverse kick out of watching FOX news or listening to Rush Limbaugh, and I count myself among them.

(Now, the big question is: is this true for conservatives as well? Again, antidotally I’d hazard a guess at no. Most of the conservatives I know seem to take pride in the fact that they get all of their news from FOX or Limbaugh. And I have yet to meet a conservative who sat through a volume of Noam Chomsky just to see what he had to say. Or went and watched “Fahrenheit 9/11" just to expose themselves to that point of view. In fact many conservative reviewers actually bragged about not having seen the movie they were criticizing. And remember that conservative movement that tried to prevent “Fahrenheit 9/11" from playing in theaters?
But maybe that’s just my liberal bias making selective examples. If anyone can make the case that liberals are just as close minded, you’re welcome to try and convince me.)

Anyway, I digress....The point is these two films.

Ideally, I’d say every liberal should watch these movies, especially if you’ve already seen “Fahrenheit 9/11.” Although I realize not everyone has the time, interest, or energy to sit through all this stuff.

If it makes it any easier, much of “Michael Moore Hates America” is on Youtube. (FahrenHYPE 9/11 unfortunately not so much.)

Both of these movies actually make a lot of good points as far as their criticism of Michael Moore. I thought I was a pretty intelligent viewer of Moore’s movies, but its amazing how much of his stuff that I believed at face value is actually mis-represented. It makes me feel used.

You’ll notice that even in my original review of “Fahrenheit 9/11" I put in a lot of caveats, but after watching these other two documentaries, I’m wishing I would have distanced myself even more from the film.

The problem with “FahrenHYPE 9/11" and “Michael Moore Hates America” is that they both don’t content themselves with simply correcting Moore’s factual errors. Instead they use this as a way to get their foot in the door, and then they go into a bunch of flag waving patriotic crap about how great America is and how well the war is going in Iraq.

I guess I’m mostly thinking of “FahrenHYPE 9/11" now, which included a speech by Zell Miller about how he found a nest of poisonous snakes under his porch, and he took unilateral pre-emptive action against them without consulting the United Nations because he knew the snakes were dangerous.
(First of all Zell, that has nothing to do with the film. Secondly, that’s a stupid analogy. Thirdly the Japanese already tried that argument in the Far East Military Tribunal to justify their attack on Pearl Harbor. Would you like to guess what the court decided?)

But still, you’ve got to admit Michael Moore himself opened the door for all that himself. If he had made a tighter movie with less misleading stuff in it, then the right wing wouldn’t have even had the opportunity to use this “bait and switch” technique.

“Michael Moore Hates America” on the other hand, actually tries to out-Moore Moore, by using a lot of the same dirty tricks that made Michael Moore famous.

For example, the frame of the movie revolves around this young film maker trying to get an interview with Moore, a la “Roger and Me”. And of course Moore doesn’t grant the interview, so he looks like the bad guy just like Roger Smith does in Moore’s film. But Moore is never going to agree to an interview for a film titled, “Michael Moore Hates America.”

Another example is this scene here. When Moore is being interviewed on MSNBC, and is asked if he’ll agree to sit down for an interview with Wilson. Moore responds, “I’m not in anybody else’s movies but my own.” Immediately, a list of film titles scrolls across the screen, naming several movies the notorious liberal documentarian has appeared in that do not bear his directing credit.
Interestingly, though, one of the titles listed is Fever Pitch, a 2001 short film in which actor-director Willard Morgan stalks his idol Moore, and fails to obtain much more than a brush-off. If that counts as one of Moore’s credits, then you can add virtually every film at the first annual Liberty Film Festival to the list as well

You could argue that Moore is just getting what’s coming to him, but I’m not sure we the viewers deserve to be caught in the middle.

What would be nice is if someone from the left would make a balanced critique of Moore which would point out where he was wrong as well as where he was right. I’m still waiting for that film. In the meantime I guess there’s always Spinsanity. (I know they’ve retired, but you can still read their critiques of Moore in their archives).

2. American Black Out

A very interesting documentary on the disenfranchisement of Black voters in both the 2000 and 2004 elections. It also dove tails this story with the story of Cynthia McKinney and the harassment she got from Republicans. Their website is here, and you can watch a preview for this film here.

They make a very strong case that there was a coordinated effort to prevent minority voters in battleground states during both 2000 and 2004. Of course, just having seen those critiques of Moore, I’m a little more wary of documentary films. Maybe 2 years down the road I’ll read a critique of this film.

Off hand though, it looked pretty solid to me. The only thing I thought was a little strange is that the film was up to date with the 2006 primary election, but not a word about McKinney’s controversy with the security guard. They just gave the impression that McKinney lost the primary because of Republican cross-overs during the primary. (And of course you always wonder, for everything mis-representation I caught, how many slipped by me.)

3. Starship Troopers
I saw this movie once long ago, but after recently finishing the book, I though I’d re-watch the movie.

If you rent the DVD, the director’s commentary is particularly interesting, because they talk a lot about their theories on Fascism, and how Fascism is related to human nature. Over the course of 2 hours, they repeat themselves a lot, but they ask some interesting questions. For example, is Fascism something that is inherently in human nature, and that we have to rise above? And does war make everyone a fascist? They also mention how they tried to incorporate Noam Chomsky’s theories on media into the film. (And you thought it was just a stupid action flick).

Another theme is how many of their critics misinterpreted the film, and thought that they were actually advocating Fascism instead of satirizing it. Although I have to admit I myself was left scratching my head a bit when this film first came out.

4. The Life of Brian
This is another film I’ve seen before, but I haven’t seen it in a long time. I could never find it in any of the video stores in Japan. Sometimes humor doesn’t translate well across cultural boundaries. Comedies like “Dumb and Dumber” do well in Japan, but not so much Monty Python, and especially not “The Life of Brian”.

I think this has got to be my favorite film of all time. Or at least in my top ten. (I haven’t sat down and seriously thought about it yet). No matter how many times I see it, I never get sick of it. It’s one of those rare films that I actually like more and more with each repeated viewing. (And this doesn’t happen often. I love Star Wars, but I got sick of the original trilogy a long time ago. And after junior high school I can’t stand “The Princess Bride” anymore. It got shown at one too many church lock-ins.) But “Life of Brian” each time I watch it I appreciate the satire even more.

And the DVD edition has lost scenes, and a double commentary track with Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, John Cleese and Michael Palin. Well worth checking out again.

Useless Wikipedia Fact
"It is both humiliating and humbling to discover that a single generation after the events that constructed me as a public personality, I am remembered as a hairdo."--Angela Davis

Link of the Day
If you need a good laugh (and you probably do), check out this "Neko" video on You tube of cats doing funny things. It got me laughing pretty hard. ("Neko" is Japanese for cat).

FahrenHYPE 9/11 and Michael Moore Hates America: Movie Review (Scripted)



American Black Out: Movie Review (Scripted)