Nuketown

Discovering Why Michael Moore Hates America

Posted in by Kenneth Newquist on Sat, 10/15/2005 - 2:00am

This is not the movie you think it is. If you're on the right, you're probably thinking that this is a gleeful bashing of filmmaker Michael Moore. And if you're on the left, well, you're probably thinking this is a gleeful bashing of filmmaker Michael Moore.

It's not a love letter to the controversial director, but it's not nearly the hatchet job folks might be expecting. In fact, while the documentary focuses on Michael Moore, it ends up being more about personal integrity and self-discovery than a quest to hunt down the elusive Moore.

Michael and Me

As the film opens, it’s hard not to think of Michael Moore's own breakout documentary, Roger & Me in which he attempts to trackdown and interview General Motors president Roger Smith about the automotive holocaust left behind in Flint, Michigan when the carmaker closed its plant there. But while Roger & Me was driven by a sort of sincere, yet maniacal glee at putting the screws to Roger, director Michael Wilson’s film begins on a more hopeful note: he's just become a father, and as he looks at his new born baby girl, he tries to reconcile the America he's always believed in – the optimistic one in which hard work and effort pay off, with the one that Michael Moore seems to despise so much. And so he sets out on a year and a half quest to come to terms with Moore's vision … and his own.

Wilson’s approach to the documentary is threefold. First, he goes after Moore’s filmmaking techniques, documenting several cases in Roger & Me and Bowling for Columbine where Moore was more … creative in his filming than one might expect from someone filming a documentary. Particularly damning are Wilson’s interviews with the employees of the bank where Moore made it appear that he went in, opened an account, and walked out with a gun – in reality, the whole thing was staged and no one other that Moore could have done that. Moore’s editing of Charleston Heston’s NRA speeches, designed to damn both him and his organization, also comes under fire, as does his unrelentingly pessimistic view of Flint, Michigan.

These sorts of attacks are about what you’d expect from a documentary called Michael Moore Hates America as are Wilson’s interviews with libertarian Penn Jillette (of Penn & Teller fame), former Republican congressman J.C. Watts, conservative activist David Horowitz, respected filmmaker Albert Mayseles and many others about Moore, his views, and his tactics.

But what you don’t expect is the third approach that Wilson takes: the introspective, often self-critical commentary that the director offers on his own efforts. As he makes the film, Wilson finds himself confronting the same issues that Moore undoubtedly does, and even succumbing to some of the same temptations.

For example, at one point in the movie Wilson travels to Michael Moore’s home town,of Davison, Michigan, where he talks with a city official there about the town and its history, and eventually works the conversation around to Moore. However, knowing that he probably wouldn’t get the interview if he told the official about his film, he misrepresented what he was doing and why he was doing it. After one of his crew threatens to walk if they don’t come clean about the film with Davison.

To Wilson’s credit, that’s exactly what he does. And even more to his credit, he includes this entire debate, the letter he wrote, and the response from Davison in the film. It’s that sort of reflection and soul-searching that make this film worth watching, even for true-blue Moore fans.

Final Analysis

You don’t have to be an American-flag wearing, Bible-thumping Republican to take issue with Michael Moore and his films, and if you’re looking for evidence that Moore hates America (or at least, hates its leadership and many of its core values) you’ll find it here. But you’ll also find a heck of a lot more, including a serious, occasionally gut-wrenching look at what it takes to stay true to yourself and your vision while creating a documentary.