Michael Moore Lies Again in New Movie
Randy Joobstern, the Gaffer on the crew of Michael Moore's new movie, Fahrenheit 9/11, couldn't believe his eyes when he sat down on opening night to watch the final cut.
"I was so excited," said Joobstern in an exclusive interview, "I really believed in Michael Moore and this movie, I really wanted to stick one to George W., who I, like all good liberals, thought was only slightly better than Satan himself."
But then the credits rolled, and his political life took an abrupt turn.
"They misspelled my name," said an emotional Joobstern from his office on Tuesday, "I just couldn't believe it. Right there on screen, Michael Moore misspelled my name and lied to the citizens of this country. I used to hate Bush as much as the next guy, but no person of conscience could condone such dishonesty."
Mr. Moore's former "Gaffer" isn't the only one surprised by what some are calling Moore's "credibility gap".
Brian Zorak, a syndicated columnist famous for having once claimed that Clinton "maybe wasn't so bad after all", has harsh criticism for Moore's characterization of President Bush's "working vacations", which reportedly occupied 42% of the President's first eight months in office.
"Michael Moore is once again playing fast and loose with the facts. The President actually spent 41.3% of his time in Texas," he said.
"Sure, Bush was on his ranch for almost half of that first eight months of his presidency," said Mr. Zorak, "but what Moore doesn't tell you is that Tony Blair visited the president at one point and they shot tin cans off the back porch together. Nor does Michael Moore want you to know that Charleton Heston approves of Bush's schedule and believes that a healthy life/work balance is essential to good governance."
Michael Moore, whose career was jump-started by "Roger and Me", a little known comedy about small town life, has also been criticized for calling Osama bin Laden sexy.
"I understand some people like beards," said Moore earlier this year, in front of a shocked audience at the annual meeting of the National Association of Barbers.
I agree with almost everything she says, except for her unfortunate premise that liberals are not allowed to find anything funny or make fun of anyone.
Like it or not, Moore is what he is (rich, extremely popular, able to reach many more people than an episode of Frontline ever could) because he's funny. The movie is a litany of all the things anyone who has been paying attention all this time already knows, along with Moore's smarmy musings, a few stupid stunts that are nevertheless kind of funny, and some glaring ommissions and apparent attempts to mislead the audience. As usual with Moore these little elisions seem to be aimed at inducing a conspiratorial paranoia in his audience. That's Moore's real weakness, not the lowbrow humor that upset Zacharek's sensibilities so much.
Moore obviously didn't make the movie for people like me or Zacharek. He made it for people who haven't been keeping up with the news, who get a kick out of seeing the powerful ridiculed. He undercut himself again, but not as much as I'd expected.
Still, I find projects like this one to be amusing, if for no other reason than the extremely damning claims that they do not question.
Posted by: Alan Hogue at July 9, 2004 11:04 AMHe's Goebbels with a beer belly. Only second-rate minds could cheer him on. I notice Spike Lee and The British Acting Profession doing this. I was sad to see Peter O'Toole doing it. The Extraordinary power of the medicine show: SEE THE DAWG-FACED BOY!! SEE SEALO THE SEAL BOY WHO HAS FLIPPERS FOR ARMS!!
Posted by: ROBBIE at July 10, 2004 04:28 PMAnd how are you finding the French perception of him, ROBBIE?
Posted by: Ben Brumfield at July 12, 2004 02:02 PMOops -- make that "reception".
Posted by: Ben Brumfield at July 12, 2004 02:03 PMYou mean the Palme D'or? They've been handing that out to any tom, dick or harry for so long it's not worth a ****. They've gave one to Tarantino for god's sake. As for his general being liked in France, well, there's no love lost between to the two countries and Moore justifies their whingeing. The film will be lionized by the badly informed and student stoner looking for conspiracies. The official Left will happily condone it: it's all grist to their mill.
Fact is, there is nothing--in the way of official facts--in the film that hasn't already been printed in newspapers designed for adults. The rest is the usual rag bag of evasion, miselading quotation 'find the lady' editing. Moore's technique would be shameful put to any use or political end. He's a c*nt and we all know it.
I guess I was really wondering if you'd run into any mention of him on your Paris adventure.
I find I'm always sensitive to politics when I'm travelling, from the docent in the Tower repeating to everyone who came in that "fewer people were executed in the Tower than in Texas while George Bush was governor", to the French ex-pat at the bar in Abidjan rambling about the US in Vietnam a couple of Septembers ago.
Posted by: Ben Brumfield at July 13, 2004 04:01 PMI didn't notice much about politics when I was there except that in some English language thing it said that 2 in 5 French people--or was it Parisians--are xenophobic.
When you are in France you realise once again the good sense they had for standing up to the yanks through the GATT talks years ago and fighting US crap cultural imperialism.