First, I should say that I consider myself a fan of Michael Moore, but not that I believe or support everything he says in his films blindly. I also like horror movies but that's not because I think psycho-killers should murder people. Moore has a message and he makes films that support his message. They're not meant to be taught in place of American history class. That said, American history textbooks have more than their fare share of bias as well, but that's another topic. On to the review.
I read the reviews of this film here and decided that, as a Michael Moore fan, it would be interesting to see this filmmakers arguments and also to see what a jerk Michael Moore can be. I'm sure he's an arrogant SOB, like anyone with the kind of fame, money and influence he's built up might be.
Well, I have to say that this person's arguments are just flat out weak and indefensible. The best I can tell is that this guy has taken extreme offense to Michael Moore's message that America is a screwed up country that strongly favors the rich at the expense of the poor. This is not really a debatable issue, by the way. It's clear to anyone who studies history that this is not just the way America works, but the entire world has functioned this way since the dawn of civilization.
On to one of the key moments in the movie, which is the part I really wanted to see - Micheal Moore blowing up at this guy during a public Q&A session. I really had my hopes up expecting to see Moore light this guy up with no justification. You know, the way Bill O'Reilly or Rush Limbaugh do when someone calls in with an intelligent argument. The guy introduces himself with "Hi, my name is......and I'm making a film called 'Michael Moore Hates America'....can I have an interview?"
Obviously, this moron has been waiting his entire life to drop this wonderfully loaded question onto Mr. Moore's lap, but he clearly did not think it through. You're at HIS book tour event, in front of HIS fans, and you ask him for a favor by saying "You Hate America." Let's just think for a second about what Moore's possible response options might have been. 1) Say, "Oh thank you sir for disagreeing with my message so vehemently, and trying to embarrass me in front of a huge audience of my fans. Yes, I would love to give your ridiculously low-budget and hopeless film massive amounts of credibility by appearing in it personally! That way, you can judiciously edit the film in much the same way you accuse me of doing - that is to say, so I look like a complete idiot - and also get to become a millionaire in the process." 2) Disarm the entire situation in a way that makes YOU look like the angry idiot, makes my fans applaud and cheer, and all by simply defending my position in much the same way I do everywhere - that is to say, with a little bit of vitriol.
His other major complaint against Moore is that he......you might want to sit down for this.......EDITS his films! That's right. Can you imagine that he actually used select bits and pieces of speeches to show the parts that support his view and not show the speeches in their entirety? Okay, so that's ridiculous, but still, this filmmaker is suggesting that Moore owes it to the NRA or Charlton Heston that his film also includes all the nice things he said at his NRA speech? It's not as though he stitched together individual words or cut sentences short to change their meaning. This is called "editing" and it's a commonly used technique to make films bearable and concise. If you need to see the whole NRA speech, you should go the f'ing convention yourself.
Point is, this guy doesn't have any real strong arguments against Michael Moore. I'll be the first to admit that Moore distorts and stretches the truth to suit his purposes. But he's just giving a big dose of the same medicine the other side gives whenever it gets a chance. Think "death panels", "destruction of the fabric of our nation", etc. etc.