What\'s your opinion on Michael Moore?
 

What's your take on him? Love him? Hate him? Don't care? Opinion about his work?

I have never understood the hate for the guy, I wish there were more Americans like him. I don't know if I'm in the minority here, but I just love people changing their environment for good (at least trying). But there is something about our society these days, loathing the good guys (or as they use to say to feel better themselves, the self-proclaimed "good" guys)

I can't help it, but I love the guy, I loved Bowling for Columbine, Fahrenheit 9-11 and I'm really waiting to see Sicko. I think all those films will stand the test of time.

So, what do you think? Has your opinion about him or his films changed with the years?

By the way, he'll be on the Oprah show this Tuesday June 5th talking about Sicko.

Re: What\'s your opinion on Michael Moore?
 

sirio,

I'm a fan. I think some people hate him because they feel like he's pretending to be an impartial journalist. But he's not. He's a documentary filmmaker with a very strong point of view. Obviously he spins his work in a manner that supports the points he is trying to make.

Re: What\'s your opinion on Michael Moore?
 

As a lefty, I wish he'd shut the hell up. He's not helping.

1- I think his point of view is often pretty simple minded. Too much of what he says/does is for shock value, and it kills any meaninful point he's trying to make. Trying to paint something like Columbine as gun control issue (hint: mental health) is just being exploitive and stupid.

2- I think his econimic point of view is horrible. Roger and Me drove me nuts. Private companies shouldn't have an obligation to keep people employeed. It's government's job to sustain them once a company, in holding to the obligation it has towards it's owners/shareholds has to lay them off to save/make more money. Moore's approash is just goofy and simplistic.

Re: What\'s your opinion on Michael Moore?
 

He's a liar and a fraud. I don't see how anyone could take an honest look at him and his work and think he's anything but complete trash. Obviously, if you're on the right, it's easy to hate him. If you're on the left, you've got to be embarassed to have this guy play such a large part in representing your side. He'd be a whole lot more effective if he'd just tone it down a bit and just make films that are at least close to something you can legitimately pass off as having a bit of integrity.

Re: What\'s your opinion on Michael Moore?
 

Dids,

On #1 - I agree that his POV is very simplistic and sometimes just flat out wrong.

However I think you're missing the point a bit on #2. It's not so much about what corporations can and can't do, it's about shining a light on their activities. Let the public be the final judge. You don't have a problem with GM putting 10s of thousands out of work in the US to save a few bucks. Maybe others do. Maybe the threat of bad exposure actually enters into a corporation's thought process. In the grand scheme, there are often worse things that can happen than some shareholders don't get to squeeze every last drop of profit out of a situation.

Due to obvious natural "synergies", there's so precious little serious media scrutiny into corporate shenanigans. If it weren't for people like Moore and shows like Frontline there would basically be none at all.

Re: What\'s your opinion on Michael Moore?
 

He spins the info his way and shapes it to back up his arguments so it's still pretty biased. Saying that I like the controversy he stirs up and I've enjoyed the two films of his I've seen. I haven't read any of the books, so I can't comment on those. All in all I would say that I like him.

Re: What\'s your opinion on Michael Moore?
 

[ QUOTE ]
sirio,

I'm a fan. I think some people hate him because they feel like he's pretending to be an impartial journalist. But he's not. He's a documentary filmmaker with a very strong point of view. Obviously he spins his work in a manner that supports the points he is trying to make.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree with this.

I like some of his documentaries, but I take them for what they are, extremely biased pieces of work. I think he at least gets people to talk about issues that are kind of important, such as gun control, health care, etc. I think a lot of people in this country wouldnt talk about those issues if it werent for his documentaries. Another problem is that there is no alternative. If you didnt like his movie about gun control(Bowling for Columbine) there is no other documentary that is unbiased and as interesting as his. I wish someone would make unbiased documentaries that are fun to watch, but until that happens Michael Moore is the only show in town as one would say.

Re: What\'s your opinion on Michael Moore?
 

His movies are not accurate documentaries. They are usually designed to show something (that he is against) through a highly sensationalized effort, depicting all sorts of clown acts.

This makes for good entertainment. I have only seen two movies, and was a huge fan of Bowling; it was very funny in its own way. Almost as if it was a drama version of Borat. Fahrenheit was uber lame. I was totally let down b/c he stepped back from the "funny stuff" and was actually making an attempt for the movie to be "credible".

Do I hate the guy? Yes. Why? B/c he is pretending. He is pretending that his work is important; that his views should be taken seriously. IRL, he is a clown b/c of this. If he would say "these are just movies that portray my exaggerated opinion on things" my respect for him would be 10x more.

There are lots of ppl who I hate, (figuratively), he is one of them.

This said, I am glad he makes movies. His work is very original (for mainstream type of stuff), so it def is a positive contribution for the sake of filmmaking.

Re: What\'s your opinion on Michael Moore?
 

I'm in the area between diablo, dids, and great poker patrick.

I think he is overall good for the left but certainly gives the right a lot of legitimate points to make which is bad. I think he's somewhat like a Sean Hannity type for the left, which is a pretty horrible thing to say about someone.

My big problem with Moore is that he very frequently is correct on some larger point but he gets the details wrong or is very misleading on them. Take Fahrenheit 9/11. One of the early scenes he either says or very strongly implies that a bunch of Saudis including bin Laden family members were allowed to fly out of the country while all flights were grounded. In reality they were apparently able to fly around within the country so that when they once again allowed all flights they could leave right away. Either way, this treatment is directly a problem and symbolically bad in terms of often giving Saudi Arabia such positive treatment when their country is a large part of the problem. So basically in this spot the truth is actually pretty damning. Telling it and not saying or implying that it was just a little bit worse than that is terrible. His arguments would be better served if he got the details correct on these types of things.

For example, I think there is a big difference between Michael Moore and Al Franken. Franken's books are somewhat similar in topic and he regularly attacks the right as well. I have a lot more respect for him, as do others because he makes his arguments intelligently and gets the details correct. He obviously is going to use selective information that furthers his point but he isn't completely misleading unless he's doing so in order to make the point that some of the tactics of people like Hannity and Coulter are very misleading, in which case he fesses up to it.

Re: What\'s your opinion on Michael Moore?
 

However I think you're missing the point a bit on #2. It's not so much about what corporations can and can't do, it's about shining a light on their activities. Let the public be the final judge.




I dont know about you, but I dont think the general public should be basing any of their opinions on something a propogandist douche bag spouts, people in general see that its in a movie, so it must be true, and they believe it. Thats detrimental.


Personally, I love the guy, he makes liberals look like a bunch of fat hypocrtical, mainly in the wrong, socialists. He is about 1000x more detrimental to the liberal cause than his closes counter example, Hannity, is to the conservative cause.

Re: What\'s your opinion on Michael Moore?
 

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He's a documentary filmmaker with a very strong point of view. Obviously he spins his work in a manner that supports the points he is trying to make.

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So did Leni Riefenstahl.

I think "documentary filmmaker with a very strong point of view" is just a polite way of saying "propagandist". Talent, no doubt. But he puts it to questionable uses, sort of like Oliver Stone.

Re: What\'s your opinion on Michael Moore?
 

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Personally, I love the guy, he makes liberals look like a bunch of fat hypocrtical, mainly in the wrong, socialists. He is about 1000x more detrimental to the liberal cause than his closes counter example, Hannity, is to the conservative cause.

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I think Hannity is good for the right and Moore is good for the left.

Sure, for people who are reasonably intelligent and well read on the opposite side these guys cause them to have more disdain for the other side. I care significantly more about politics and people on the left winning elections than I would if Hannity and Coulter weren't around. In a vacuum that's bad for the right because it makes me and others like me more likely to contribute or volunteer for Obama or whoever.

However, politics is often about numbers. When how ever many millions of people listen to Hannity or Limbaugh many more of them influenced by what they say and in the direction they want. Similarly, even with the media backlash from people making the kind of statements you're making Fahrenheit 9/11 got more people on the left more involved and more people in the middle to move away from Bush than people in the middle moving right or people on the right more fired up.

Moore and these types on the right rely on the fact that most people not bothering to look things up and seek out the truth or think it through for themselves. Whatever your favorite lie or misleading line is from one of Moore's movies or Hannity's show I'm sure well over 50% of the people watching the movie or show believe it. Look at how many people thought Saddam played a significant part in September 11th before the Iraq war.

Re: What\'s your opinion on Michael Moore?
 

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So did Leni Riefenstahl.

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Come on, now. Sure, Michael Moore might be a propagandist, but the point of view he's espousing isn't fascism and genocide.

Personally, I think he's a loudmouth and a hypocrite (there's a fair amount of information out there about how he's treated his employees / people on his shoots). Politically I happen to agree with a lot of what he says and I'm glad that somebody's saying it, but he could do a much better job. His attack on an obviously senile Charlton Heston made me squirm.

Re: What\'s your opinion on Michael Moore?
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

Personally, I love the guy, he makes liberals look like a bunch of fat hypocrtical, mainly in the wrong, socialists. He is about 1000x more detrimental to the liberal cause than his closes counter example, Hannity, is to the conservative cause.

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I think Hannity is good for the right and Moore is good for the left.

Sure, for people who are reasonably intelligent and well read on the opposite side these guys cause them to have more disdain for the other side. I care significantly more about politics and people on the left winning elections than I would if Hannity and Coulter weren't around. In a vacuum that's bad for the right because it makes me and others like me more likely to contribute or volunteer for Obama or whoever.

However, politics is often about numbers. When how ever many millions of people listen to Hannity or Limbaugh many more of them influenced by what they say and in the direction they want. Similarly, even with the media backlash from people making the kind of statements you're making Fahrenheit 9/11 got more people on the left more involved and more people in the middle to move away from Bush than people in the middle moving right or people on the right more fired up.

Moore and these types on the right rely on the fact that most people not bothering to look things up and seek out the truth or think it through for themselves. Whatever your favorite lie or misleading line is from one of Moore's movies or Hannity's show I'm sure well over 50% of the people watching the movie or show believe it. Look at how many people thought Saddam played a significant part in September 11th before the Iraq war.

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What you say may have been true at some point, but Moore is so far out there nowadays, that leftys probably wish he werent around because of all the heat they have to take becuase of his insanity. Ive always been into politics, and to a lot of peoples suprise Im def not a 2007 "conservative". Politics in this country is just ridiculous, it used to be people like Abbie Hoffman who spread the word, it used to be "us" vs "them", now you have a democratic party that has become the "them", brainwashing people with Moore and the likes propanganda. They are so blind to the fact that modern day democrats are about 1000 times worse as far as personal security, rights, etc than the evil republicans that the Chicago 7 fought against in the 60s. And well, all the republicans have to do is take a reactionary stance to whatever retarded thing the dem of the day spouts, and focus on that one quip to win an election, which obv does no one any good for enacting any real change.

Re: What\'s your opinion on Michael Moore?
 

He is intellectually dishonest and a propagandist. It is unfortunate how many people listen to him and think what he is saying the gospel, when rudimentary research will show he is intentionally omitting key information to push his political agenda. I know people might respond to this by saying, but what about Limabaugh, Hannity, O'Reilly don't they do the same? Firstly two wrongs don't make a right and secondly I expect a higher standard from a documentary than a daily tv show or radio show where the hosts are clearly designed to be pundits and not reporters.

Re: What\'s your opinion on Michael Moore?
 

[ QUOTE ]
He is intellectually dishonest and a propagandist. It is unfortunate how many people listen to him and think what he is saying the gospel, when rudimentary research will show he is intentionally omitting key information to push his political agenda. I know people might respond to this by saying, but what about Limabaugh, Hannity, O'Reilly don't they do the same? Firstly two wrongs don't make a right and secondly I expect a higher standard from a documentary than a daily tv show or radio show where the hosts are clearly designed to be pundits and not reporters.

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The other thing is, you have to really really search around for a fact that hannity and co say, that is a blatant lie. Yes, they do spin some things, but usually they present facts, and than jump to some weird/wrong conclusion based on the facts presented. Moore just lies. O Reilly is a different beast than hannity and co imo, I like him most of the time.

Re: What\'s your opinion on Michael Moore?
 

He said the government is efficient at giving his father his social security check every month, and that this is proof that America could handle a completely public health care system with the private system removed.

Yeah.

Re: What\'s your opinion on Michael Moore?
 

Meh, he is a bit of a clown, but entertaining nonetheless.

Re: What\'s your opinion on Michael Moore?
 

he should die a horrible death.

Re: What\'s your opinion on Michael Moore?
 

I'm with Dids. I'm generally liberal, and I do appreciate that Moore is attempting to bring up discussion about important topics. However, he goes about it so poorly that it doesn't do any good. His films are so biased and ridiculous in many spots that the only people who agree with them agreed with them long before. He's not going to convince anyone who initially disagreed. So what's the point? It's like masturbation for the ultra-left.

Re: What\'s your opinion on Michael Moore?
 

[ QUOTE ]
sirio,

I'm a fan. I think some people hate him because they feel like he's pretending to be an impartial journalist. But he's not. He's a documentary filmmaker with a very strong point of view. Obviously he spins his work in a manner that supports the points he is trying to make.

[/ QUOTE ]

In other words, he lies. Yep, I see why you like him.

Re: What\'s your opinion on Michael Moore?
 

I agree with the guy on a lot of stuff about Iraq and the current administration, but he does a pretty awful job of getting his message across. I want to say he's the Coulter or Hannity of the left, but I don't think he's as purely evil a person as those two, more just an overzealous doofus. I remember seeing him on Letterman around the time Fahrenheit 9/11 came out and Letterman (who, btw, is one of the toughest and best interviewers in the business) absolutely destroyed him. He was unable to give a straight answer to any question - it was cringe-inducing to watch. Also, I disagree with him on a lot of other stuff such as his views on gun control and big corporations. So, yeah, not a fan.

Re: What\'s your opinion on Michael Moore?
 

Mostly with Dids.

I can't stand him and think he does more harm to the 'cause' than good. I pretty much think he needs to shut the hell up.

Heard a couple of conservative commentators say that Fahrenheit 911 was one of those movies that all liberals who agreed with the POV were obviously going to like.

Well, I mostly agree with the POV, and I was never in favor of this war, but I was really disappointed in how really really bad Fahrenheit 911 was.

Re: What\'s your opinion on Michael Moore?
 

[ QUOTE ]
As a lefty, I wish he'd shut the hell up. He's not helping.

1- I think his point of view is often pretty simple minded. Too much of what he says/does is for shock value, and it kills any meaninful point he's trying to make. Trying to paint something like Columbine as gun control issue (hint: mental health) is just being exploitive and stupid.

2- I think his econimic point of view is horrible. Roger and Me drove me nuts. Private companies shouldn't have an obligation to keep people employeed. It's government's job to sustain them once a company, in holding to the obligation it has towards it's owners/shareholds has to lay them off to save/make more money. Moore's approash is just goofy and simplistic.

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You don't sound like a lefty....middle of the road dem maybe, but lefty?

Re: What\'s your opinion on Michael Moore?
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
As a lefty, I wish he'd shut the hell up. He's not helping.

1- I think his point of view is often pretty simple minded. Too much of what he says/does is for shock value, and it kills any meaninful point he's trying to make. Trying to paint something like Columbine as gun control issue (hint: mental health) is just being exploitive and stupid.

2- I think his econimic point of view is horrible. Roger and Me drove me nuts. Private companies shouldn't have an obligation to keep people employeed. It's government's job to sustain them once a company, in holding to the obligation it has towards it's owners/shareholds has to lay them off to save/make more money. Moore's approash is just goofy and simplistic.

[/ QUOTE ]

You don't sound like a lefty....middle of the road dem maybe, but lefty?

[/ QUOTE ]

Private companies shouldn't have an obligation to keep people employeed. It's government's job to sustain them once a company, in holding to the obligation it has towards it's owners/shareholds has to lay them off to save/make more money.



Thats pretty commie.

Re: What\'s your opinion on Michael Moore?
 

[ QUOTE ]
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So did Leni Riefenstahl.

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Come on, now. Sure, Michael Moore might be a propagandist, but the point of view he's espousing isn't fascism and genocide.


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Neither did Riefenstahl. In fact, what she did was glorify Hitler and the Nazis, presenting them in a positive light. All Moore does is demonize his enemies. In that respect, Moore is a hack, it's easy to demonize, glorification, that takes an artist.

Re: What\'s your opinion on Michael Moore?
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
So did Leni Riefenstahl.

[/ QUOTE ]

Come on, now. Sure, Michael Moore might be a propagandist, but the point of view he's espousing isn't fascism and genocide.

Personally, I think he's a loudmouth and a hypocrite (there's a fair amount of information out there about how he's treated his employees / people on his shoots). Politically I happen to agree with a lot of what he says and I'm glad that somebody's saying it, but he could do a much better job. His attack on an obviously senile Charlton Heston made me squirm.

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First thing hitler did when in power was outlaw guns.

Re: What\'s your opinion on Michael Moore?
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
As a lefty, I wish he'd shut the hell up. He's not helping.

1- I think his point of view is often pretty simple minded. Too much of what he says/does is for shock value, and it kills any meaninful point he's trying to make. Trying to paint something like Columbine as gun control issue (hint: mental health) is just being exploitive and stupid.

2- I think his econimic point of view is horrible. Roger and Me drove me nuts. Private companies shouldn't have an obligation to keep people employeed. It's government's job to sustain them once a company, in holding to the obligation it has towards it's owners/shareholds has to lay them off to save/make more money. Moore's approash is just goofy and simplistic.

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You don't sound like a lefty....middle of the road dem maybe, but lefty?

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm more fiscally conservative that a lot of lefties, but probably more socially liberal. Fiscally I think the fringe of the left wing is just out to lunch and painfully unpragmatic. Also the point that I didn't expand upon is that I'm into massive government regulation and taxation of big business.

I also think people like Moore and Hannity do a lot to make this country a [censored] place, because they tend to just make reasonable dialog impossible with all the bluster, [censored], and dishonesty.

Re: What\'s your opinion on Michael Moore?
 

I'm probably the most far right wing nut job on this forum, so you know what I think.

Having said that, I wish, we conservatives had our version of "Michael Moore." Hopefully we can find someone who is not oppossed to creative editing and who is in favor of trying to destroy people and employers.

Lastly, I'm not going to be one of those people who judge "Sicko" without seeing it, (I won't see it), but I don't understand the idea of going to Cuba, and holding up their communist health care system as an idea to emmulate. How many world leaders travel to Cuba for treatment? You know how all of those Cubans risk their lives on flimsy rafts trying to get to America? Perhaps Moore will go down to South Florida and tell those boat refugees that they are wrong, and convince them to turn around and paddle back to Cuba's "wonderful" system.

But like I said, I wish we had our own "Michael Moore" that the media would fall all over for. That would be great.

Re: What\'s your opinion on Michael Moore?
 

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I'm probably the most far right wing nut job on this forum, so you know what I think.

[/ QUOTE ]

So... Colorado Springs, huh?

Re: What\'s your opinion on Michael Moore?
 

[ QUOTE ]
I'm probably the most far right wing nut job on this forum, so you know what I think.

Having said that, I wish, we conservatives had our version of "Michael Moore." Hopefully we can find someone who is not oppossed to creative editing and who is in favor of trying to destroy people and employers.

Lastly, I'm not going to be one of those people who judge "Sicko" without seeing it, (I won't see it), but I don't understand the idea of going to Cuba, and holding up their communist health care system as an idea to emmulate. How many world leaders travel to Cuba for treatment? You know how all of those Cubans risk their lives on flimsy rafts trying to get to America? Perhaps Moore will go down to South Florida and tell those boat refugees that they are wrong, and convince them to turn around and paddle back to Cuba's "wonderful" system.

But like I said, I wish we had our own "Michael Moore" that the media would fall all over for. That would be great.

[/ QUOTE ]
Coors,
The right has plenty of people who do their own creative editing(Bush,Fox News,Coulter, etc).
World leaders don't go to Cuba for medical treatment because they can afford the best. Michael Moore is trying to point out how f-ed up our medical/pharmacutical industry is. He's not saying to emmulate the Cuban system, but for some poor/uninsured people, going to Cuba or another country for treatment may be their only alternative. The fact that 40+ million people in this country do not have health insurance is a disgrace.

Re: What\'s your opinion on Michael Moore?
 

Banks,

President Bush doesn't make movies, and even if he did, CNN, MSNB, NY Times, etc would rip him to shreads, whereas they drool over Michael Moore's every move.

And I don't think that government should hand us all free health insurance. What's next? Free auto insurance? Free home owners insurance? The money has to come from somewhere, and we didn't get to be the greatest country on Earth by emmulating communisim.

Speaking of communism/capitalism, I hope that Moore will take some of the millions he has made by tearing down people, government servants, and employers and donate it to Catholic hospital charities. That would be a pleasant surprise.

Re: What\'s your opinion on Michael Moore?
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I'm probably the most far right wing nut job on this forum, so you know what I think.

[/ QUOTE ]

So... Colorado Springs, huh?

[/ QUOTE ]

No. Bunch of hippy tree huggers there. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Re: What\'s your opinion on Michael Moore?
 

Wow, I was right, I'm in the minority (at least here on 2p2).

But my theory is the hate of the guy has more to do with the "liberal" media hating him and of course the beeeeee crowd just repeating what they hear, than with his documentary techniques (or claims about being dishonest). Since hardly any of the haters is an expert on the field (or have done any research for that matter) , and the real experts in the field, keep awarding him prize after prize; they don't seem to care about Michael's supposedly dishonest methods.

It's seems also really weird to me the passion for the "truth" and "honesty" of some of the haters. If we'd have more people with such passion in this country, a lot (and I mean A LOT) of people will be alive today instead of dead in some useless war. It's like life portrayed in a documentary is more important to them than the real life.

Re: What\'s your opinion on Michael Moore?
 

I obv haven't seen Sicko but I think it's pretty obvious the point Moore is trying to make. Not that the USA should emulate Cuba in any way, rather, how pathetic is it that a 3rd world country, communist or otherwise, has a health care system that is even comperable to the US? Let alone better is some aspects! That it's Cuba, perhaps the most hated country in the world from the government's perspective just drives the point home harder.


I think all this misses the real point.

Why does Michael Moore even have a platform at all?

Television news has becomes so useless and so toothless that the marketplace has corrected itself. Documentaries having any sort of cultural force in the movie industry was unheard of 25 years ago. Now we have Moore, Fast Food Nation, The Corporation... All these documentaries suddely breaking through commercially. Why? And we also have shows like The Daily Show/Colbert Report and Penn & Teller's [censored]. Fake news is nothing new, but did anyone every actually consider Chevy Chase's Week-end Update on SNL a viable news alternative?

Unconventional news is obviously becoming more and more important. The obvious reason why is that conventional news sources suck.

25 years ago, it would have been 60 Minutes or Walter Cronkite, not Michael Moore and they would have done a far better job of it. America now has three 24hr news cable channels and none of them hold a candle to The CBS Evening News of 25 years ago. Or hell, Edward R. Murrow fifty years ago.

These documentaries benefit by not being hamstrung by corporate news policies and corporate news budgets. That is why they're appearing in movie theatres. However, this is a double edged sword because when they are driven by a singular personality like Michael Moore they also don't benefit from the kind of oversight and editing that a proper newsroom structure brings. Nobody is telling Michael Moore when he's crossing the line or to doublecheck his facts. This is both a blessing and a curse.

Re: What\'s your opinion on Michael Moore?
 

Bottom line is, more than most, I think the issue of corporate accountability in this country is important enough to Moore worth it despite all these shortcomings.

Also if you look at any kind of movement, you need a carrot and a stick. A bad cop. W/o Malcom X do you think MLK would have won nearly as many concessions? Or say someone like Gloria Steinem and Andrea Dworkin to come along before Madonna made girl power cool? I bet there was some Indian terrorist dude that made Gandhi's life a lot easier. Anyway for liberals, Moore is your bad cop. Like it or not, you need him on that wall. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Re: What\'s your opinion on Michael Moore?
 

Selected text aboutbout his latest movie taken from from Wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicko

Michael Moore accompanies a number of rescue workers injured after the World Trade Center attacks of 2001 to the U.S. Guantanamo Bay detainment camp (an American territory) to ask for health care for the 9/11 responders. When unable to receive care there, they move on to Havana, Cuba, so that they can receive medical treatment they would otherwise not be able to afford.

Fox News called Sicko "brilliant and uplifting" with Moore showing a heightened "maturity" in a film that "never talks down or baits the audience."

Re: What\'s your opinion on Michael Moore?
 

Political Opinions: Agree with him 65% of the time; the rest he goes overboard

Delivering Message: I think he succeeds about 45% of the time; sometimes he's on the nose, other times he's just annoying and even pisses off his supporters

Filmmaking ability: Extremely talented. I think it's obvious he knows how to make an entertaining, exceptionally well-crafted piece of documentary cinema. Whether it's biased, whether or not you agree, whether or not you're offended, you really can't dismiss his talent at manipulating sound, image, and emotion. I wish more people -- especially those who hate him -- would at least acknowledge what I think is pretty goddam obvious filmmaking talent.

Furthermore, I think if he wrote and edited a scripted comedy film -- where even politics was swept under the carpet -- it would be very good.

Unfortunately, people seem to conflate his ideas with his technical ability and are unable to separate the two to criticize one and praise the other.

Re: What\'s your opinion on Michael Moore?
 

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His movies are not accurate documentaries. They are usually designed to show something (that he is against) through a highly sensationalized effort, depicting all sorts of clown acts.

This makes for good entertainment. I have only seen two movies, and was a huge fan of Bowling; it was very funny in its own way. Almost as if it was a drama version of Borat. Fahrenheit was uber lame. I was totally let down b/c he stepped back from the "funny stuff" and was actually making an attempt for the movie to be "credible".

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I agree with statements above. But disagree with this:

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Do I hate the guy? Yes. Why? B/c he is pretending. He is pretending that his work is important; that his views should be taken seriously. IRL, he is a clown b/c of this. If he would say "these are just movies that portray my exaggerated opinion on things" my respect for him would be 10x more.

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I don't hate him at all. Anyone with a brain can see where he comes from.

Fahrenheit was what it was because Moore tried to make people to vote whoever was against Bush.

Majority of people are brainwashed puppets who blindly believe in random preacher they've chosen. Moore was trying to re-brainwash these puppets with the same tools his opponents have been successfully using for ages.

Re: What\'s your opinion on Michael Moore?
 

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Private companies shouldn't have an obligation to keep people employeed. It's government's job to sustain them once a company, in holding to the obligation it has towards it's owners/shareholds has to lay them off to save/make more money.



Thats pretty commie.

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The definition of lefty is pretty different in the US than here in Europe, but believing in a basic welfare system, in this instance the government paying a minimal unemployment benefit (?) is commie?