Michael Moore

Michael Francis Moore (born April 23, 1954) is an American film director, author and social commentator. He is widely known for his outspoken and critical views of corporations and the Bush administration.

Controversy and criticism

Moore's body of work has attracted a great deal of criticism and praise, especially after the release of his film Fahrenheit 9/11 in 2004. While it gathered generally favorable reviews from movie critics http://www.metacritic.com/video/titles/fahrenheit911, some opponents described the film as a deceptive and inaccurate portrayal of the U.S. government. Moore set up a rebuttal "war room" http://www.michaelmoore.com/warroom/index.php to support the content in Fahrenheit 9/11 and counter criticisms http://www.davekopel.com/Terror/Fiftysix-Deceits-in-Fahrenheit-911.htm.

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Similar accusations of deceptive editing, staging or scripting scenes, or altering the original intent of the speaker in the video have also been made about Moore's film Bowling for Columbine http://www.nationalreview.com/kopel/kopel040403.asp. In Bowling for Columbine, on-screen text was allegedly altered in a Bush-Quayle campaign ad, and footage edited into it from a non-campaign ad, in order to make it seem racist. Moore denied that this was done in the film, but is said to have slightly corrected the text for the DVD release. http://www.spinsanity.org/post.html?2003_08_31_archive.html#10624779059990811

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Ray Bradbury has also complained about Moore's adaptation of his Fahrenheit 451 title without permission http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5324876/, calling him a "screwed asshole." However, such permission is not legally required and Bradbury himself is the author of several books whose titles are taken from works by other writers.

Related Topics:
Ray Bradbury - Fahrenheit 451

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Two of Moore's former associates, a former employee and a former manager, claim he is "false in all his dealings" and "money-obsessed" http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,6903,1222496,00.html. He has been criticized for the large public speaking fees he receives. In one well-publicized instance, Moore received a $10,000 honorarium for an appearance at Cornell University http://www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicle/02/4.11.02/Michael_Moore.html. One former Cornell student who was critical of Moore presented him with an oversized fake check in that amount after his speech as a publicity stunt. He then shouted to the audience that Moore had made more money off of this one speech than many teaching paraprofessionals make in an entire year, which prompted an angry response from Moore: "Motherfucker ... You come down with your check making a big-ass statement. ... I give this money away to organizations I support" http://www.cornelldailysun.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2002/04/04/108143300540755badd4cd6?in_archive=1.

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Another stop he made in Utah was met with similar fervor, a lawsuit was filed to prevent him from receiving his $50,000 payment from school funds and a bribe was offered to buy all the tickets back and cancel the event. Both the lawsuit and the bribe was chronicled in the documentary film This Divided State. Moore later received large speaking fees from the University of Texas ($25,000) and Kansas University ($30,000) for which he was highly criticized by campus Republican groups http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2003/oct/30/possible_moore_visit/. Defenders of Moore call these accusations hypocritical, pointing out that public figures of Moore's stature (including some of his critics) are often paid similar honorariums by sponsors for their appearances and very few of them are on record as having donated the money to the causes they support http://www.allamericanspeakers.com/sportspeakers/Celebrity_Personal_Appearance.php.

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Moore has also been criticized for his alleged insensitivity to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He called the plane passengers who died in the attacks "a bunch of scaredy-cats" http://www.rightwingnews.com/reader/mooreclue.php. Moore's defenders maintain that his comments were taken out of context.

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With Moore's success, there have been many works criticising his books and films. These include the films Michael Moore Hates America, Celsius 41.11, and FahrenHYPE 9/11.

Related Topics:
Michael Moore Hates America - Celsius 41.11 - FahrenHYPE 9/11

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Some groups, such as the conservative evangelical Christian group Focus on the Family, urged a letter writing campaign directed at Michael Moore and published his home address in a July 2004 newsletter.

Related Topics:
Conservative - Evangelical - Christian - Focus on the Family

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On September 12th, 2001, the day after the September 11th terrorist attacks against New York City and Washington, DC, Michael Moore posted a message on his website that included the passage (since redacted from the message on the site): "Many families have been devastated tonight. This just is not right. They did not deserve to die. If someone did this to get back at Bush, then they did so by killing thousands of people who DID NOT VOTE for him! Boston, New York, DC, and the planes' destination of California — these were places that voted AGAINST Bush!" This has been interpreted by some critics as Moore implying that an attack against areas that had voted for Bush would have been justifiable. These same critics have pointed out that, at a time when the people of the United States, including both major political parties, were coming together following the attacks, Moore was still focused on the electoral politics of 2000.

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A recent controversy surrounds Michael Moore's public comments about the Iraq insurgency and terrorists. In a memo released on his personal website, Moore said "The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not 'insurgents' or 'terrorists' or 'The Enemy'. They are the REVOLUTION, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow — and they will win. Get it, Mr. Bush?" The Minutemen were a group of elite militia in the 18th century that participated in the American Revolution as well as other conflicts in pre-Revolution America on the side of the British.

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In their book Michael Moore Is a Big Fat Stupid White Man, David T. Hardy and Jason Clarke criticize Moore for, they allege, being untruthful in his film productions, especially with respect to Bowling for Columbine (the book's release predated Fahrenheit 9/11). Their allegation is that he primarily includes interviews and speeches that are heavily edited to create a negative image of the subject being portrayed and present misleading or false facts. http://www.hardylaw.net/hestonfilming.html They also devote a chapter to their assertion, based on Moore's public behavior, that he has Narcissistic Personality Disorder, though they admit that they "have neither a background in psychiatry nor an opportunity to interview the patient". http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=14207

Related Topics:
Michael Moore Is a Big Fat Stupid White Man - David T. Hardy - Jason Clarke - Narcissistic Personality Disorder

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Oscar acceptance speech

When Moore accepted the Oscar for Bowling for Columbine, he created a stir when he took the opportunity to state his point of view on President George W. Bush having started the 2003 invasion of Iraq:

Related Topics:
George W. Bush - 2003 invasion of Iraq

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:"Whoa. On behalf of our producers Kathleen Glynn and Michael Donovan from Canada, I'd like to thank the Academy for this. I have invited my fellow documentary nominees on the stage with us, and we would like to — they're here in solidarity with me because we like nonfiction."

Related Topics:
Kathleen Glynn - Michael Donovan - This

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:"We like nonfiction and we live in fictitious times. We live in the time where we have fictitious election results that elects a fictitious president. We live in a time where we have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons. Whether it's the fictition of duct tape or fictition of orange alerts, we are against this war, Mr. Bush. Shame on you, Mr. Bush, shame on you. And any time you got the Pope and the Dixie Chicks against you, your time is up. Thank you very much."

Related Topics:
Duct tape - Orange alerts - This war - Pope - Dixie Chicks

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The televised speech was met with a mixture of boos and applause from the audience. In a backstage interview with Moore afterwards, he claimed that the majority of the audience was cheering. Moore repeated the part of his speech that had been cut short due to the orchestra starting to play music and his microphone being turned off, and gave the reason "I'm an American" in defense of his choice of acceptance speech. In commentary included on the DVD for Columbine, Moore indicated that the majority of the audience were cheering for him, prompting one or two boos from audience members, and that further booing was actually Moore's supporters responding to the one or two detractors who had become vocal in the audience.

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When the host, Steve Martin, returned to the stage after Moore's speech, he joked: "It was so sweet backstage, the Teamsters are helping Michael Moore into the trunk of his limo." http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2003/03/23/state2309EST0088.DTL

Related Topics:
Steve Martin - Teamsters

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Depictions of Moore

In the 2004 satire film ', a marionette representation of Moore surfaces as a suicide bomber who blows up Team America's headquarters inside Mount Rushmore. He is later described as a 'giant socialist weasel'. One of the makers of the film, Matt Stone, later stated that this representation was in response to Moore's placement of a South Park-style animation after an interview with Stone in Moore's film Bowling for Columbine. They opined that this created the false impression that Stone (and his colleague Trey Parker, who together are popular largely through being the creators of South Park) created the animation, which he saw as "retarded." Stone later states that he does not "really hate the guy". http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2005/01/13/matt_stone_team_america_interview.shtml

Related Topics:
2004 - Satire - Marionette - Suicide bomber - Mount Rushmore - Socialist - Weasel - Matt Stone - South Park - Bowling for Columbine - Trey Parker

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In an episode of the television show Arrested Development, 'The One Where Michael Leaves', an unnamed obese documentary film maker approaches Lucile asking if she would enlist her son in the military. Michael Moore asked the same question in Fahrenheit 9/11, except the responses he received were "no".

Related Topics:
Arrested Development - Fahrenheit 9/11

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The 2004 Academy Awards opened with a satirical short film in which the host, Billy Crystal, re-enacted the most memorable scenes of 2004. Moore was depicted holding a camera amidst a battle (the Battle of the Pelennor Fields from ' film), and shouting, "Stop this war. Shame on you hobbits, shame on you. This is a fictitious war. This war was not elected by the populace."

Related Topics:
2004 Academy Awards - Billy Crystal - 2004 - Battle of the Pelennor Fields - Hobbits

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MADtv comedian Paul Vogt is noted for his impersonations of Moore. In a 2003 skit, entitled "Bowling for Christmas", http://www.slimindustries.com/mary_exmus/moore/ Vogt as Moore angrily accuses Christmas shoppers of supporting terrorism and Santa Claus of exploiting child labor. In each scene the inscription on Moore's baseball cap gets progressively more self-righteous: "Hero", "Saint", "Martyr".

Related Topics:
MADtv - Comedian - Paul Vogt - Impersonation - 2003 - Christmas - Santa Claus - Child labor

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Moore lent his voice to a parody of himself on The Simpsons; he was depicted as showing up to Springfield Elementary School in support of a student strike. When interviewed by Kent Brockman, he offered statistics and then got belligerent when Brockman asked him for the statistics' source as proof of their accuracy. http://download.lardlad.com/sounds/season15/president31.mp3

Related Topics:
The Simpsons - Springfield Elementary School - Strike - Kent Brockman

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The British television programme Dead Ringers featured a segment in its 2004 "US election special" entitled "Michael Moore takes on Michael Moore," in which a Michael Moore impersonator satirises Moore's documentary style and approach.

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Despite the controversy surrounding Moore and his work, he has had great critical and financial success as a filmmaker and writer. His films Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11 debuted as the highest-grossing feature-length non-music nonfiction films of all time, the latter making over $120 million. Bowling for Columbine won the Oscar for Best Documentary as well as the first unanimous Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes, and Fahrenheit 9/11 won the People's Choice Award for Favorite Motion Picture (an unprecedented honor for a documentary film), as well as the Palme d'Or Best Picture at the Cannes Film Festival.

Related Topics:
Oscar - Cannes - People's Choice Award - Palme d'Or

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In 2005, Moore's home town Davison, MI was so against the controversy behind Moore's work, they decided to close the Davison Hall of Fame to avoid having to allow Michael Moore in. This sparked support for Moore, usually resulting in a number of 'City of Michael Moore' signs in Davison. The City has voiced dissent of these signs, and some residents have replaced them with "Davison City Limit" signs.

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