© 2009 Front Street Productions, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

In 1995, I saw CANADIAN BACON at Cannes. That movie was Michael Moore's first (and only?) work of fiction; a comedy about the USA starting a war against Canada (a plot that was later stolen for the SOUTH PARK movie). Moore himself introduced the movie, which I remember as pretty funny. Back then, I had no idea who Michael Moore was.
    A couple of years later, I saw Moore's first film, ROGER & ME (1989) on TV or video, and in 2002, BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE was released. Once again I saw it at Cannes, and except for the scenes where Moore made use of a very ill Charlton Heston, I thought the movie was very, very good. This is of course because I agree with Moore on America's and the Americans' strange attitude to guns.
    But with FAHRENHEIT 9/11, it wasn't fun anymore. It was now obvious that Michael Moore fakes huge chunks of his movies. Scenes are arranged and directed, and the movies are edited in a way that makes half truths become the virtual truths. This is extra clear in FAHRENHEIT 9/11.
    I wouldn't want to call Moore's movies "documentaries". Since Moore himself appears the the movies all the time, since he's the interviewer and does the voice over, and since he keeps on presenting his own opionions and ideas, his movies are more like propaganda. If you agree with Moore, you probably think the man is great - like in the case of BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE - but if you don't and/or see through him and his reports, he becomes quite irritating and unpleasant. If somebody had made a movie about George W. Bush being a great guy, using the same tricks as Moore uses, the director and the movie would have been burned at the stake if screened for example at the Cannes festival.
    I haven't seen 2007's SICKO, about medical care in the U.S., but now I've caught Moore's latest film; CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY. The movie is sort of a sequel to ROGER & ME, that was about General Motors. Once again, poor working class families are affected by the financial crisis, by mighty, giant corporations, people get brutally evicted, and creepy estate agents and similar creeps make big money on the situations of the losers.
   Hav Since Moore's technique became so obvious in FAHRENHEIT 9/11, I was questioning most of the scenes and situations in CAPITALISM. Is this really true? Is the interviewee lying? Have they discussed what to say before the camera rolls? Is it filmed on actual location, or is it arranged? How come Moore is visiting - and filming - a family's home 30 days before they are to be evicted, when the sheriff and his men suddenly break into the kitchen to throw them out in the street earlier than agreed upon?
    Most of what's said and shown in the movie is of course true. But as I wrote above: I don't trust the man. Moore may be a skilful filmmaker and CAPITALISM is pieced together with great skill, but because of its one-eyed, naive view of the world, this isn't a movie I would recommend. In Europe, Bush made it popular among kids to hate America, and maybe these kids will appreciate the movie.

© 2009 Front Street Productions, LLC. All Rights Reserved.