June 27, 2004

• It should be "Socko boffo box-office smasharooni", guy. Get it right. :P
• 9/11 = .8181818181818181........ not too hot on the Farhenheit scale, but I went to see it and had a good time. Didn't bring up much info that anyone paying attention to the BBC and NPR didn't already know. A manipulative propaganda film that will be good for America and not hurt Mr. Moore's pocketbook.
• The audience clapped a great deal at the end - audiences here rarely clap. It produced a strangely excited crowd which perhaps illustrates the references to Leni Rehfenstahl that we've been hearing. Of course, this is only bad if it's misleading - which Fahrenheit 9/11 was not: it is a well researched film. I was pleased that people were watching a film which featured some low quality video clips and moments of complete darkness. In many ways one of its artistic qualities is that it respects its audience honestly, by using visual preparation that is not usually seen in mainstream cinema.
• niccolo - The audience clapped at the end where I saw it too. Yet I found myself the only one laughing at many points. The references to Riefenstahl are on - and off - the mark. She made promotional films for a proto dictator while Moore is trying to unseat one. Riefenstahl had high quality, innovative shots to make the subject look good; Moore has low quality (cropped TV video) on the subjects he wants to look bad, and high res on the people he wants to look good. I am impressed that a mainstream cineplex in Springfield, Oregon, of all places, would have this on opening day. Well worth viewing, but for people who were paying attention the last four years, Moore provided little they had not heard.
• Steveno, My comparison to Riefenstahl was moreso directed at the 'feeling' expressed by the film. This kind of righteous excitement expressed here in Canada is not often seen with our slow moving politics. Riefenstahl is definitely more of a filmmaker than Moore - Moore seems less interested in directing as an art and more in the message. It's interesting also about the laughter. Here, of course, there was a great deal of laughing: anything Bush said, even if it wasn't funny was laughed at. However, to some people who have been directly affected by the war, and citizens of the USA, Bush's actions illustrated in the film are probably not funny at all, but horrifying or maybe even irrelevant.
• I too felt that there wasn't much that we hadn't heard over the last two years, but: (A) most of America apparently hasn't heard some of it and (B) the people I saw it with all agreed that it's nice to have it on the record and presented in one format to the public. Have you all heard about Michael Moore Hates America?
• Wow. The movie is the top grossing Documentary of all time, after only one weekend. Still not quite in Passion territory, but i wouldn't be at all surprised to see Moore pushing extremely hard to keep this in theatres all the way through november (since a DVD release can't turn around that fast)...
• Oh my Psyko Captain, it is not that hard to get a DVD out quickly, it just wouldn't happen since the film is making so much money at the box office. Since this is so topical, it might make sense to buck the typical marketing structure of putting out a feature film and release this on DVD while the film is still in the theaters. Admittedly, not something you often see, but then again, there is a history of films going to cable quickly after their theatrical release. He could get this out to cable and DVD release while it is still in theaters, but it would be almost impossible to get it on broadcast television due to rules that limit "political advertising" and the current administration would argue that this film is just that, even though Moore never advocates for a specific candidate (Kerry or Nader) just against Bush.
• "Uncovered" came out on DVD first, and will be in theaters later this summer.
• ... 8181818181818181818181818181 ...
• I bet the DVD will be out before the November election even if Michael Moore needs to pay off Lions Gate to make it happen. People who might not bother going to the theatre to see it would probably snatch it off the video store rental shelf. It also will lose it's value after the election except as an "I told you so" piece.
• It also will lose it's value after the election except as an "I told you so" piece. Don't forget posterity.
• Uncovered is a very good film, rich with information. Far richer with factual content than 9/11, but sorely lacking in a several key elements in Moore's film. I believe this was posted somewhere else regarding Michael Moore on Monkey Filter, but one thing Moore's film has is humor. Moore, like his right wing analogs (Rush, O'Reiley, et al) recognizes that "a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down". I myself can not stomach Rush and his ilk for long, but he is a master of whipping the right wing into a lather and Michael Moore knows how to do that on the left in spades. Moore is funny. He cuts the film so that every time Bush comes on screen you want to both scream and laugh out loud. Of course there are many times you want to cry and this is what Uncovered lacks as well, i.e. the connection with "real Americans" who have suffered at the hands of W and his minions. Unlike Uncovered which has well intentioned wonks with reams of info that dissect the policies of Bush the 2nd, Moore has peopled his film with regular folks who have been been screwed and screwed good by this administration. Or at least that is what you are left with when you leave the theater. As was posted earlier in this thread, most folks who follow news sources other than Fox have heard about most of Moore’s accusations, it’s just that they haven’t been presented where someone has put it all together with the dots all connected for your viewing pleasure. So far, it appears that the best the right can do is do character assassinations on Moore but his facts seem to be holding up quite well. I myself am enjoying myself watching this administration’s melt down. Couldn’t happen to a nicer group of people.
• it just wouldn't happen since the film is making so much money at the box office. This is waht i was referring to. I know how easy it is to just manufacture a DVD. But, Fahrenheit will obviously be going strong in theatres at least through September. probably longer. That means that turning around a DVD would be, in the eyes of most studios, a financial impossibility.
• So far, it appears that the best the right can do is do character assassinations on Moore but his facts seem to be holding up quite well. Yup I've gotta agree with that. Saw it last night, came home, spent till three in the yAwnM trying to research the other side's take on this film with an open, open mind. What took the longest is trying to get back to the original sources--NYT, WP, etc. and to look up exact quotes. Gee whiz, guess what? Moore has an agenda. Pretty obvious one, too. Gee whiz, guess what? Moore has his ducks in a row on this one. Looks like the right will have to rely on telling us what an SOB he is in an effort to distract from what's being said. Worth seeing. Funny and horrific film. How did we let things get to this point?
• Steveno: I noticed that husband and I laughed in spots others didn't also--and various people also cracked up at things we probably missed or didn't connect with. Some of my laughter was the juxtaposition of what was on the screen with things I had read or seen previously. Niccolo: The Big Duh is certainly not portrayed in a flattering light. Hard for an audience not to be prepared to laugh when a buffoon comes on stage. The fella next to me (stranger) cracked up at one point when Duh was saying nothing particularly funny, then turned to me and said, "If I didn't laugh, I'd either cry or get a gun and shoot the SOB." The movie showed in Boise's "arty" theater down by the University, and the crowd appeared to be 1/3 students, 2/3 older, fairly conservative folks, and there seemed to be a lot of discussion about the movie among different groups both going in and coming out.
• I'd love to get a breakdown of box office reciepts region by region, or better yet, theater by theater just to get a pulse of how many people are going to this film in the "blue" and "red" states. Any of you monkeys have access to this info?
• I must see this. I don't care for Moore, much as I sympathize with his politics, but I really want to go. And I've harped on this here before, but I'm gonna do it again: go see The Hunting of the President, if it's playing in your town. Even better, read the book on which the film was based.
• Thank you Captain for finally getting this thread On Topic. I, for one, found Mal Gharibson's movie "Flaming Jesus" to be offensive, misleading, grossly offensive, needlessly and extremely violent, unbelievably offensive and also I was offended by it. Furthermore, Glibson is a certifiable lunatic with major religous (and therefore likely) parental issues and 400 million dollars. Also his "Curly" imitation on the Simpsons was pretty funny.
• That means that turning around a DVD would be, in the eyes of most studios, a financial impossibility. Hardly. Turn around time from box office hit to DVD is about 5 months, factor in the "sell by" date, and you have a DVD in October.
• Digby makes an excellent point.

  They are perfectly right that the same exact thing may very well be happening here. But, apparently it doesn't occur to these believers in civil discourse that their eliminationist right wing rhetoric of the last decade and a half --- and a president who literally tells us to go fuck ourselves --- is what has spawned this reaction from the left. (Not that I agree that Moore or Move-On say anything close to even a normal day's Limbaugh/Savage blather, but in the interest of making my point I will stipulate that the left is mighty riled up.) They believe they've just been sitting around being polite and restrained and out of the blue the left has come out swinging. This after we moved the party way to the center, gave them a successful moderate republican president for two terms who they then impeached and after they completely disregarded the disputed election returns and governed as if they had a mandate. I mean, I know we Democrats are the mommy party and all, but push mommy far enough and she becomes a screaming bitch on wheels. What did they expect? Republicans seem to have a very serious problem seeing themselves as they appear to others. Perhaps this might give a clue to how we reached the point where liberals are fighting back with everything we have.

  Notice that conservative have ben very quiet about Michael Savage.
• House of Bush, House of Saud author Craig Unger and NewsWeek's Michael Isikoff seem to be having a tiff over details in the movie.
• Moore releasing "Fahrenheit 9/11" DVD shortly before election