By Owen Gleiberman. Chief Film Critic. The films of Michael Moore have been faltering at the box office for several years now. It was a special moment, of course. It symbolizes that Moore is no longer defining the dialogue. I know his message already. Not the content but the execution. He needs to decide if he wants to rectify that. The Internet has fractured how we get our information. The movie itself felt like a loaded weapon. A number of viewers hated his ambush of Charlton Heston, but in that moment I felt that Moore revealed the hypocrisy of gun advocates.
A generation of liberal viewers grew up with Michael Moore, but it may well be that they no longer go out to the movies. At least, not in the way they once did. It feels like the audio-visual equivalent of the reductio ad Hitlerum: the all-too-common argumentative fallacy that seeks to derail argumentation with rushed comparisons to Adolf Hitler.
Hitchens called Moore an opportunist. Calling out media manipulation by Trump, Obama and the DNC feels slightly dishonest in a film that thrives on similarly seductive sensations. But for Moore at least, such sensations are features, rather than bugs. While an upswing in DSA membership may seem encouraging, Moore believes he still commands the authority to help draw a bigger tent.
Movies Does the world still need Michael Moore? Joseph Communications uses cookies for personalization, to customize its online advertisements, and for other purposes.
Learn more or change your cookie preferences. By continuing to use our service, you agree to our use of cookies. We use cookies why? Give Wendell Potter a call. We wanted conservatives in particular to believe Moore was out of step with American values, and we wanted Democratic lawmakers to distance themselves from him. Our pollster had recently told us that a majority of Americans now believed the government should take on the responsibility of controlling the cost of health care and making sure everybody had access to it.
There had been a significant shift in public opinion since his last poll. Insurers had never been popular, but most people had always assumed we were necessary. Now they were questioning that assumption. SiCKO , we worried, would lead to growing and widespread support for a single-payer health care system. Sure enough, the day after the Sacramento screening and a rally held by single-payer advocates just before it, our PR firm activated the front group.
This was its opening salvo:. Health Care America, a non-partisan, nonprofit health care advocacy organization, released the following statement in response to a California rally held by Michael Moore and a variety of advocates in support of a government takeover of our health care system. The reality is that government-run health systems around the world are failing patients—forcing them to forgo treatments or seek out-of-pocket care in other countries. Another part of our strategy was focused on the Democrats in Congress that our industry had supported with campaign contributions.
The message to them, to be delivered discretely by our lobbyists, was a warning: if you support Michael Moore, the industry will back your opponent next time. He reminds viewers of the apparently enlightened and free-thinking historical context into which Adolf Hitler stepped, less than a century ago, and his thesis is clear: It — meaning the dehumanization of large groups of citizens and devotion to a charismatic strongman leader — can happen here, and it may already have happened.
It backfired , but the wheels started turning. Still, whenever he steps out of the way and hands over the microphone to those without household name recognition, Moore is an effective filmmaker.
With their aid, Moore weaves a tapestry not of hope, but optimistic outrage. But it has no interest in doing that. Instead, the film concentrates on not letting its more natural audience off easy. Do we need more outrage in ? Moore thinks America does need more outrage — but more focused outrage.
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