Michael Wilson is the writer/producer/director of the 2004 documentary “Michael Moore Hates America,” which received “Two thumbs up” from Ebert & Roeper and glowing reviews from critics everywhere.
Wilson resides in Minnesota with his two children, Kylie and Ben, his girlfriend Jamie, and dog Oscar. He runs a small marketing and production company called Odd Lamps Productions and toils away on small films that he cares about.
He can be reached at screenwritermike@yahoo.com
Michael Wilson
Glenn Beck, CNN, John Nolte, the Canadians and Me
by Michael WilsonJohn Nolte, the Editor-in-Chief of Big Hollywood emailed me last night and asked if I had any interest in doing a piece about The Onion wishing Glenn Beck dead in this video. At first, I thought maybe it was a job for Wolf Blitzer, but then remembered that Glenn is “somewhat” reviled at CNN and they might not fact-check a bit on him. But I felt compelled to write for two reasons: the first is that Glenn and I have a mutual friend who frequently says “the answer to bad speech is more speech,” the second is that John’s request immediately reminded me of a phone call I received from the Canadian Broadcasting Company a few years back. (Bet you didn’t think I could work everything from the headline into one paragraph, did you?)
After I made “Michael Moore Hates America,” I spent several years (and still occasionally) doing interviews for the press on movie stuff. They’d always call me, because, you know, I’m a crazy, angry right-wing nut job and I’d made the only “conservative” documentary any of them had ever heard of. Something controversial would happen in the world of cinema, my phone would ring for a few days and then I’d go back to my life. In one episode, I received a call from the CBC. They wanted to know if I could do a satellite interview with them on an evening news talk show. The topic was the about-to-be-released film “Death of a President” where President George W. Bush was digitally assassinated. (more…)
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I Wish Russell Simmons Were an Atheist
by Michael WilsonRussell Simmons confuses me. He’s one of the finest examples we have of an American kid from the most difficult circumstances imaginable hustling and struggling and pulling himself up by his own bootstraps to create a life for himself that is, in a word, extraordinary. Yet instead of inspiring other poor African American kids who are in the position he once was with his story of hard work and perseverance, Simmons spreads religious silliness and tells those kids to put their hope in government. And last week, he did both at the same time. I wish Simmons were an atheist.
As many of you who frequent this blog know (and often condemn me for), I believe there is no god. That’s quite different from saying “I don’t believe in God.” When I say I believe there is no god, I mean that in this vast universe (or maybe multiverse) I don’t choose to not believe in a god, but that there is no god to not believe in. There’s a distinction, and I’m very certain where I stand. It’s deeply personal to me, and I don’t really begrudge those who choose to believe that an invisible man lives in the sky. Sometimes people need to believe in something more, I suppose, even if it’s not real. And while I recognize I’m in the minority, and I’m happy to argue religion and god with you, I won’t push my thoughts on you unless you ask. But I wish that Russell Simmons could put aside the idea of God or Allah for a while. It would be more honest and it would certainly help a lot more people. (more…)
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Adam McKay, Care to Debate Health Care Reform?
by Michael WilsonDear Adam,
We’ve gone back and forth this week, with me writing here at Big Hollywood and you Tweeting responses. The lastest from @GhostPanther came directly to @Wilson_Michael and you asked me a question. I have an answer, but I think there’s a better way to have this conversation. And that’s what this should be… a conversation that takes place within the arena of ideas.
Adam McKay
This is important stuff and I’m fascinated by how two fellow Americans can see the world so differently. We probably both think we believe in freedom and liberty. We likely both think that we should take care of the poor. I know we both believe everyone should get the very best health care possible. How we get there while keeping our nation free is up for debate.
So let’s do it. Let’s have the debate. I challenge you to debate me on health care reform. (more…)
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UPDATE: Director Adam McKay Strikes Back
by Michael WilsonI have apparently raised the ire of Adam McKay, the rich and powerful film director who brought us “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy” and “Step Brothers.” In a Tweet on Tuesday, McKay says that my last article (about Will Ferrell decrying insurance executives) was “sub-moronic.” He also goes on in that Tweet to say that insurance executives kill 20,000 people a year by denying claims on purpose. My question to McKay: “Are you kidding me?”
Adam McKay
While Adam McKay has been so good at his job at times that he’s left me rolling on the floor unable to breathe, and I think Ferrell is funny as hell, I am astonished that a self-righteous multimillionaire like McKay would tell you that you have to do something by force that he won’t do by choice.
That is cynicism in its purest form. McKay presumes that people are inherently bad and that they must be forced to do what is “good” or “noble” or “decent.” He presumes that human beings are hardwired to be un-compassionate and uncaring. Cynicism is a lie and it’s easy to convince others to be cynics right along with you. You can go on hating your fellow humans and you can all be miserable together, searching for a villain to direct your hate toward (like a CEO). (more…)
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Why Does Will Ferrell Hoard His Money While Children Suffer?
by Michael WilsonWill Ferrell and the fine folks over at “Funny or Die” are picking the low hanging fruit once again. This time they’re going after nameless, faceless “Insurance Executives” in a “satirical” PSA about government-run insurance. But the real comedy is watching a bunch of multimillionaires who do make-believe for a living opine about other people making too much money.
I’m a big fan of comedy. I’m a stand-up junkie, growing up on late-night HBO comedy specials (I’d seen everything Carlin had done by age 11). I got into film making because Kevin Smith made it accessible through foul, filthy and hilarious dialogue that has always hit me where I live. And I don’t believe anything is off limits. It just strikes me as strange that people with extraordinary talent like Ferrell and company would be so off-the-mark with a piece that dives into the political world so deeply. (more…)
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(Perhaps) The Last Words I’ll Write About Michael Moore
by Michael WilsonFor better or worse, I have spent the last six years or so as a “go-to” authority on Michael Moore. In 2002, he said some things about my country that I was hurt by and some things about life that I held to be untrue. I set out to make my first film, a little documentary called “Michael Moore Hates America” and began a journey that would be at times inspiring and disheartening. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people have seen that movie, but I’m now ready to close that chapter of my life with a few words about Mr. Moore and his opus on the death of American capitalism.
In the 1980s, Michael Moore was broke. He saw things he believed to be wrong in the world and set out to tell a story about them. His first movie “Roger and Me” was a success. He followed it with a bomb called “Canadian Bacon” and then rebounded by winning Oscars and smashing box office records. He built a better life for his family and put his daughter through private schools by creating and marketing a product a lot of people bought. He became a multimillionaire because of the power of the unrestrained liberties we know in America as Capitalism and Freedom of Speech. (more…)
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A Father’s Day Note to the President: Mind Your Own Business
by Michael WilsonI’m far from a perfect father. For example, just the other day, on my watch, my one-year old, Ben, who is now rumblin’, bumblin’ and stumblin’ all over the house, took a dive on the corner of our entertainment center and gave himself a nice shiner. Within a few minutes, he’d forgotten about it and was wobbling around on two legs again, proud of his newly acquired mobility. But I felt bad for not catching him. I suppose the President, who made it a point on Saturday to pontificate to us dads about what kind of fathers we should be just ahead of Father’s Day, has never missed either of his daughters just before they got an “ouchie.” If neither Sasha nor Malia have ever scraped a knee, had a black eye, or even fractured a bone, then I guess he can pretend to be the perfect daddy. But then, you could also argue that without said minor injuries, the First Kids probably haven’t lived much of a life.
President Obama’s righteousness about fatherhood comes from the recognition that his own dad was, indeed, a douchebag. He knocked up Obama’s mom and quickly fled the country, only meeting his son once, and bringing him a basketball. There are fathers like that out there, but they’re few and far between. And they deserve our scorn. And I understand the President’s desire to talk about his own experience as a fatherless child. I get it. It must have been terrible and I’d probably talk about it too if my dad Bruce Wilson hadn’t been the incredible dad he is to this day (see my movie “Michael Moore Hates America” for an interview with Pops). (more…)
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Michael Moore Keeps Pulling Me Back In
by Michael WilsonNo matter what I’m doing now or what I do in the future, I’ll probably always be known as the guy who made “Michael Moore Hates America.” I often wonder why I picked a fight with Moore. I mean really, I got to be a tiny little bit famous for a few weeks, stressed out for five years and more broke than when I started. Sometimes I wish I’d never dipped my foot into this addiction called showbiz and often wonder what life would’ve been like if I were just toiling away in the marketing department of some company again.
But then the multimillionaire and self-proclaimed champion of the little guy opens his foul, uneducated, lying mouth and I’m reminded why I made that movie and continue to write and talk about Moore. Someone somewhere has to tell the truth about this country and I guess it might as well be me. I guess fate has appointed me his much less wealthy, way less well-known, and much thinner (even though I’m fat) counterpart. I just read Moore’s latest diatribe and got Hulk-angry. HULK SMAAASHHH! (more…)
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My Contribution to the In-Fighting: Rap Isn’t Crap
by Michael WilsonBen Shapiro and Tim Slagle have engaged in a little back and forth in recent days about rap and whether or not it’s crap. I read the original piece. The response. The response to the response. The myriad of comments. I’m diving into the fray, dancing delightfully through the crossfire of warring factions of the same army. But as you may know, I’m not one to play peacemaker.
Ben Shapiro is a brilliant kid. I say kid, not in the pejorative, not to denigrate him for his age. But he’s 8 years younger than I and he’s achieved stuff that, when we parents look at our children for the first time, hope for them. Smart, good-looking, already a family man and a lawyer, a published author and commentator, Ben is staring down a world in the shape of an oyster. Good on him. (more…)
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Michael Moore Trashed My Movie… My Response
by Michael WilsonMichael Moore wrote a piece for the Huffington Post last week. I didn’t find out about it until today because I was doing more important things like volunteering and watching my 6 year-old daughter’s all-girl hockey team beat up on the boy teams here in Coon Rapids, Minnesota. While I was busy watching Kylie score 6 goals in 5 games, including the only 2 in a 2-0 victory, Michael Moore was once again telling us how we should be like Europe, and how most Americans agree with him and blah, blah, fuckity blah. He also mentioned my movie by name. It’s enough to make a guy go bugnutty.
I appreciate the plug Mike gave me, but I need to lay some things out. You see, since that movie came out, I’ve become one of the people that you would think would agree with Moore. I’m about to divulge deeply personal information, but I think it’s relevant to the conversation… and a friend recently reminded me that, as Lenny Bruce said, the purpose of art is to stand on stage naked. In the last 4 years, I haven’t made a dime from my movie, though it’s grossed a LOT of dough. I’ve been divorced. I’ve been audited by the IRS. I’ve lost my home and have no health care insurance. Life has generally been in the crapper. You’d think that I’d be joining the vast majority of people Moore cites who want to stick it to the rich and who are lining up to get free shit from the government. There’s one problem: I’m an American. (more…)
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Geert Wilders Can Crash at My Place
by Michael WilsonGeert Wilders, the right-wing Netherlands politician (right-wing in Amsterdam means something entirely different than it does here…) has been denied entry to the United Kingdom because he made a little movie called “Fitna” that shows the passages terrorists use as the basis for their terror in juxtaposition with images of said terror. The British equivalent of Secretary of State has decided that Wilders is a threat to the public safety of the nation. WILDERS is a threat because his visit might piss off Muslims and THEY might blow shit up. Nothing makes Wilders’ point better than England’s fear of Islamic terrorism during his visit.
It’s shameful. Shameful.
In addition to being eighty-sixed from London today, Wilders, a member of parliament in the Netherlands, has been criminally charged and faces both expulsion from parliament and PRISON TIME for making this film. Apparently, in some places in Europe, it’s a crime to offend people. He’s formally charged with something called “inciting hatred,” whatever that is. Not that Wilders doesn’t go too far sometimes, calling for the banning of the Koran and imams, but people should have a right to believe in any crap they want, I suppose, and they certainly should be free to read whatever they want. (more…)
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Al Franken: Failing Forward
by Michael WilsonHere in the frigid, overtaxed state of Minnesota, we know one thing about Al Franken… he’s persistent. I’d even venture to say he won’t be waiting for The One to finish out his term and run for a second as President. Franken will go for the gold in 2012. Even if Obama manages to get the Democratic votes for the nomination the next go ‘round, Al’s going to take it anyway. And if you don’t believe me, just look at his history.
Al Franken persisted as a comedian for decades. Hell, they still refer to him as a “comedian” in the papers. He spent years writing, performing and radio-show hosting as a comedian. The guy managed to do this despite the handicap of a complete and total lack of comedic ability (and, for the record, ideology doesn’t trump comedy for me… I’m a huge Carlin fan and cite Kevin Smith as my reason for giving this business a go). Franken’s career has led me to imagine a skinny, 90lb kid with asthma who wants to be a linebacker for the Pittsburgh Steelers. He has no skill, no size, no talent. But he makes it – and though he’s never made a tackle, he is widely credited as one of the NFL’s all-time greats. A hero! But Franken is a hack. (more…)
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Nothing To Hide
by Michael WilsonLast week, I wrote a little missive about why conservatives should stop complaining and start doing. I’d been saying it for years, beginning in 2004 when my movie and I were prematurely and wrongly heralded as the start of the “conservative film movement.” I’d always taken umbrage at that proclamation, because I didn’t see what we were doing back then as a part of any “movement” and, frankly, didn’t (and still don’t) care if people saw it that way.
Also last week, Big Hollywood’s triumphant launch was covered well in the news, because Andrew Breitbart’s idea is newsworthy (and because he’s good at getting the word out). In one article, which appeared in the Daily Telegraph, the reporter subtly chastised the site, and used quotes from me that were entirely out of context. I’m not going to jump all over everyone who does this, because it’s part of making a public statement (I’ve been called every name in the book). But this one bugged me.
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What Conservatives Need to Know About Hollywood
by Michael WilsonWhen I was trying to make my first little documentary, subtly entitled “Michael Moore Hates America,” I begged for money. Nothing new there, as begging for money is as much a part of life for independent filmmakers as it is for the myriad windshield washers or single-rose vendors that relentlessly approach my gas-guzzling SUV whenever I pull onto an offramp in any major city. I was turned down… a lot.
One night, I sat in a room in New York where I’d been invited to do a dog and pony show for the vast right wing conspiracy, including four of the nation’s billionaires. I made my little speech and showed them a trailer which I’d ably culled together from the hours of footage I’d already shot (and which was unknowingly financed by Mastercard). I made a great pitch. More than a few of the people in the room approached me to tell me that they thought it was awesome. “This is really what we need. I hope you can find the money,” was the quote of the night. But, alas, conservatives have ventured as far as AM radio and the book store when it comes to imparting their ideas into pop culture. And it seems the movement fears trying new things about as much as it fears Obama’s tax policy.
Hollywood doesn’t like us to begin with – even those of us who are hardcore libertarians and don’t automatically identify with the GOP or social conservatism. They don’t like our pro-American, pro-liberty, self-interested way of life, and they certainly don’t think our ideas would work on film. There is a an old-hat idea that speaking truth to power (especially when the power is a rich old white man or evil corporation) is what makes for the most compelling films. It’s a tried and true formula. And despite its self-aggrandized reputation for creativity and artistic risk-taking, Hollywood thrives on formulas. Hell, they can tell you by noon on Friday what a movie will make over a weekend, because there are teams of people who spend their lives figuring out the formula. But I digress.
(more…)
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