Don’t get me wrong. Moore came up with a clever shtick that can be amusing, but he doesn’t make real documentaries. He makes sophomoric  agitprop that violates the Oscar’s rule against fiction in that form which other documentary makers must apparently follow — a double standard point I’ve made to the Academy awarders twice. Only the first of those letters is listed below because of space limitations, but a key point made in that second note is that there should be a separate category for Moore’s type of fabricated political schlock if such stuff is going to be receiving awards .  Sans that, “anything goes with documentary film … there are no standards … it’s all a game,” as University of Texas film professor and indie producer John Pierson put it.

The Academy’s silence was and remains deafening. Disquieting as that is, the worst silence is that of the news media that has known about Moore’s lies and kept mum. Such has been the case ever since this baseball capped faux populist schlub allegedly chased General Motors Chairman Roger Smith around for an interview to no avail in “Roger & Me.”

The entire premise of that Warner Brothers distributed film was that Smith would not meet with Moore to explain why the cruel GM capitalists annihilated Michael’s Flint, Michigan home town with plant closings and loyal employee firings. But according to the makers of two separate real documentary films who researched Moore’s methods and fidelity to his socialist political message, it’s all baloney.

Roger Smith never did an interview with Moore?

Kevin Leffler, a Flint CPA who grew up with Moore and made “Shooting Michael Moore” confirmed to me that a member of the “Roger & Me” crew told him he was present when Moore did interviews with Smith. Debbie Melnyk and Rick Caine, makers of “Manufacturing Dissent,” corroborated that in their film research.  “Anyone who says that is a fucking liar,” responded Moore.

Michael doth protest too much.

How about those fired General Motors workers Moore shows?

According to Leffler, two of the film’s main characters, Flint locals Rhonda Britton and James Bond, are presented as fired GM employees when, in fact, neither worked for GM. They told Leffler that Moore coached them on what to say, how to say it with the most drama, edited their comments out of context and even promised money to the illiterate Britton if she’d sign a paper Moore gave her. The paper was a trick forfeiting any right to money from the film.

How about Fred Ross, the Flint hard heart presented as evicting fired
GM employees from their homes?

Ross told Leffler those he was evicting were not GM employees either.

The bottom line is that there are no limits to the outright lies Moore has embraced in all his his films to create false realities that can be exploited for leftist political causes, including the fabrication of quotes. That’s what he did to the late Charlton Heston by editing two speeches he made a year apart in order to make him say something on screen he never said in person. He hid the cut with a cut-away shot. Notice that Heston is wearing different suits, but the viewer doesn’t catch the deception in real time and Moore wants to keep it that way.

Kevin Leffler’s well-researched film has so upset Moore that he is trying to block it from being shown. Leffler told me Moore intimidated Carmike Cinema, the fourth largest movie house chain, into pulling it from its Traverse City, Michigan theater, a bully he may try elsewhere. One reason among many Moore probably does not want “Shooting Michael Moore” seen is that Leffler snuck into Fidel’s Cuban hospitals with a hidden camera to show what socialized Castro care is really like and it ain’t pretty.

That’s a sharp contrast to the Cuban hospital Moore showed in “Sicko” which was exclusively for rich foreigners and top communist party officials in Fidel’s regime.  But Moore never mentioned that and neither have government health care advocates here who have shamelessly used that Cuban hospital as an example of the utopian system Americans are being denied.

Leffler says he does have a distribution deals in Europe and America and that “Shooting Michael Moore” is likely to be on its way to a screen near you.

***

April 21, 2003

Bruce Davis
Executive Director
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
8949 Wilshire Boulevard
Beverly Hills, CA 90211

RE:  “BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE” INVESTIGATION REQUEST

Dear Mr. Davis:

This is a letter I had hoped not to write. However, the disturbing amount of credible evidence published in reputable venues such as “The Wall Street Journal” and “Forbes” that “Bowling for Columbine” violates the Academy rules which define a documentary feature can no longer be ignored.

Therefore, as a prior Academy Award nominee who is concerned about the integrity of the Oscar, I hereby respectfully request a fair and complete formal Academy investigation as to the eligibility of this year’s winner.

Should that investigation determine that “Bowling for Columbine” contains, as claimed, fabricated scenes and video of real people that has been edited to manufacture a fictional reality intended to mislead viewers, then the director and producer of this film should be stripped of their award.  That Oscar should then be awarded to the runner up.

Failure to conduct such an investigation and act according to its findings will diminish the stature of the Oscar, establish an exploitable precedent for future rule violators and be grossly unfair to the other nominees who did follow the rules. That unfairness will be particularly bitter to those whose film would have been nominated in place of “Bowling for Columbine.”

Even the accusation of such rule violations taints the Academy Award with implications of politics and favoritism that are most damaging. So, I again respectfully ask that you not delay your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Dan Gifford
Producer, “Waco: The Rules of Engagement”

Yet overseas, where big action films often earn 60% or more of their ticket sales, rah-rah American sentiment doesn’t play well. So those references have vanished from the advertising.

Big Hollywood’s John Nolte gave that theory a thorough fisking, providing numbers showing that while “rah-rah America” movies aren’t guaranteed big foreign box-office returns, they aren’t automatically guaranteed to fail. He also points out that many “anti-rah rah” movies have even less appeal.

Oh, is it still okay to say “foreign?” Just checking, seeing as many schools are replacing “foreign language” departments with World Language departments. We’re all just one, big, happy World Family, right?

Okay, back to the topic at hand. John’s post got me to thinking. If anti-war movies such as “Rendition” and “A Mighty Heart,” despite the hype and the A-list star roster didn’t bring in the beaucoup bucks, how about anti-American movies made by one of the biggest anti-Americans on the planet, Michael Moore?

Moore has made a career bashing everything essentially American while reaping the benefits of living in the (for now) freest nation on earth.  As we “all know” how much Europeans despise Americans, it’s almost a given that Moore’s films would break all foreign - oops, world box office records. Let’s take a look at the numbers:

Roger & Me: $1,000,000
Bowling for Columbine: $36,432,405
Fahrenheit 9/11: $103,252,111
Sicko: $11,515,086

Let’s cut MM some slack with “Roger and Me” – he was hardly a brand name in America at that time, let alone anywhere else. He starts to inch up the scale with “Bowling for Columbine.” The Columbine killings made headlines around the world, and naturally Euros were eager to know all about the curious American fascination with firearms – and of course, these things never happen over there, right?

Moving on to “Fahrenheit 9/11,” Moore was at the top of his game. The movie garnered an Academy Award and took the top prize at Cannes - yet it only took in $103,252,11 overseas. Come on, I thought everyone hated Bush and his crummy war – which is now Obama’s war, so it’s okay. Even “National Treasure,” starring the not-so-versatile Nicolas Cage, did better.But, my stars – domestic box office for ”Fahrenheit 9/11″ was only  $119, 194,771. Don’t people know quality filmmaking when they are told about it by their Hollywood betters?

Then, numbers for “Sicko,” considering Moore’s er, hefty star power, plummeted. Either foreign, I mean, worldmoviegoers were turned off by the sight of Moore putting on a rubber glove for that anal probe, or they knew from personal experience that his love fest for socialized health care ain’t all it’s cracked up to be. Or perhaps Europeans have figured out that Moore is a master of manipulation and don’t like being played.

So if the biggest “anti-rah rah” movie maker can’t match the overseas numbers (or even the domestic ones) of the likes of the films John points out, and some he didn’t point out, like ”Iron man,” what’s the anti-American left in Hollywood to do?

Why, make another anti-American film, of course! Or in this case, a film that pretty much trashes everything that makes Western civilization tick. Moore’s next project, due out in October, is entitled “Capitalism: A Love Story.” According to Moore:

It will be the perfect date movie. It’s got it all – lust, passion, romance and 14,000 jobs being eliminated every day. It’s a forbidden love, one that dare not speak its name. Heck, let’s just say it: It’s capitalism.” And, the movie focuses on “the disastrous impact that corporate dominance and out-of-control profit motives have on the lives of Americans and citizens of the world.

Does that mean we get to see it for free? I doubt it – Moore has his stock portfolio, Manhattan penthouse and ten-acre Michigan waterfront estateto worry about. Just an everyday schlub like you and me, trying to pay the bills in an unjust world. The ever-present baseball cap says it all. And no, he’s not even hiding an embarrassing bald pate like Ron Howard.

As the Brits would say, Mike’s dead chuffed at the fact that GM is now in the hands of the government. I can’t wait to see him put his money where his mouth is, and drive one of those little PUMAs we’ve heard so much about.

You know, considering how recent elections all over Europe showed a decided tilt to the right, I wonder how well MM’s new movie will do? We’ll have to wait and see.