You may have seen some news about documentary filmmaker Michael Moore latest venture, Sicko, which explores the American health care system, including managed-care and pharmaceutical industries. If you don’t know who Michael Moore is, he is the filmmaker that is always out to stir up controversy. However, as conservative as I am, I often find that many of his observations are right on track.
Michael grew up in Michigan in a time when most people worked in the auto business in some form. His mom was a secretary for General Motors and both his father and grandfather were GM autoworkers. Michael started his career as a journalist before moving to filmmaking. And what better subject for Michael’s first movie than an expose on General Motors closing its American factories and moving to Mexico, where the labor is much cheaper. Roger and Me was America’s first look at Michael Moore but definitely not its last. Oh, by the way, the Roger in Roger and Me refers to former CEO and president of GM, Roger B. Smith.
I never saw Roger and Me but I knew of Michael Moore’s reputation when I watched his next high profile documentary, Bowling for Columbine/ This time, Moore looked at gun violence in America, focusing on the Columbine tragedy. The film won the Anniversary Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, the French Cesar Award for Best Foreign Film, and the 2002 Documentary Feature Oscar. It was the highest grossing mainstream released documentary until Moore’s next film, Fahrenheit 9/11 took over that honor. I have to admit, it was hard seeing some of the survivors from Columbine and still thinking it was okay for Americans to own guns.
Fahrenheit 9/11 looked at America after the terrorist attacks. It attacked the record of the Bush administration and even tried to show links between the Bush family and Osama bin Laden. For his effort, Moore won the coveted Palme d’Or award at the Cannes Film Festival. He said he didn’t want Fahrenheit 9/11 to be considered for Documentary Feature that year at the Academy Awards, but rather the Best Picture category. Of course, that didn’t happen, but it was still a hit, having made $200 million world wide – $120 million of it in the United States.
As I said earlier, sometimes I agree with Moore and sometimes I don’t. The scariest thing is sometimes he makes me actually reconsider my long held thoughts and beliefs on certain subjects, which is exactly what he sets out to do. So love him or hate him, you really should give at least one of his documentaries a look. What you see might surprise you.
Blogs about other great filmmakers:
Martin Scorsese-Could This Be It?