Controversial filmmaker Michael Moore has released his latest feature film Slacker Uprising as a free download from the web site www.slackeruprising.com. Moore has decided to bypass theatrical venues in the hopes of having the film seen by as many people as possible leading up to the presidential election. However, a DVD edition of the film has also been released at a modest price ($9.95). Why buy the DVD when the download is free? Primarily because of the abundance of out-takes that you can't get with the downloaded version. Moore's decision to forego theatrical distribution was a costly one. His Farenheit 9/11 remains the highest grossing documentary in history and his latest film Sicko, while not nearly as widely seen, still pulled in impressive numbers at the box-office.
Slacker Uprising chronicles Moore's cross country tour on behalf of John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign. His primary goal was to meet with young people and motivate them to vote - a tall order, considering the weak turnout on election day generally seen among this age group. Nevertheless, Moore presides over gigantic rallies and is treated like a rock star, despite his trademark pot belly, sagging jeans, unshaven face and omnipresent baseball cap. Moore, one of the most polarizing people in contemporary America, attracts his share of critics. Amidst the crowds, Moore has Republican protesters who attempt to disrupt the rally by waving banners and shouting. He patiently indulges them and disarms them with some wry barbs. (When a group of pro-war religious fanatics grasp hands and chant The Lord's Prayer continuously, Moore brings down the house by calming asking, "Who would Jesus bomb?") The film also features "Man in the Street" interviews with Moore's critics, but of course, they are carefully chosen to accentuate eccentrics. Some criticize the horrors of Farenheit 9/11 but sheepishly admit they haven't seen a minute of the actual movie.
Moore's movies generally preach to the choir, but even those at odds with his ideology can admire his methods of activism, which are all peaceful, lawful, orderly and highly organized. He visits 62 different cities on his whirlwind tour, concentrating primarily on college campuses where he personally helps sign up new voters. Ordinarily, it's the province of the political far left to shout down speakers with whom they don't agree, but this film shows there's no lack of bad manners and intolerance among conservatives. Threatened by the huge crowds Moore is drawing, some Republicans demand that he be investigated for bribing young people to vote Democratic. The "bribe" Moore is offering them? A pair of clean underwear and a cup of microwaveable noodles! In more chilling instances, far right forces try to literally ban him from certain campuses, and in one case a prominent local businessman attempts to bribe the student council by offering them $100,000 to cancel Moore's appearance. (He says on camera that he doesn't want his family exposed to any thoughts from outside the community in which they live!). To the student's credit, they refuse. In one case, a school succeeds in banning Moore for a 1400 seat auditorium on campus, so he moves to a center down the street where he draws 14,000 people. Even if you despise Moore's politics, you have to admire his moxy.
If you are among the few who can view the film objectively, there are some myths spread by his opponents that are clearly dispelled. Among them:
- The U.S. military is lockstep in synch with the Bush administration. In fact, as Moore's movie demonstrates, his rallies are filled with Iraq veterans and their families who give passionate support for his efforts to end the war. In the most moving sequences, family members speak at rallies to lament the loss of their loved ones for what they feel is a futile cost.
- Michael Moore hates America. This is easily dispelled by the fact that Moore speaks passionately about his love for the country and his desire to bring it back to what he feels are strong adherence to the Constitution. Moore spends much of the time praising the U.S. military, leading the audience in standing ovations for veterans and praising former Bush administration officials who quit as a matter of conscience over the direction of the war. When Moore mourns the loss of 1400 dead, you have to wince because the film was shot years ago and you realize that four years later, that toll will have risen by several thousand. The perception that Moore hates America is largely due to his own inability or unwillingness to take at least an occasional potshot at some of the world's worst villains. If you think George Bush is a bad guy, it doesn't mean his enemies aren't a lot worse. In Farenheit 9/11, Moore implied pre-war Iraq was a tranquil place where people led a relatively carefree existence. Nary a word about Saddam's genocidal practices or the suppression of human rights that characterized his regime. In Sicko, he goes over the top by visiting Cuba to demonstrate that their health care benefits are more generous than those found in America's crumbling system. Fair enough - but would any sane person want to live in Castro's police state and drive a 1957 Chevy to the clinic? How many people do you hear about sneaking into Cuba? Had Moore offered even the slightest criticism of these regimes, it would have dismissed much of the criticism leveled against him.
- Moore is blinded by ideology. He's a true political lefty who wears the badge of "liberal" proudly at a time in which everyone else runs from the term. However, you can't argue with his record of predictions. In his first feature film, Roger and Me, Moore warned that greedy and corrupt business tycoons were killing middle class America by outsourcing jobs, skimming profits and backstabbing workers. Do you think you'd find many people this week who would argue the contrary - and this film was made twenty years ago. In Farenheit 9/11, he spoke out against the Iraq War at a time when most people still supported it. He warned that, contrary to what was being fed to the public, this would be a long, drawn out, seemingly endless conflict that would cost thousands of more lives and billions of dollars more. Even if you support the war, you can't argue with the accuracy of his predictions. In Sicko, Moore predicted that America's dubious status as the only industrialized Western nation that doesn't offer at least minimal free health care to its citizens would see an explosive increase in the uninsured. There are approximately 50 million Americans who have no health care and that will grow by millions in the wake of the current financial crisis. So, love him or hate him, you have to take Moore's positions seriously.
Slacker Uprising is consistently amusing and often moving, as it traces Moore's frantic attempts to prevent a second Bush term. He is highly critical of John Kerry (seen here only in brief news footage) because of his insistence on running for office while fighting a "clean campaign". Thus, Kerry mandates that the Democratic convention be virtually absent of any attacks on President Bush - a strategy that backfires weeks later when the Republican convention employs the opposite theory and turns their event into an assault on Kerry's reputation. Moore is determined to "save Kerry from himself" - and the plan almost works. Although Kerry loses the election by virtue of one state (Ohio) swinging to Bush at the last minute, Moore claims satisfaction from the fact that of the 62 cities he held rallies in, 54 voted for Kerry. He also states that the election saw the largest turnout ever of young voters - and this became the one demographic Kerry carried convincingly.
Slacker Uprising includes some celebrity appearances in conjunction with Moore's road trip. Among the performers: Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam, Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, actor Viggo Mortensen and the seemingly ageless Joan Baez who coerces Moore to sing an acapella version of
America, the Beautiful with her. (It's not as bad as it sounds.) The one unwelcome guest is Roseanne Barr, whose obnoxious voice and whining diatribe actually made me feel some sympathy for America's least funny comedian, Tom Arnold, who suffered through being married to her. Extras on the DVD consist of segments that didn't make it into the final cut. Some are superfluous, such as a time-killer in which Moore sings the Canadian national anthem. Others are more amusing: Moore relating to the crowd that the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer is so paranoid about his upcoming documentary
Sicko that they send out a confidential memo alerting all employees to call a special emergency hotline if Moore approaches them. Moore, who has secured a copy of the memo, makes sure he gives the hotline number out to the crowd. In another segment, Moore reads from the storybook
My Pet Goat and reminds the audience that President Bush continued to read the book to grade school children for a full
seven minutes even after his chief of staff whispered in his ear "The nation is under attack."Â Moore's film doesn't pretend to be balanced in any way, but given the fact that the president's approval ratings are now tied with Richard Nixon's at the height of the Watergate scandal, he might find a more receptive welcome among disgruntled Republicans who are willing to give it a try.-
Lee Pfeiffer               (To order the DVD edition go to the official web site at
www.slackeruprising.com)