Michael Moore’s Documentary Career Fades With Disappointing “Sicko” Release
Posted on 12 July 2007
No doubt you have all heard the controversy surrounding documentary film maker Michael Moore over the past years and more recently with his new film “Sicko,” which attacks the American health care system. While I have heard many reports about his use of false facts, the article below was most interesting to me. Written by Roger Rapaport for The Independent, a British publication, the author takes a look at Moore’s past work, the possibility that Moore might stage his documentaries, and where exactly Moore can go after a disappointing “Sicko” turnout at the box office.
Excerpts from the article:
“Even some of Moore’s fans worry that he partially stages scenes, undercutting the value of his own work.”
“But amid the glad-handing, one awkward question is being whispered: could Michael Moore be running out of steam?”
Read Rapaport’s article in its entirety here.
2 responses to Michael Moore’s Documentary Career Fades With Disappointing “Sicko” Release
Thanks for your kind words about my piece in the Independent. A longer in depth look at Moore’s 30 years of struggle and failure leading to his overnight success appears in my new book Citizen Moore:The Making of An American Iconoclast which is also out in Britain next week. Thanks to his success, Moore has worn out the welcome mat at large corporations. He and his crew are no longer able to arrange the kinds of head on confrontations that have made his interviews with big shots like Nike’s Phil Knight and the NRA’s Charlton Heston so fascinating. Frankly I spent much of Sicko longing for a Moore showdown with an HMO. The closest we have come to this was his mano a mano duel with CNN’s medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta on Larry King. Unfortunately Gupta doesn’t own a big bad insurance company. I’ll be talking about this during public appearances in New York, Washington D.C., Boston, Portland Maine and Traverse City, Michigan during the coming week. For details visit http://www.rdrbooks.com/Page.bok?template=citizenmooreevents.
Just like the new “Realty Shows” have little to do with realty, Moore’s documentaries have little to do with documented facts. It’s all about entertainment, not information. Moore criticizes the insurance system because it is built on profit. I think the same could be said for his documentaries. Profit is not a four letter word, but entertainment should not be called information.
T Cole