Michael Moore

•  Fahrenhiet 9/11

Fahrenhiet 9/11 takes a critical look at the presidency of George W Bush, the War on Terror and its coverage in the media. The film holds the record for the most highest box office receipts by a general release political film. It is the highest grossing documentary of all time domestically.
The film debuted at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival in the documentary film catergory and received a 20 mintue standing ovation (the longest standing ovation in the festivals history). The film was awarded the Palme d'Or, the festivals highest award.

                 

• Bowling For Columbine

The film explores what Michael Moore suggests are the causes for the Columbine High School massacre and other acts of violence with guns. Moore focuses on the background and environment in which the massacre took place and some public and assumptions about related issuses. The film also uncovers the nature of violence in the United States.

In Moore's discussions with various people - including South Park co-creater Matt Stone, the National Rifle Association's (NRA) then president Charlton Heston, and musician Marilyn Manson - he seeks to explain why the Columbine massacre occurred and why the United States has a high violent crime rate (especially invovling guns).

Evaulating "Bowling for Coloumbine" 

Micheal Moore's documentary film "Bowling for Columbine" examines America's most memorable gun tragedies and also attempts to uncover the true reason for the Columbine High School shootings, where Moore himself leads on the investigation into the USA's gun laws and violence.

Moore's proactive attitude reflects how personally passionate and heartfelt he is about the issues covered in the film, as he is in the other docu-films such as, "Dude where's my country" and "Fahrenhiet 9/11". We can see the effect of this as he aims the camera through his point of view to demonstrate the American culture dealing with the problems of gun crime and gun control throughout the country. By basing the documentary around the Columbine massaccre he also successfully reveals the America has a bleak history of many gun tradegies and brings forth the ideology that these problems are out of control.

One of the facts that stands out the most is the number of deaths caused by guns in America, which tops the list of free world countries with 11,127 gun related deaths per year. Moore believes that the American society is powered by fear which is fuelled to them by on overload of media reports, about the dangers of world which then encourages people to protect themselves  by purchasing guns for self defence. Fear leads to violence, so does this explain why owning a gun for security comfort enables extreme tragedies like Columbine to occur so often in the USA.

Moore purposely positions scenes so that the audience can see both views on the subject being dicussed, for example the scene leading up to rocker Marilyn Manson's interview starts off with two young boys clearly happy and smiling whilst a voice over from Moore asks "So who was to blame?". This then leads into a montage of news reporters each zooming in at different times showing the viewer how all experts had an answer. Many different reasons were stated, usual suspects such as video games, violent movies, toy guns, however these are so popular around the world and yet other countries do not seem to have half of the problems like America does. The one common opinion all the experts had was "poster boy of fear""Marilyn Manson.
One reportter then swithced from blaming him to saying out of respect to the children lost, Marilyn Manson cancelled the last five days of his U.S tour. While this was being said one of Manson's CD covers was displayed which appeared as a very confronting image. This then tuns back to the experts blaming him quoting "this is probably the sickest group ever promoted by a mainstream record company". This scene is then followed by a preview of one of his video's dressed in all black clothing with big boots and a face fully covered with makeup. This scene is delibratley positioned before his interview to persuade the viewer to believe that Manson is partially to blame for the massacre as the two boys listened to his music.
Two years after Columbine,  Manson returned to Denver which "mounted protests". This was the opening line to the scene of Manson's interview.
Throughout the interview the camera alternated from the protest of Denver back to the scene of Manson's interview. By allowing Manson to defend himself allowed the viewer to see both sides of the controversial rocker.

Manson comes across as articulate and clear in his thoughts and offers some real insight into what he believes are problems facing the youths of American. He said all the media wants to do is to take something that happened and spin it into fear. meaning the media is a campaign full of fear and consumption. He brought up many other issuses, he mentioned how it seemed like everbody had forgotten the president, but one quote which changed everbody's mind on Manson was when Moore asked him, what he would say to the kids of Columbine,  Manson replied "I wouldn't say a single thing. I'd listen to what they had say and that is what no one did".
This lined ended the interview which encouraged the viewer to believe Manson was a good guy and also questioning that the  accusations was simply an act of the media trying to sell yet another overexaggerated story.

Moore tends to have a humourous style documenting which is entertaining for the viewers but also keeps them attentive. He uses many visual techniques, one example is use of a short cartoon " A Brief History of the United States"  to demonstate that America (particularly the white american) has always been a society run by terror. The cartoon is shot in a South Park like manner and tells a very fast-paced story, giving details of all the horrific things in American history. Some of the historic actions it covers are; killing the "savages" (Native Americans) because they were scared of thier unfamiliarity, killing each other as witches, possesion of African slaves for 200 years and the formation of both the Klu Klux Klan and The National Rifle Association (NRA). A characterized cartoon bullet narrates the story, which ironically represents all the awful things in American history and maybe also represents America as a nation today.
Not only does the cartoon come across as a comedy element for the viewers, it also reinforaces Moore's opinion to the viewers and still educates them in a different format , so if you aren't convinces by an interview, the same arguments are backed up by the use of a cartoon or found footage.

Another striking moment within the film is when Moore uses audio techniques of music to help portray the issuse of gun control. A montage of shocking and violent images of U.S killings that were committed in past history are shown whilst Louie Armstrong ionic song "What a Wonderful World" is playing alongside these various clips. The song contradicts the violence and destruction we can see and imply's just how NOT a wonderful world America is. It also highlights that the American military created the mass-murder atomsphere and therefore they are to blame.

Dialogue is used to show the viewer what American public are really like and what they care about. A message Moore creates associates with all the American public caring about making the headlines and acheiving a celebrity status.  People are shown to actually believe that making the headlines for good or bad is still a huge accomplishment, for example when a student from Oscoda High School is interviewed in relation to the two students who committed the murders at Columbine High School. The DJ student qoutes "No one told me who was number one on the list, which made me mad, like it was an ego thing knowing I was number one for something Oscoda , on the bomb threat list."  This example shows how the individual American didn't care how they made thier way into the headlines, which then rejects the idea that the media blames external factors when really it is the individuals in America.

Real life sound affects are used in the the documentary "Bowling for Columbine" to mae the viewer feel as is they are expriencing if themselves. Moore uses real life sound effects when interviewing a man at a local shooting range. Moore asks the man "why do you aim at bowling pins" his description was "its like a smaller scaled human". This makes the viewer start to think that a bowling pins could easily be used as a human targets whcih creates a suspicion that  bowling is  another key factor for the massacre in Columbine, just as much as Marilyn Manson. Whilst this was being said we are shown footage of the male aiming his gun at the "smaller scaled human." As Moore didn't add in any bullet sound effects and only used audio received by the camera ti create the real life situation and to show how much Americans love their guns and how they must live in so much fear that they even pratice shooting at what they see to be humans. This leaves us to deal with the question "Is America a nation of gun nuts or are they just nuts?".

• Sicko

In this film, Moore investigates the health care in the United States, focusing on its health insurance policy and pharamaceutical industry. The film compares the for-profit, non-universial U.S system with the non-profit univerisal health care systems of Canada, the United Kingdom and cuba.

Sicko was nominated for an Academy Award Documentary Feature. It was also commended in the Australian Film Critics Association 2007 Film Award for Best Documentary.  

                                   

Moore effectively tells the mass audience, the emotionally-charged stories of American citizens who lost husbands, daughters and other family members to preventable diseases, all thanks to the international, well planned payment denials by health insurance companies.