Posted on 06/25/2004 11:37:33 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
When Lion's Gate Films went before the ratings board this week to appeal the R given Fahrenheit 9/11, Michael Moore's hotly debated documentary about the Iraq war, the studio made an unusual argument.
Moore would not delete one profane utterance or disturbing image to appease the board. Nevertheless, president Tom Ortenberg argued unsuccessfully, the rating should be changed to the less restrictive PG-13 because the film is important and deserves to be widely seen.
"We need more public debate of the issues facing us today, not less debate," he said. "The 15- and 16-year-olds who are going to be asked to fight in the next war need to be allowed a chance to see what this war is like."
If that sounds more like a political argument than an artistic one, it's in keeping with the film's spirit. The scathing attack on President Bush is being released with all the trappings of a campaign event.
Ronald Reagan once joked about the thin line between politics and entertainment. This year, in the nation's movie theaters, the line has been obliterated. A wide array of politically tinged films is joining summer's traditionally escapist fare.
Some were made with the clear intent of influencing debate, if not the presidential election. It remains to be seen if movies can sway voters, but either way, film is emerging as an important voice of liberal politics, just as talk radio became a medium of conservative political expression in the 1980s and '90s.
Robert J. Thompson, professor of television and popular culture at Syracuse University, says this is a far-reaching and culturally significant development: "The other side of the argument seems to have finally found its medium."
Fahrenheit 9/11 is the most prominent example. Never before has such a nakedly political movie been released this close to an election. Sight unseen, it has inflamed passions.
The California-based Move America Forward lobbied theaters not to show it. Moore hired former Bill Clinton political advisers Chris Lehane and Mark Fabiani to set up a "war room" to counter attacks on the movie's accuracy.
Although Ortenberg said Fahrenheit 9/11 opened yesterday on 868 screens -- the most ever for a documentary -- Sal Russo, a Republican political consultant, maintained that the Move America Forward effort was successful.
"We've increased awareness that the film is neither a documentary or entertainment but only an effort by Moore, as he says, to help to defeat President Bush, even if it's at the cost of our war effort against terrorism," said Russo.
Both sides are using election-style campaign tools, including the Internet, talk radio and cable news shows.
MoveOn, a liberal, Internet-based advocacy group, is urging members to pack theaters this weekend and to hand out leaflets. The group will attempt to mobilize moviegoers by inviting them to house parties across the country on Monday. Moore will address the gatherings -- which MoveOn estimates at 1,000 -- and answer questions via a conference call. 'The Hunting of the President' premiere, June 16, New York
Lion's Gate hired Mario Cuomo, the former New York governor, to help appeal the R rating and to promote the movie on shows such as CNBC's Hardball. Cuomo helped craft the studio's statement and would've delivered it, had the ratings board not banned him from the hearing.
Before Fahrenheit 9/11, the year's biggest political movie was The Day After Tomorrow, a disaster epic about global warming that got more ink on op-ed pages than on entertainment pages. It featured a president and vice president who seemed based on Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.
Coming up are the documentaries The Hunting of the President -- about the "vast right-wing conspiracy" to damage Bill Clinton -- and Bush's Brain, a critical appraisal of political adviser Karl Rove.
Next month, Denzel Washington and Meryl Streep will star in Jonathan Demme's remake of The Manchurian Candidate, a political thriller whose updated plot involves the first Gulf War. Filmmaker John Sayles' new Silver City offers an unflattering portrait of a Republican gubernatorial candidate who resembles Bush. It's scheduled for September release. Sayles told ABC news he wrote the script in two weeks because it was important to rush the film into theaters before the election, "just to get into the conversation at the right time."
One of the few political movies with a conservative bent, a low-budget documentary titled Michael Moore Hates America, doesn't yet have a distributor. First-time Minneapolis filmmaker Mike Wilson turns the tables on Moore, needling the firebrand director and subjecting him to the same critical treatment Moore has given to corporate and political targets.
"The movie theater is a terrific place for public discussion and debate about the issues facing our country today," said Ortenberg, who welcomes the efforts of MoveOn and others on behalf of Fahrenheit 9/11.
Why is this happening now?
The explosion of political movies seems part of a larger phenomenon. Perhaps not since the 1960s has politics been so central to American life. Events such as the Monica Lewinsky scandal and Clinton's subsequent impeachment, the controversial 2000 presidential election and the response to 9/11 have galvanized the public.
"Politics has become like an enormous miniseries, very much in the public eye," said Thompson.
Sales of political books have mushroomed. Political debate fills radio airwaves and is a mainstay of cable news. Political satire is flourishing. Statistics show that young people get less information from newspapers and television news programs than previous generations, but turn increasingly to liberal and conservative Web sites.
Advancing technology has a lot to do with the increased interest in politics.
"Twenty years ago, we only got a little dose of politics on television -- a half hour on the evening news," Thompson said. Now, the rise of cable television, talk radio and the Internet "allows so much more information about politics to be out there."
As the number and type of news sources grow and audiences become fragmented, the traditional goal of objectivity has been devalued. People increasingly seek their news from sources that match their ideology.
Fox, the top ranked cable news network, has a conservative slant. The Daily Show, Jon Stewart's satirical news program on Comedy Central, is popular among young liberals. Conservative and liberal Internet users turn to openly biased sites such as the Drudge Report, TomPaine.com and Buzzflash.com.
Moore's work is firmly in the trend of advocacy journalism. He is at the forefront of filmmakers changing the definition of documentary film. Though he is probably now the most influential documentarian, his work angers some more traditional directors. Pioneer Albert Maysles, for example, called Moore in a 1998 interview "the most evil man in the business. He targets people for his own purpose. His point of view is everything."
Russo, a leader of the effort last year to block the showing of a miniseries about Ronald Reagan on network television, maintains that Moore's point of view isn't the problem. Russo doesn't object to Farenheit because it attacks Bush, he said, but because it might undermine the war on terrorism.
"We're in a time in American history when we need national resolve," Russo said. "We just celebrated the anniversary of D-Day. Just as during World War II, even though there were dissenters, we had to muster national resolve to defeat fascism. Now we need national resolve to win the war on terrorism. That's pretty non-negotiable."
Thompson thinks factionalism -- the way liberals and conservatives tune each other out and listen only to opinions they agree with -- is potentially harmful.
"A truly informed person wants to listen to ideas he disagrees with," he said. "It would be a healthy thing for Rush Limbaugh's audience to go to Michael Moore's movie and for Michael Moore's audience to listen to Bill O'Reilly."
Here's a big reason why: City school officials let students retake finals, get diploma***Richardson said she was stunned when she attended the school's graduation ceremony this month and watched seniors she had failed walk across the stage, grinning.
"At least three of my students, I know their grades were changed," Richardson said. "When I attended the graduation ceremony ... I was absolutely astounded that these kids were in the graduation line because I knew for a fact that I hadn't passed them."
She said she has become so frustrated with the city schools that she is leaving to teach elsewhere. "It gives them the whole impression that somehow if they don't meet the standards, that someone will push them through," said Richardson, who had taught in the city for three years. "And that just doesn't happen in the real world." ***
thank you kind sir or ma'am.
thank you kind sir or ma'am.
You are welcome.
If the American people are so weak-minded as to be swayed by Lumpy's propaganda piece and toss out the President, then they deserve what they get. Me, I'll be hunkered down in the backyard bunker I'm building.
It's pretty bad when you have to entertain democrats
for TWO HOURS, just to get an $8 campaign donation.
BTW, it's NOT the number of theaters showig the film that's imortant..it;'s the number of fannies in the seats that counts..
"Gone to the White House, ha ha ha!"
We do need to be concerned about their ability to get out their base and beat the bushes for votes. These anti-American hits appeal to the brain dead and deadbeats.
Once their arguements are presented in a forum on equal grounds, they are demolished.
You simply can't beat the facts. The rats have to lie their way around them.
They are well endowed by the likes of Michael Moore who crawl out from under their rocks to produce such creations.
It's funny, but as time goes on, we are seeing more and more striking similarities between the Socialist Democrats and the National Socialists of 1930s-40s Germany.
It's pretty chilling to feel like we're watching the whole movement start all over again. They've already found their "Joseph Goebbels" in Michael Moore.
Yet, are we destined to repeat history here? One continual question I hear again and again is, "If all German's weren't complacent about the Nazi's, why didn't they do anything about them before they came to power?".
Well I ask you, what are we doing about it? Did the Germans do the same thing? Complain amongst each other? [so far I can say I've been openly debating such topics.] I'm not saying that we're not doing anything, simply asking the question...
Anyway, Cincinatus' Wife's posts always get me thinking...
I see the same thing... it's gone from opposition based on sort of principles or facts to bark-at-the-moon lunacy based on hate, pure hate. I just hope the average voter can see it, too.
( Consult tagline... )
Gee, all the TV ads I've seen for this movie clearly state that, "This movie has not yet been rated". And Michael Moore wouldn't lie, would he?
Amendment I Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech,....
That was very cute on the theater's part.
However, you can point out to them that the First Amendment only applies to the Government's actions.
While the First Amendment prohibits the the Government from arresting the theater owner for showing the film, the First Amendment does not take away the freedom of speech rights from those who want to point out that 'Fahrenheit 9/11' is nothing but propaganda designed to undermine the U.S. war effort.
Freedom of Speech works both ways.
The First Amendment also does not prohibit movie-goers outraged by such propaganda from taking their entrainment dollars elsewhere.
May I suggest a mail campaign to like-minded movie-goers urging a boycott of the theaters in question.
Free Markets also work both ways.
Only proves McCarthy was right....commies have infiltrated hollywood.
I guess that you two, like me, just don't know history, as the claim on this thread goes from one guy that it was far worse in older times.
Seriously, though, there has never been such an insane and hateful concerted onslaught against the president. I pray he makes it, but I fear for this next election. There are so many malinformed idiots out there.
That's not what Democrats said during impeachment...
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