Moore, Michael

▪ 2004

      In his acceptance speech for the 2003 Academy Award for best documentary for Bowling for Columbine (2002), filmmaker and author Michael Moore expressed his opposition to war in Iraq and called U.S. Pres. George W. Bush “a fictitious president,” prompting a mixed chorus of boos and applause. This polarized reaction to Moore, a muckraker and satirist, was not new. At a time when most Americans were supporting the president, Moore reached the top of the nonfiction best-seller list with Stupid White Men (2002), which assailed the legitimacy, methods, and motives of the Bush administration. He had similar success with Dude, Where's My Country? (2003), a call for “regime change” in the U.S.

      Moore was born on April 23, 1954, in Flint, Mich. Following his graduation from high school, he began his populist assault on what he viewed as the injustices of American capitalism as an 18-year-old member of the Flint school board. In 1976, after having attended but not graduated from the University of Michigan at Flint, Moore started a radical weekly newspaper, the Flint (later Michigan) Voice, which he edited for 10 years. He also hosted a weekly radio show. In 1986 he became the editor of the San Francisco-based magazine Mother Jones, but he was fired after only a few months (he later accepted an out-of-court settlement for a wrongful-dismissal suit). Returning to Flint, he became newly aware of the deteriorating economic and social conditions in his hometown as a result of the closing of two General Motors (GM) factories and the company's longer-term policy of downsizing. After a quick tutorial in documentary filmmaking, Moore began chronicling the effects of unemployment on Flint, financing filming by selling his house and running a weekly bingo game. At the centre of the film were Moore's “in-your-face” efforts to gain an audience with GM's chairman, Roger Smith. Mixing humour and poignancy with indignation, Roger & Me (1989) was a hit with critics and at the box office and made Moore a multimillionaire.

      Moving to New York City, Moore established Dog Eat Dog Films and created an organization to finance social-action groups and other filmmakers. Turning to television, Moore made three critically acclaimed but short-lived series that featured his trademark guerrilla attacks on corporate America: TV Nation for NBC and then Fox and The Awful Truth for the Bravo cable network. His lampooning of privilege and prejudice continued with another best-selling book, Downsize This (1996), and the documentary film The Big One (1997). Bowling for Columbine blamed gun-related violence in the United States not just on the availability of guns but on a culture of fear. Not only did the film win an Oscar and surpass Roger & Me as the highest-grossing documentary ever, but the International Documentary Association named it the best documentary of all time. Some of Moore's critics claimed that his research was shoddy and that he framed events to suit his political agenda, but few could dispute the fact that his work had a ring of truth for millions of readers and filmgoers.

Jeff Wallenfeldt

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▪ American filmmaker and author

in full  Michael Francis Moore 

born April 23, 1954, Flint, Mich., U.S.

 

 American filmmaker, author, and political activist, who was best known for a series of documentaries—often controversial—that addressed major political and social issues in the United States.

      Following his graduation from high school, Moore, as an 18-year-old member of the Flint school board, began his populist assault on what he viewed as the injustices of American capitalism. In 1976, after having attended but not graduated from the University of Michigan at Flint, Moore started a radical weekly newspaper, the Flint Voice (later Michigan Voice), which he edited for 10 years. He was later hired to edit the San Francisco-based left-wing magazine Mother Jones but was fired after a few months (he later accepted an out-of-court settlement for a wrongful-dismissal suit).

      Returning to Flint, Moore filmed his first documentary, Roger & Me (1989), which chronicles the effects of unemployment in Flint due to the closing of two General Motors (GM) factories and the company's longer-term policy of downsizing. At the centre of the film were Moore's “in-your-face” efforts to gain an audience with GM's chairman, Roger Smith. Mixing humour and poignancy with indignation, Roger & Me was a hit with critics and at the box office. Moore subsequently moved to New York City and established Dog Eat Dog Films. He also created an organization to finance social-action groups and other filmmakers.

      After producing three television series and other limited-release films—including the comedy Canadian Bacon (1995), in which a U.S. president starts a cold war with Canada in order to boost his approval ratings—Moore achieved major success with Bowling for Columbine (2002). The film, which profiles gun violence in the United States, won the Academy Award for best documentary. In his next documentary, Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004), Moore criticized U.S. Pres. George W. Bush (Bush, George W.)'s handling of the September 11 attacks and the administration's decision to start the Iraq War. Although highly controversial, it won the Golden Palm at the Cannes film festival and earned more than $222 million worldwide to become the highest-grossing documentary. In 2007 Moore released Sicko, an examination of the health care industry in the United States.

      In addition to filmmaking, Moore wrote a series of best-selling books, including Downsize This! (1996); Stupid White Men (2002), which assails the legitimacy, methods, and motives of President Bush's administration; and Dude, Where's My Country? (2003), a call for “regime change” in the United States. He later wrote Mike's Election Guide (2008), a guidebook to the 2008 U.S. presidential election.

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