Michael Moore Hates America
The title is inflammatory, the editing and cinematography are amateurish, and the star of the show is as much of a subjective commentator as the figurehead he’s targeting. In spite of all this, filmmaker Michael Wilson has created a critique of Michael Moore’s documentary films that is well worth watching. Michael Moore Hates America attempts to confront the king of contemporary left wing propaganda with a few of his questionable filmmaking practices. Wilson wants to debunk (his perception of) Moore’s notion that the United States is an irredeemable wasteland of dreams destroyed by greedy corporate fat cats.
There is a certain air of honesty throughout the film–even at the risk of looking powerfully uncool–that distinguishes Wilson from Moore. If you disagree with everything Wilson says, you should at least be able to appreciate the honesty and vulnerability with which he approaches the subject. He’s not above misleading interviewees, but he is big enough to apologize afterward and admit where he went wrong. Perhaps the most cogent point in the movie is Wilson’s discovery that the temptation to mislead and misrepresent is enormous, and the line between objectivity and spin is very thin indeed.
By including icons like documentary pioneer Albert Maysles in the movie, the film gives the impression that Moore isn’t necessarily “in solidarity” with his fellow documentary filmmakers (as a comment he made during his acceptance speech at the Oscars in 2003 might lead one to believe). If Wilson is a right-wing wacko, he hides it quite well. At one point, he even distances himself from the acerbic statements of conservative interviewee David Horowitz.
Unlike FahrenHYPE 9/11 or Celsius 41.11, Michael Moore Hates America is not a right-wing counterpoint to Moore’s films. Rather, it is a critique of the methods used by documentary filmmakers. If you’re among those “left of the American mainstream,” but are increasingly uncomfortable with Michael Moore as your spokesperson, this is the film you’ve been wanting to see ever since Moore laid that picture on Charlton Heston’s driveway in Bowling for Columbine.