Auteur Paper: Michael Moore

Kelly Enright

Haden

Theater

Auteur Paper

Michael Moore

Director Michael Moore is one of the most controversial movie makers of our time. His documentaries look to our government and media for a reason to the problems of out troubled nation. He uses strong statements and sometimes rude actions to get the reactions and shots he needs to make his films interesting. His movies always dissect the most sensitive topics that are on the American citizens’ minds. Two of the most controversial movies of the 21st century were both made by Michael Moore. These are Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11.

Fahrenheit 9/11 is his most recent documentary. This movie touches on what Moore believes is the gross negligence that he believes the Bush administration demonstrated before and during the attack on America. Michael Moore used old news clips and other family video to show George W. Bush’s many failures before coming into office. He continually questioned the means that Bush used to fund these many businesses. Throughout these scenes Moore, speaking over these clips, suggests that much of the money the Bush family has came from the Bin Laden family and other Saudi Arabian sources. For the election of Bush and Gore, he used clips from many main news channels. He showed how the entire election was shrouded in controversy. While this is going on, he accused Bush of using his family and friends to help him win the vote in Florida. To bring the insult even further he uses clips of highly distraught African American members of the House of Representatives who are unable to receive a recount because no senators would sign the appeals. This was used to suggest racism. He uses clips of Bush at pre-school after he knew about the attack to make him seem slow. He continually showed the dumbfounded look on his face while sitting silently in front of the students. All of this was used to tear apart Bush’s character.

In this movie, Moore used very emotional and dramatic. Most of the music in this documentary was orchestra based. During the attack and aftermath that occurred on 9/11 the music was very slow and gave a sense of urgency. He used film taken by people at ground zero to show the devastation that they had to endure. All of this was shown in slow motion to emphasize the importance of the event. He also used many interviews with people that tended to agree with him to help his case. These interviews were very serious and made the sources seem very credible. He added comedy to the movie by using music that ironic when added to the scene at hand. For example, when explaining how the Bin Ladens were allowed to fly out of the country immediately following 911, he played the song We Gotta Get Out of this Place. I think this did a good job of removing some tension from the movie and allowed the audience to relax somewhat. During this movie a lot of George Bush’s speeches were used. Moore had edited these speeches slightly to attack Bush’s intelligence and character. He changed the order and timing of some of the things Bush had said to help prove his point. Throughout Fahrenheit 9/1, Michael Moore used information that he felt would help his case and get the audience on his side.

Bowling for Columbine was a movie that Moore made to figure out why America was the only place something like Columbine could happen. He starts the movie by filming the process of obtaining a free gun from a bank in Michigan simply by opening a bank account. He implies shock tactics in his documentary to scare the audience into believing him. Most of America does not know this kind of deal exists. He makes the argument that America has the highest death rate due to guns, but does not necessarily own any more guns than other nations with less deaths. He asked some