05-01-2003, 12:03 AM
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#38 (permalink)
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Junkie
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Quote:
Originally posted by Charlatan
I'm not sure where you are getting the impression that documentaries are supposed to be objective... again... they are not.
They are essays in an audio/visual medium. How a filmmaker chooses to present his or her facts and arguments is up to them...
There is no such thing as objectivity and documentarians have no obligation (such as the press does) to strive for objectivity (an unatainable ideal).
I think Nomad has put it best... Moore is an anti-gun Liberal and most of his opponents are not...
(an interesting point is that the movie had to be made by a Canadian company - Salter Street Films out of Halifax)
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Excellent points, Charlatan. Here's Moore's explanation:
Quote:
What Moore attempts to do is both entertain and provoke his fellow Americans into questioning those in power and how they affect their everyday lives. Placing his sardonic worldview through film documentaries, television shows and bestselling books, Moore - with his trademark baseball cap, slouch, large glasses and Midwestern next-door neighbor appeal - emerged as a pop icon of dissent in the mainstream American consciousness during the 1990s.
Most celebrated, and loathed, are his films that tackle serious issues like corporate layoffs, sweatshops and gun violence with tactics that bring out their comic absurdity. Moore and many film critics consider "Bowling" to be his most subversive film to date, as it aims to explain why American society is so violent using as evidence disturbing footage and collar-grabbing declarations. Moore, a long-time journalist who advocates Leftist causes, sees himself, like many in the radical press, as a truth-teller, regardless of being called a propagandist who distorts reality.
Moore considers himself to be a filmmaker who wants to please his audience, instead of a journalist who only gives the facts. "First and foremost, I want to make a good movie, that’s my first goal it is not the political statement," he explained at the college round-table, while hunched over a oatmeal-raisin cookie. "If you put the politics before the art, nobody will latch onto the politics, they will be bored to death." Moore continued, "If I just wanted to make a political statement, I would run for office…my first mission is that when you leave the theater, you just had two great hours at the movies, something that you rarely get these days."
Moore mentioned that his films work more as "op-ed" pieces that are based on proven facts that support argument. "The facts are correct, the facts are journalism. If I told you that 165 Canadians were killed by guns last year, I need you to believe that’s true and I triple fact-checked that to show it’s true." However, he admits that his point of view may not be so correct. "In this movie ("Bowling"), there is a lot of ambiguity, I don’t have all the answers and sometimes I ask more questions than get answers, which I think is a good thing."
After this response, Moore suddenly paused. He then remarked about how strange it is to see someone like himself with no college education visiting a corporate headquarters and asking tough questions - something that professional journalists are expected to do. "Me up there doing that is an indictment of our media, just that alone."
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http://xpress.sfsu.edu/custom/moore/ |
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