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- Cert:
- Cat.no: LIB 6121
- Running time: 97 minutes
- Year: 2007
- Pressing: 2007
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 12
- Sound: Stereo (Dolby Digital 2.0)
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: None
- Widescreen: 1.85:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: No
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £15.99
- Extras: Documentary Discussion, Trailer, Deleted Scenes
Directors:
- Rick Caine and Debbie Melnyk
(Citizen Black, The Frank Truth, Junket Whore, Manufacturing Dissent: Uncovering Michael Moore)
Producers:
- Rick Caine and Debbie Melnyk
Writers:
- Rick Caine and Debbie Melnyk
Music:
- Michael White
Documentary filmmaker Michael Mooremakes movies that unsettle people because the powers that be don’t like to hear an opposing viewpoint. A lotof people are like that – your boss, for example, might not like it when you have better ideas than he/shedoes because they know you’re right – but whereas you’ve simply told them verbally, or by email, this mangoes out to put ideas onto celluloid and then lets the whole world take a look.
From the collapse of General Motors in Roger & Me, through the student mass-murderer documentaryBowling for Columbine tied in with the US gun culture and Moore’s ‘war’ against George Bush’s war inIraq following the New York atrocities on September 11th, 2001, during which our stupid government got ledalong as well – giving Tony Blair the appropriate moniker of being Bush’s poodle, in the cleverly-titledFarenheit 9/11, to the new movie Sicko, taking a look at the USA healthcare system and howmany Americans just can’t afford it, which really makes me thankful for the wonderful National Health Servicewhich has kept me alive since day 1, as anyone will know who’s read aboutaortic valve replacement operation, his films dohave a lot of important things to say, even if they can tend to go on a little bit.
Manufacturing Dissent: Uncovering Michael Moore paints a negative picture of the man, as youmight expect, starting with his emphatic anti-war speech at the 2003 Oscars, claiming shortly afterwards thathe invited his fellow nominees to join him on stage prior to winning his award, but then stating that hedidn’t do this because at an appearance two years later, in July 2005, he said how he basically made up thespeech on the spot and didn’t have an acceptance speech planned. So, you get to make your own mind up, butgiven the footage of the latter appearance I would say he wanted to play up to the audience, given his joyousdemeanour at the time, and that he had a lot to say back in 2003 and wanted to get it off his chest, regardlessof whether or not he asked other people to join him on stage – which would’ve looked damn good, had it happened.
Interviewer and co-director/writer Debbie Melnyk travels to his hometown of Flint, Michigan, and one man she meets says he dislikes Moore’s criticismof the NRA (National Rifle Association) in Bowling for Columbine because they do a lot for gun rights,and if they had no gun rights then they’d be like Russia and Canada where they don’t have any guns… butsurely that’s a good thing? In the UK, we’re not allowed to own a handgun for no reason, and with the waythis country’s gone to the dogs I wouldn’t like to walk down any street knowing that someone could legallytake a pot-shot if they were a bit of a mental.
There are several attempts by Debbie Melnyk to get an interview with Michael Moore him but it never works out,as well as criticisms of how factually accurate some of the content of his films are. We also see chat from anumber of his past colleagues, the collapse of manufacturing in Flint, critic Dave Marsh who allowedMoore to use articles from his Rock N Roll Confidential magazine for his own, but complained that hewas never paid the agreed $10/month, saying “it really frosted my ass”. Hmm… he sounds a bit bitter(!)
This film also goes on a little bit but it while I agree that he does have a big ego, he does get a lot doneand cracks the right heads together, and by showing footage of his TV Nation programme, which I hadn’tseen before, it makes the man all the more endearing, rather than giving me negative feelings about him.
The film is presented in anamorphic 1.85:1 and looks superb for the information that it is presenting. I’vegiven it 8/10 rather than 10/10 because in terms of looks nothing could be classed as ‘outstanding’ but that’sonly because the footage on view is mostly camcorder footage, so you know what to expect from what you’ll seeand you don’t need to have a fantastically high bitrate to deal with this, but what you can see looksabsolutely spot-on.
Sound isn’t so great, though, since there are no subtitles on the disc and occasionally the thumping music inthe background – something TV programmes often get a lot of stick for, and quite rightly so – drowns out thedialogue, causing you to rewind the film, and sometimes it’s still not clear.
The extras aren’t numerous and all come in 16:9 letterbox, beginning with a Documentary Discussion (7:18)with some of the people who featured in the film who didn’t like Michael Moore and are whining that he makesmore money than them. Then comes a the Trailer (1:32) and, finally, 11 Deleted Scenes (17:47),some of which are extended from what you see in the main feature, and none of which I’d go out of my way to putback into the film since there’s enough there already and these are fine as supplementals.
The menus have a repetitive short piece of incidental music which gets on your nerves if you leave it playingfor a while, there are no subtitles and the chaptering is incredibly sparse, and somewhat random, with a mere12 to the 97-minute running time.
Finally, one magazine quote highlighted late in the film says, “One-sided partisan communication tends to attractan audience of believers and reinforces their beliefs rather than change their minds.” – Indeed it does,Debbie Melnyk, indeed it does…
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Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.