MICHAEL MOORE IS MY COUNTRY

This blog is based on the idea that Michael Moore stands for popular art, love of people and political courage. It is meant to elaborate on what is unique and precious about him and to defend him against slander and libel.

September 12, 2006

HOT

Michael Moore's forthcoming hotties unveiled at Toronto....

On September 8, Mike's appearance in a sold-out "Maverick Night" was the first of several political highlights at the festival. Wearing his sneakers and baseball cap, he gave the lucky audience a preview of Sicko, emphasizing problems getting health insurance in America, the contrast with next-door Canada and differences between what he described as a "me-first" American society and a gentler "let's help others" attitude elsewhere. He also showed a short clip of The Great '04 Slacker Uprising, a documentary recounting his 60-day, 60-city tour in the 2004 presidential election campaign to persuade Americans to vote, preferably not for Bush.


SLACKERS

The Great '04 Slacker Uprising, which may be released straight to DVDin late '07, after "Sicko" but before the 2008 U.S. presidential election, was presented first. Mike introduced it as the chronicle of his 60-day, 60-city attempt to get out the vote on behalf of Democratic challenger John Kerry.

While already working on "Sicko", which will be released by The Weinstein Company, Mike went to Bob and Harvey Weinstein with the idea for this post-election movie. In its opening moments, "The Great 2004 Slacker Uprising" is described on screen as the story of "one filmmaker's attempt to turn things around, " but festival technical problems marred Moore's attempts to show segments from the film, ultimately forcing him to cancel the clips.

"This is painful, " Mike said, after a second clip was scrapped due to persistent sound problems. While praising the festival as one of the best in the world, he was clearly frustrated with the situation.

According to movie critic Peter Howell, here's the surprise: what we'll see, set to a mournful rendition of "When Johnny Comes Marching Home, " will be more critical of Kerry than Bush. The documentary castigates Kerry for bungling his early poll lead on Bush, by failing to respond ina timely manner to a smear campaign on his Vietnam War record and his muddled stance on Iraq.

If it's true, I will be more than extremely pleased about that : I will get my rocks off. The first message that the Dems need to hear is that they suck, suck, suck. And suck. The appalling state of the Democratic party is, to me, a worse cause for concern than what it allows, lets be and sometimes helps happen.


SICKO

Three segments from Sicko were shown at Toronto. IndieWire promises that it will no doubt stir an even greater debate about the U.S. health care system than what we're already witnessing.

The clips presented stories of personal health care nightmares, including that of a woman denied payment for an ambulance ride after a head-on collision because it was not preapproved. "They try to find every way they can to deny it to you or not sell it to you, " Mike told the theater. "Or they try to find anyway they can not to pay the bill."

The "Sicko" excerpts also included an older Canadian couple who buy health insurance even for their short days trips to America, and another Canadian man living in America who had to return to Canada to have a tendon repaired for free, rather than pay $24, 000 for the procedure in the U.S. The comparison between Canada's public health care and the privatized system in the United States, concluded, would you have guessed, that Canadians have more equitable access to medical services.

Two months into editing this new movie, Mike admitted that he made the rare exception of showing something as a work-in-progress out of loyalty to the festival, where he first screened "Roger and Me." Normally, he explained, he avoids talking about or showing a new film until it is completed. "I have to [keep it secret]," he quipped, "Because I am up to no good."

And acknowledging any anonymous pharmaceutical industry reps who might be in the audience, he explained that when no insurance company would back him in the making of the film, he thought the movie might be doomed. "How did you get around that, " Larry Charles asked Mike. "I don't want to say," Mike responded, "'cause they're here..."

Ken Johnson, senior vice president of the trade group Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers of America, said industry officials were "freaking out and pulling their hair out" when they first got word of Moore's documentary. They have since calmed down, Johnson said.

"We can't control what a major Hollywood entertainer does," said Mohit Ghose, a spokesman for the trade group America's Health Insurance Plans. "Our focus remains on a positive agenda of high-quality health care for more Americans."

Indeed. They can't control what a major Hollywood entertainer does. That's why the health care representatives seem to have chosen to downplay the potential impact of Mike's documentary - a well known card. LOL.

But to those anonymous health care industry reps in the audience, Mike cautioned that his film "will not be necessarily what you think its going to be." In one example, the director compared the no holds barred tactics of American football with the seemingly more fair regulations that guide international soccer, as a way of apparently explaining that his movie will consider the deeper reasons for America undervaluing health care.

Ambitious, interesting and visionary like BFC was it seems. Will Sicko be a history of selfishness, like BFC was a history of violence ?

3 Comments:

At 3:16 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Are you sexually aroused by pictures of Michale Moore chewing on a big burger?

 
At 3:18 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Are you sexually aroused by picture of Michael Moore?

 
At 6:14 PM, Blogger fear_and_hate_9_11 said...

In case I'm also entitled to ask questions -

You have taken the trouble to fix your spelling error in a second post. You also gave more precisions about your desire and went so far as to quit anonimity for INITIALS.

Why ?

 

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