One might (and has) argue(d) that these tremendously effective and intelligently honest methods are nothing new. Nick Broomfield invented them, not Michael Moore. Nick Broomfield was the innovator, not Michael Moore.
(above : Mike with fellow documentarians Kopple, Spheeris and Broomfield, barefoot on the left)
And so, at about the same time as Rob Blackwelder was falling a victim to Mike’s Superior Truths (10.27.02), in his essay entitled “One of Us”, Tim Grierson was asking a very good question :
“Why is it that people generally treat Michael Moore like a conquering hero” (yes, they roughly still did in 2002), “Why is it that people generally treat Michael Moore like a conquering hero but Nick Broomfield as a slimy weasel? In reality, aren't they the same person? Both are documentarians. They both use their films as journalistic investigations into societal issues. Not content to stay behind the camera, each guy plays a visible, central role in his movies."
Alas, this new applicant for the Championship of Truth finds it smart to subsequently spend the rest of his ink re-establishing Broomfield as the real conquering hero, and Moore as the real slimy weasel – completely unaware that Michael Moore’s Crucifixion had begun, and that he was part of the Crucifiers.
From this wasted essay, one can still learn about Broomfield’s greatness. But, from here, we can only infer Mike’s Superior Greatness, and that’s what I’ll do afterwards.
Grierson :
“Nick Broomfield's films aren't as noble, but that's fine; they don't operate under any false pretense. A serial killer, a Hollywood madam, a rock-star suicide, and now the bloody murders of two hip-hop superstars -- this is normally the stuff of National Enquirer fodder, but Broomfield is fascinated by such unconventional subjects. What he's done with the terrific Biggie and Tupac (as he's done so many times before) is sift through a seemingly unsavory story to find some unusual characters and milieus, bravely and entertainingly exposing them along the way.
Biggie and Tupac investigates the unsolved murders of legendary rappers Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur. Unfortunately for Broomfield, the film's release coincided with a lengthy piece in the Los Angeles Times, which offered a much different theory behind the individual killings. But much like Oliver Stone's impassioned muckraking in JFK, the question of "Who did it?" in Biggie and Tupac is less important than illuminating the buried and little-known information involved in these cases. Neither JFK nor Biggie and Tupac purport to be unquestionably true, but they both achieve a greater purpose -- they make you see the case in a new light, they shake up your preconceptions, and they provoke
you to keep asking questions.”
(Grierson quotes from http://www.knotmag.com/?article=467)
The same can be said of Michael Moore… but Mike plays TWO OR THREE OCTAVES HIGHER (and here lies Grierson’s real main beef against him : “Nick Broomfield's films aren't as noble….” Moore is not dwarfish enough for his taste).
The Columbine slaughter, too, was tabloid fodder.
Mike, too, sifted through a seemingly unsavory story to find some unusual characters and milieus, bravely and entertainingly exposing them along the way.
Mike, too, investigated… but he investigated APPARENTLY SOLVED MURDERS – to find that the real murderers were NOT “monsters” Klebold and Harris… but AMERICA AS A WHOLE.
Ouch.
In BFC, too, the question of "Who did it?" is less important than illuminating the buried and little-known information involved in these cases…. But EVEN MORE IMPORTANT IS THE WIDELY KNOWN INFORMATION ABOUT BANKS, WALMARTS AND LOCKHEEDS – so that America doesn’t stand accused so much as the “everybody knows” type truth of CAPITALISM AS A CULTURE OF DEATH. Ouchhhhhhhhh….
Like JFK and Biggie and Tupac, BFC doesn’t purport to be unquestionably true, but it both achieves a greater purpose -- they make you see the case in a new light, they shake up your preconceptions, and they provoke you to keep asking questions.
However, beyond these ambitions, BFC’s GREATEST purpose of all is to ALSO PROVIDE THE ANSWERS THAT EVERYBODY KNOWS, PLUS THE ANGER THAT NOBODY FEELS….
….Ouch, ouch, ouch !….
And so, the awful truth isn’t that Moore is the slimy weasel. It’s not even that both documentarians are to be put on a par. It’s that MOORE IS BEYOND BROOMFIELD : a Broomfield with Genius. He’s to Broomfield what the Beatles were to Little Richard or Buddy Holly.
OUCH.