Mike Moore, smart or dumbfuck?

[Zor]

What do you say about Mr Moore with his Bowling for Columbine and sucth?

[Stormbringer]

To politics she goes.

[The Kernel]

He's a sharp cookie no doubt about it. I am particularly fond of how he doesn't try to lead anyone towards any specific conclusion (although this was less true in F-9/11) and instead merely presents what he sees and lets you draw your own conclusions as to their meanings. Most famous for this is Bowling for Columbine in which I don't think even Moore had a good explanation as to why Americans like to shoot each other so much. He presented the whole "culture of fear" argument, but he also expressed dissatisfaction with his own hypothesis and openly admitted that it didn't answer the question fully.

I think most of the claims about his dishonesty are highly exaggerated, especially since they are usually coming from people who created the whole concept of misinformation to begin with. He is certainly a filmmaker with certain established political leanings and I wouldn't classify his films as true documentarys (a documentary in my mind should only observe are really limit its commentary to a description of events) but he is not the talentless hack that many have tried to make him out as.

[salm]

he managed to create movies that many people enjoy and which also influences a lot of people. the movies are well done, too.

even if you don´t like his political leanings you can´t really say that he´s not smart because his political leanings are totally irrelevant for that question.

[DPDarkPrimus]

He's smart, but he's also not the most scrupulous fellow.

[18-Till-I-Die]

He's a very intelligent person, and he, IMO, knows what he's talking about most of the time. Yes, i'll be the first to admit he's a bit crass, but never the less he still very smart and a good director. Perhaps i'm a bit biased though as i agree with most of his political standings.

[Andrew J.]

He may be a fat bastard, but he's a clever fat bastard, and he's got a good sense of humor too.

[KrauserKrauser]

Anyone that fat and ugly can't be dumb and still preumably get laid. Smarter than the average Bear he must be.

[Gil Hamilton]

A little of column A, a little of column B.

[Quadlok]

Smarter than most other figures on the far right and left, as he, for the most part, comes of as a relatively genial, sane fellow in his media appearances.

[Rogue 9]

Well, that stunt with walking up to random Canadian front doors and opening them in Bowling for Columbine was pretty dumb. But no matter how much I dislike his methods, I have to give him his props. He's good at what he does, even if I don't like what he does.

[salm]

Well, that stunt with walking up to random Canadian front doors and opening them in Bowling for Columbine was pretty dumb.

why? i thought that was one of the coolest things in the movie. or was that faked or something?

[Rogue 9]

Well, that stunt with walking up to random Canadian front doors and opening them in Bowling for Columbine was pretty dumb.

why? i thought that was one of the coolest things in the movie. or was that faked or something?

Well you can't exactly call it breaking and entering, as he didn't break anything, but still, I'd be pretty pissed if some fat guy just showed up at my door and opened it. (And no, we don't lock our doors during the day, so he could theoretically do it if he were to show up at my town.)

[Stravo]

Hats off to a guy that turned the tables on the Republicans and Neocons by taking a page from their book and using it to devastating effect against Bush. It's even more entertaning to hear those bastards squeal in outrage. A little of your own medicine assholes. A spoonful of sugar should help it go down.

But as to his being a fat bastard, I saw him in person at the midnight screening of ROTK here in NYC and he just looked like he smelled. It was a horror show.

[Rogue 9]

Squeal in outrage? Bush hasn't even acknowledged the movie's existence, to my knowledge.

[Stravo]

Squeal in outrage? Bush hasn't even acknowledged the movie's existence, to my knowledge.

Perhaps you didn't wacth the RNC when McCain HINTS at Jabba the Moore's presence and the crowd erupts into near teeth gnashing frenzy. Called a liar and worse by many others in the right clearly his film has pissed off more than a few in the Bush camp. Hell, they even lamented the fact that he plans to release the film on DVD weeks before the election.

[Dahak]

Well, that stunt with walking up to random Canadian front doors and opening them in Bowling for Columbine was pretty dumb.

why? i thought that was one of the coolest things in the movie. or was that faked or something?

Well you can't exactly call it breaking and entering, as he didn't break anything, but still, I'd be pretty pissed if some fat guy just showed up at my door and opened it. (And no, we don't lock our doors during the day, so he could theoretically do it if he were to show up at my town.)

Which is just so incredibly stupid...
Do insurance companies even pay when your house gets robbed?

[Rogue 9]

why? i thought that was one of the coolest things in the movie. or was that faked or something?

Well you can't exactly call it breaking and entering, as he didn't break anything, but still, I'd be pretty pissed if some fat guy just showed up at my door and opened it. (And no, we don't lock our doors during the day, so he could theoretically do it if he were to show up at my town.)

Which is just so incredibly stupid...
Do insurance companies even pay when your house gets robbed?

That's the thing. It doesn't get robbed. We lock the doors at night and when we're gone, you dumbass. I said during the day. You know, when we're home and someone's in the room that the front door opens into almost all the time?

[Dahak]

Well you can't exactly call it breaking and entering, as he didn't break anything, but still, I'd be pretty pissed if some fat guy just showed up at my door and opened it. (And no, we don't lock our doors during the day, so he could theoretically do it if he were to show up at my town.)

Which is just so incredibly stupid...
Do insurance companies even pay when your house gets robbed?

That's the thing. It doesn't get robbed. We lock the doors at night and when we're gone, you dumbass. I said during the day. You know, when we're home and someone's in the room that the front door opens into almost all the time?

That doesn't make it any less stupid.
*Anyone* could come into the house without being let in. That's just criminally careless...

[Rogue 9]

Which is just so incredibly stupid...
Do insurance companies even pay when your house gets robbed?

That's the thing. It doesn't get robbed. We lock the doors at night and when we're gone, you dumbass. I said during the day. You know, when we're home and someone's in the room that the front door opens into almost all the time?

That doesn't make it any less stupid.
*Anyone* could come into the house without being let in. That's just criminally careless...

Yeah, they can. And they can have a taste of the sharp end of an arming sword for their trouble if I'm downstairs and don't know them. Just about everybody in town knows this. Besides, have you ever seen the documentary in question? You're calling nearly all of Montreal (IIRC) criminally careless.

[Dahak]

Yeah, they can. And they can have a taste of the sharp end of an arming sword for their trouble if I'm downstairs and don't know them. Just about everybody in town knows this. Besides, have you ever seen the documentary in question? You're calling nearly all of Montreal (IIRC) criminally careless.

Well, this is just too much a cultrual shock/difference to comprehend.
That one even *can* physically open a door to a house/flat without the key is something very strange...

[Rogue 9]

Dahak, the whole point of the segment in question was that Moore was demonstrating that in Canada, unlike most cities in the United States, people don't lock their doors. Germany's average population density is far higher than that of either Canada or the United States unless I'm much mistaken. You crowd people together, you'll have petty crime. If people are not so crowded, like they're not where I live (specifically, the back side of nowhere) you don't get a lot of burglaries for a multitude of reasons, chiefly the fact that with limited population comes limited suspects; you're just about guaranteed to be caught if you do it. If I lived in New York or Los Angeles you could bet your life I'd have three locks on the door and have them locked at all times, but I don't. That isn't necessary for my circumstances.

[Dahak]

Dahak, the whole point of the segment in question was that Moore was demonstrating that in Canada, unlike most cities in the United States, people don't lock their doors. Germany's average population density is far higher than that of either Canada or the United States unless I'm much mistaken. You crowd people together, you'll have petty crime. If people are not so crowded, like they're not where I live (specifically, the back side of nowhere) you don't get a lot of burglaries for a multitude of reasons, chiefly the fact that with limited population comes limited suspects; you're just about guaranteed to be caught if you do it. If I lived in New York or Los Angeles you could bet your life I'd have three locks on the door and have them locked at all times, but I don't. That isn't necessary for my circumstances.

It is a cultural thing.
My mother lives in the back of beyond in a small forrest, with the next other house being a km away.
Yet our front door can't be opened without a key (its a physical impossibility).
I can understand your reasoning on a theoretical level. But really understand it... Even if I lived right out in some nowhere region, I would feel terribly unsafe if I knew someone could open the door at any moment (and as it seems that's the rule with american door systems...)

[Stormbringer]

Mike Moore, smart or dumbfuck?

As far as a maker of editorial films (as he's admitted they are in more honest moments) and of editorial books he's a good operator. Not particularly ethical but he's a pretty sharp operator both as a political shill and self-salesman. There's no doubt he's good at that.

Now his actually politics, not what he's against but what he's actually for, are those of the unthinking, moronic liberal variety. He's big on pie in the sky ideas but they're of the sort that are just utterly impossible in a real world.

So in my opinion he's an odd duck, a savy enough guy but utterly ignorant in his own beliefs.

[The Kernel]

Now his actually politics, not what he's against but what he's actually for, are those of the unthinking, moronic liberal variety. He's big on pie in the sky ideas but they're of the sort that are just utterly impossible in a real world.

So in my opinion he's an odd duck, a savy enough guy but utterly ignorant in his own beliefs.

I fully agree with this, he is much better at making fun of other people's beliefs then creating good original ones. That's why I think his books were such crap; he really doesn't have a firm understanding of most of the concepts he talks about and he prefers to dumb them down to an almost useless level.

This doesn't diminish he skill as a filmmaker and underground "journalist".