Michael Moore directs System of a Down

March 17, 2003 7:55 PM

Boom! No, that's not the sound of the bottom falling out of the economy...Michael Moore has directed System of Down's lasted video (as he has done for R.E.M. once and Rage Against the Machine twice) using footage of recent focus groups protests against the "jumping [of] Iraq." Moore also wrote a letter to the president and will be talking about Anti-Americanism on Tuesday's Oprah. Moore Watch has yet to respond.
posted by boost ventilator (32 comments total)

Michael Moore bleats in his letter.. Walk out of the White House and on to any street in America and try to find five people who are PASSIONATE about wanting to kill Iraqis. YOU WON'T FIND THEM! Why? 'Cause NO Iraqis have ever come here and killed any of us!

No shit! Then again, how many Germans marched into London before World War 2 started? None, yet the decisive actions of Allied troops meant that Hitler didn't go unchecked. Oh, or how about the Serbians? Remember many Serbians slaughtering Americans in the 90's? No, funny that. Yet an invasion of Serbia and the elmination of Milosevic from power saved the lives of many, and rescued a country from oppression.

Still, if Michael Moore is pro-oppression, then that's his right, after all, he lives in a country where he can spout unwise words.
posted by wackybrit at 7:59 PM on March 17, 2003

...and lives in a country where people actually think that people who make movies and act in them have opinions that are somehow more worth listening to. Michael Moore is a jackass and so is the rest of Hollywood.
posted by Witty at 8:14 PM on March 17, 2003

I predict less than 10 posts before someone tries to claim Michael Moore is a communist or hates America.
posted by Space Coyote at 8:18 PM on March 17, 2003

At least David Cross is supporting the effort overseas.
posted by boost ventilator at 8:21 PM on March 17, 2003

Well I won't be the one to do it Space Coyote, I saw Bowling for Columbine recently and it was my first experience with Moore. I think the guy is dead on. The documentary is summed up in one word, fear. The movie is not about gun control. That is missing the point. The movie is about the fear propagated by the media and by our government. Until we as Americans realize that we don't need guns and that we don't need to be afraid of our neighbors, bombings, terrorists, anthrax, or Iraq, gun control is pointless.
posted by banished at 8:24 PM on March 17, 2003

MM is nice, entertaining; but incredibly naive.
posted by four panels at 8:33 PM on March 17, 2003

the video for "Boom!" from the band's latest LP, Steal This Album!

I just did. Ain't the internet grand.
posted by delmoi at 8:36 PM on March 17, 2003

ultra-political rock acts on major record labels. life is funny.
posted by angry modem at 9:29 PM on March 17, 2003

ultra-political rock acts on major record labels. life is funny.

Whatever brings in the dollars...
posted by Space Coyote at 9:31 PM on March 17, 2003

Michael Moore shouldnt support lame bands.
posted by Satapher at 9:34 PM on March 17, 2003

I predict less than 10 posts before someone tries to claim Michael Moore is a communist or hates America.

*rolls eyes*

Michael Moore is an extraordinarily easy target for his opportunism, melodrama and naivete. His appeal seems to lie most strongly with dilettante college kids with no life experience who think he's Keeping It Real but wouldn't really know it if he wasn't. Let's face it, if MM seems like a formidable voice of the Left, the Right has absolutely nothing to worry about. Most sad is that on a rhetorical level, someone like Rush Limbaugh would outmaneuver him on about a dozen levels, and I'm no Limbaugh fan.

Moore's neither a Communist, nor does he hate America. Nor do you need to insinuate that anyone who doesn't like him would resort to those hoary cliches in this thread. How 'bout those of us who just think he's a hack?
posted by Karl at 9:39 PM on March 17, 2003

I got a Michael Moore desktop calendar for Christmas (Stupid White Men) from my mother. I don't think she quite got why I looked so quietly indignant. I haven't opened it yet.
posted by askheaves at 9:41 PM on March 17, 2003

I predict less than 10 posts before someone tries to claim Michael Moore is a communist or hates America.

Nope - merely irrelevant.
posted by MidasMulligan at 9:44 PM on March 17, 2003

people actually think that people who make movies and act in them have opinions that are somehow more worth listening to.

Yeah, I think Ronald Reagan sucked too.
posted by owillis at 9:49 PM on March 17, 2003

Until we as Americans realize that we don't need guns and that we don't need to be afraid of our neighbors, bombings, terrorists, anthrax, or Iraq, gun control is pointless.

Ohh, that must be the problem. We're afraid of terrorists, bombings and anthrax, but we shouldn't be! Spread the word. These things aren't actually scary after all. ;-)
posted by wackybrit at 9:49 PM on March 17, 2003

Michael Moore has always been a rotund paragon of fact and logic. (new Mefi tagline?)

I know most of you are not willing to print and read a 15 page link, but I think this article explains the unprecedented complexity and difficulty of dealing with Iraq.

"...if any social order is to achieve stability there must be, at the heart of it, a double standard governing the use of violence and force. There must be one agent who is permitted to use force against other agents who are not permitted to use force." [excerpt]

While it lacks the cute pop culture references of Moore's drivel, it more than makes up for it in historical comparison.
posted by Frank Grimes at 9:54 PM on March 17, 2003

System of a Down is hilarious.

That guys alternates between whispering kitty mewling and demonic fire-breathing roars.
posted by cinderful at 10:01 PM on March 17, 2003

I've never heard of a rotund paragon before. I guess I shouldn't have stopped after rhombicosidodecahedron.
posted by bigschmoove at 11:57 PM on March 17, 2003

As a liberal elitist, I would like to point out that Moore does not represent "The Left".
posted by eddydamascene at 12:28 AM on March 18, 2003

Moore is one of those characters most useful when observing how people react to him, rather than directly observing his own actions. This is unfortunately one of the traits of a mook too, and it does make him unbearable at times.

That said, while I think that sometimes MM can be purile, Moorewatch puts things back in perspective. What are they, 12?

I try to keep MM on my radar, and always will, if for no better reason than the laryngectomy carolers that he marched 'round to assorted cigarette companies. I know it's a stunt, but it was a damn good one.
posted by krisjohn at 12:32 AM on March 18, 2003

Michale Moore reminds me of John Candy in some ways; I wish he was dead and Canadian.
posted by Dagobert at 12:43 AM on March 18, 2003

Say what you will about MM. but he got Kmart to stop selling ammunition. I think that is one hell of an accomplishment, whether you agree or disagree with his motives.
posted by wsg at 12:44 AM on March 18, 2003

Thanks for that article, Frank. Don't know if it changed my mind or not, but it certainly complicated things.
posted by kavasa at 1:17 AM on March 18, 2003

OK... now one of the individuals mentioned or doing the mentioning on this page has written a series of books that have consistently remained at the top of the best-seller charts. Now... who is it? Come, own up, which of you is it? (Clue: not John Candy)
posted by klaatu at 2:57 AM on March 18, 2003

Moore may be off-base a lot of the time, but he's certainly entertaining. (and heck, I'm even something of a lefty.) It's kind of like listening to Rush Limbaugh -- even when I want to throw things at the radio, he's still entertaining to listen to.
posted by Vidiot at 3:08 AM on March 18, 2003

MidasMulligan, I am sorry that you feel that someone who campaigns tirelessly (with some success) for the rights of people in America is irrelevant.
posted by asok at 3:40 AM on March 18, 2003

Michale Moore reminds me of John Candy in some ways; I wish he was dead and Canadian.

Ok, that was too damn funny.
posted by Beholder at 4:22 AM on March 18, 2003

I saw Moore's film Bowling for Columbine in a movie theater here in Finland just a few weeks ago, and it summarized many of my feelings about The U.S.

First of all, that it is not anti-American to be anti-war (or anti-NRA).

I understood that he's opinions aren't common, but he seemed to be a beacon of sanity in your country.

Yes, I'm a European green liberal pacifist. The king of wimps.

I think that Moorewatch's reply (by Rachel Lucas?) was even more absurd and naive than the original. And quite badly written.
posted by hoskala at 5:25 AM on March 18, 2003

I don't always agree with Moore or his tactics, but Roger And Me is a great documentary. I'd like to see Bowling For Columbine, but I don't see many movies anymore.
posted by eilatan at 6:58 AM on March 18, 2003

Michale Moore reminds me of John Candy in some ways; I wish he was dead and Canadian.

The reason Dagobert might associate Michael Moore and John Candy together might be because of this...
posted by Caffine_Fiend at 6:58 AM on March 18, 2003

going out on an admittedly shaky limb here:

moore's music video for rem a few years ago was quite sweet and not in step with his usual bombast and manipulation (the one with stipey et al hanging out with some high school kids).

otherwise, he's fine retribution for anyone who thinks the left is above having a limbaugh.
posted by pxe2000 at 9:28 AM on March 18, 2003

Yeah, sure, the boy puts out a lot of shit. That letter "to governor bush" is a prime example. And, yeah, I might be classified as a "dilettante college kid," though with a bit of life experience. But you gotta admit that Bowling for Columbine is a powerful piece of film. I seem to recall it caused the NRA to distance themselves from old man Heston, a real feat, in my opinion. Moore seems to be at his best with extended, well researched projects, spending the rest of his time wandering around with a foot in his mouth.

And hell, even at his most contemptible worst, he's still writing a lot better than those kids at Moorewatch.
posted by kaibutsu at 3:05 PM on March 18, 2003