Completely OT : Cannes, Mickael Moore and the Iraq War

[Atrocities]

Thanks for the info Trooper.

[Atrocities]

Originally posted by rextorres:
What's funny is most of the people who attack Moore attack his politics but conveniently ignore the content.

From what I've read (especially in this thread) - the tone of some anti-Moore people is so strong that it suggests to me that they are more afraid that he might be telling the truth than that he might be lying.

Rex you make a good point, but the truth is simply that we all know Mr. Moores tactics so well that we don't have to see his documentary to know the man. We already know the man, and there is nothing in his documentary that scares us except that people might believe his one sided - no room for counter point - political views.

Relying on his documentary and him as a source of factual evidence is like trusting Hitler when he says that the Jews are being well cared for. Now I am not comparing Mr. Moore to Hitler so please don't shoot me. I am just saying that his truth should be taken with skeptasism.

[trooper]

MICAHEL MOORE'S NEW MOVIE THAT EXPOSES BUSH FOR THE SHAM HE REALLY IS
IS ALREADY GAINING ALOT OF MOMENTUM BEFORE IT'S RELEASE.


Truth wins at Cannes, says Moore

GEOFF PEVERE

Michael Moore's feature length documentary attack on the administration of President George W. Bush, Fahrenheit 9/11, took the top prize of the 57th annual Cannes Film Festival Last night.

"What have you done?," said an overwhelmed Moore when he took the stage to accept the award that culminated a typically awkward and unpredictable, but atypically politicized, four-minute ceremony. At the announcement of the major prize, the Palme d'Or, the tuxedo and evening-gown studded crowd stood on its feet and cheered.

Looking to jury president Quentin Tarantino, Moore joked, "You did that just to mess with me," before moving on to more serious matters.

Admitting that the Last six months, during which Fahrenheit 9/11 has been at the centre of a highly publicized dispute with The Walt Disney
Company over its distribution future, Moore said, "I have a sneaking suspicion that what you have done will ensure that the American people
will see this movie. I can't thank you enough for this.

"Many people want the truth put away, put in a closet," he said, "and you have taken it out of the closet."

Quoting President Abraham Lincoln, whom he described as "a different kind of Republican president," Moore said, "`Give the people the truth and the republic will be saved.'"

Alluding to the U.S. election in November, Moore concluded by saying he wanted to dedicate the next six months to "making sure that those
who have died in Iraq have not died in vain."

As predicted, the awards granted by Tarantino's jury — which also included the American actress Kathleen Turner, British actress Tilda
Swinton, Hong Kong filmmaker Tsui Hark and others — was eccentric in its choices.

After providing special Jury Prizes to Irma P. Hall's performance in Joel and Ethan Coen's The Ladykillers and the Thailand-made Tropical
Malady, Tarantino's jury awarded the best scenario prize to Agnes Jaoui and Jean-Pierre Bacri for Jaoui's Look At Me, best director to
Tony Gatlif for Exiles, best male performance to 14-year-old Yagria Yuuya for the Japanese-made Nobody Knows and best actress to Maggie
Cheung's performance in the French-Canadian-U.K. co-production Clean.

[...]

[dogscoff]

Moore uses film as if it were a weapon. He yeilds it against those whom he does not like

Agreed. And I don't have a problem with that. I'd rather he used film and media as a weapon than, say... an actual weapon. You are using your words as a weapon against him, so you can't criticise him for doing the same against Bush.

and he does this with dilibrate deception in mind.

Disagreed. I think he presents the truth as he sees it. Whether that's the absolute truth or not I can't say, but I don't doubt for a second that he believes every word of what he says/ writes, and that makes him nothing more nor less than honest. If all he wanted was to make a quick buck out of cheap, emotional non-content, he could do it a lot quicker and with a lot less research by making "support our troops abroad" and "tribute to the fallen heroes of 9/11" films.

Moore is a jerk and only the French would give him an award for an anti-Bush movie.

ONLY the French would give an award to an anti-bush movie eh? I reckon i could probably list a few other nations that might consider it. Iraq for one.

ONLY the French and those who love to hate America would consider ...blah blah blah ... the French who chose to give the award did

*Yawn*
Atrocities, look again at the post on this thread which lists the nationalities of the people who gave the award. THEY WERE NOT FRENCH. OK, one of them was, but three of the eight were american for crying out loud. And if you still persist that it's all some rabid anti-american conspiracy, then I think you need to ask yourself what america is doing wrong to generate so much hatred.

I'll quote it again for your convenience:

3 Americans, 1 Brit, 1 Chinese, 1 Finn, 1 Haitian and only 1 French person.

See... only 12.5% french. 37.5% American & 12.5% British- that puts at least half the votes in the "coalition of the willing." Stop blindly blaming everything on the French, it just makes you look ignorant.

The thing about Moore is he is so single-mindedly one-sided in his philosophy that it probably isn't that he is intentionally presenting only one side of the argument, he just simply can't accept any reasonable counter opinion to his own as being worthy of even consideration, much less give it time in one of hsi mockumentaries.

I think it's more that he doesn't see that as his job. There are more than enough people out there giving the other side of the argument, so he leaves that to them. He sees his views as under-represented, and so he just presents his side of the debate, and allows ppl like you to counterpoint what he has said.

Relying on his documentary and him as a source of factual evidence is like trusting Hitler when he says that the Jews are being well cared for. Now I am not comparing Mr. Moore to Hitler

Actually you are comparing him to Hitler, and I don't think it's a very fair comaprison:

Hitler: Totalitarian dictator with complete control over the press in his country.
Moore: Some guy with a film crew working within a (more or less) free-speech society.

Hitler saying Jews are well cared for: Lies to disguise Hitler's own evil behaviour.
Moore criticising Bush: Attempts to expose someone else's (alleged) evil behaviour.

Not the same thing at all.

Most of french people admire American way of life, wealth and Culture, and remember all European countries have a debt of gratitude to pay to the USA since WWII.

Yet the US seems quick to forget that it owes the French a debt of gratitude for the war of independence. Who do you think gave you the statue of liberty? If not for the French you yanks would all be speaking English...

[Slynky]

"If not for the French you yanks would all be speaking English..."

[minipol]

I also believe there is more to 9/11 that meets the eye but who doesn't. I agree with Fyron that said something along the lines (to lazy to look it up) of "It's not only the majority of the USA that's stupid also of your country" which was directed at freduk.

I can't agree more. The world is full of idiots.
And sometimes we act as idiots . To me, one of the things that pissed me of after the US & Britain attacked Iraq was that suddenly, a lot of Europeans (mainly) started thrashing on Bush. It became fashionable to trash "old yeller". Hey, i don't think he's smart enough either to be president, but all the "join us in protesting against bush" bandwagon stuff was over the top for me. The undertone that was spread was something like "If you are not against Bush and can't see he is evil, you're an idiot"
(a bit the same as Bush'es: "You are either with us or against us)
Well boohoo, i'll make up my own mind thank you.
A lot of people say the US sucks just to be "fashionable".

About bandwagon stuff: i'll never forget a story that my history teacher told us in class. Before WWII, a Doctor wanted to know what all the fuss was about with this ony guy, Hitler. He went over to a rally with the idea that Hitler was a complete cookoo & dangerous and that he manipulated people. At a certain time during the meeting, he caught himself clapping along with the masses. He was shocked.
A very illustrating story i think. When too many people start cheering, take a step backwards, start your brain and then decide what to do. Don't be a parrot.

[trooper]

Originally posted by dogscoff:

3 Americans, 1 Brit, 1 Chinese, 1 Finn, 1 Haitian and only 1 French person.

See... only 12.5% french. 37.5% American & 12.5% British-

To be more precise (no haitian in my list):

Quentin Tarantino (USA, film director),
Emmanuelle Beart (France, actress,
Jerry Schatzberg, USA, film director),
Tilda Swinton (UK, actress),
Tsui Hark (Honk-Kong, Film maker),
Edwidge Danticat ( USA, writer) ,
Benoit Poelvoorde (Belgium, actor & film writer ),
Kathleen Turner (USA, actress),
Peter Von Bagh ( Finland, film critic).