I have been a big fan of Michael Moore ever since I saw his documentary series The Awful Truth. After that Bowling for Columbine, Fahrenheit 9/11, and the list continues. One of the things I admire about Michael is not just his moral stance and fight for fairness and equality, but that he is able to fight against a system who’s strength is in intimidation. It is after all the people in power he criticises, and their fight to get to power and stay in power which is picked apart to show how corrupt the system actually is. Now I say ‘the system’ although Michael’s documentaries and criticisms lie mostly with the American system, but I do feel that the faults with the American system is slowly being copied in Europe, and by that I mean especially the UK.
I never considered myself to be a coward and I do stand up for myself or others when I feel something is wrong, but the way Michael Moore does it just means that he has more gravitas than me - and most of us. When I asked him if he ever was nervous, to directly criticise the people in power then he replied, ‘No’. When I said that he must be getting death threats and they must surely scare him then he replied “It’s the quiet ones you need to watch. If someone threatens you then they would normally not do anything”. A point that I am sure he’s right in, but yet, a point that I would never be 100% convinced of if I was in Michael Moore’s shoes. And besides that, how about the quiet ones. How many of them are out there?
Jerry Lewis once sung “Great Balls of Fire” - yet the song for a man like Michael Moore would be more like “Great Balls of Iron”.
His most recent film Fahrenheit 11/9 gives Donald Trump a hard time and looks back at already covered subjects such as guns in the US.
Shot for The New Statesman
