10 Definitive Films-Within-Films

We’re talking meta-movies here this time out! In particular - movies that contain sometimes just an inkling, sometimes an almost fully formed movie of its own inside their film framework. Fictitious films abound through cinema history - a fake title mentioned here, a fabricated clip seen in passing there but these examples cited below are unique in that their film within a film is practically their sole reason for being.

1. “Mant” in MATINEE (Dir. Joe Dante, 1993)

A comic valentine to the end of the 50’s sci-fi B-movie era MATINEE is set in Key West, Florida, during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962. This is the perfect setting for schlock meister showman Lawrence Woolsey (John Goodman) to unveil “Mant” billed as “Half Man...Half Ant...All Terror!” and presented in Atomo-Vision and Rumble-Rama.

Woolsey (who was supposedely based on like-wise schock -meister William Castle but his silhouette and appearance in his trailers are pure Hitchcock) gets his girlfriend played by Cathy Moriarty to dress as a nurse to get patrons to sign “medical consent forms” in the theater lobby, rigs the seats with electric buzzers, and even hires a guy to dress up as a giant ant and appear at a pivotal moment to scare the audience. All these gimmicks are employed to enhance the experience that is “Mant,” a black and white spoof of vintage monster movies in which a man mutates into a giant ant.

Appearances from veteran actors Kevin McCarthy (the original INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS), Robert Cornthwaite (the original WAR OF THE WORLDS, the original THE THING) and William Shallert (CRY TERROR! - '58) give it creature feature cred while Moriarty does double duty as the actress playing the Mant’s distressed wife. As the high price on the Amazon ad to the right indicates MATINEE is sadly out of print but it must be noted that the original widescreen version laserdisc (circa '94) has a stand-alone extra of the entire “Mant!” movie, running about 20 min. With hope a DVD re-release with this bonus will arrive some day and give this under-rated gem its deserved due.

2. “A Fistful Of Yen” in THE KENTUCKY FRIED MOVIE (Dir. John Landis, 1977) 

At just over 30 minutes this is the longest film within a film on this list. Sandwiched inside a hodge-podge of TV commercial parodies, movie trailer send-ups, and other media mocking mayhem, “A Fistful Of Yen” is a savage satire of 70’s Kung fu cinema in general but mostly it takes on the seminal Bruce Lee vehicle ENTER THE DRAGON (Dir. Robert Clouse, 1973). 

As KENTUCKY FRIED MOVIE was the first feature by sketch comedy trio the Zucker bros. (David and Jerry) and Jim Abrahams, this extended piece was essentially a warm-up piece to AIRPLANE! and a introduction to their joke-a-second sight gag style. Evan C. Kim plays the Lee stand-in who accepts an assignment by the Government (U.S.? British? Does it matter?) to infiltrate Dr. Klahn’s (Master Bong Soo Han) island fortress of extraordinary magnitude, foil his destructive master plan and "kill fifty, maybe sixty people."

3. “Habeas Corpus” in THE PLAYER (Dir. Robert Altman, 1991) 

Major Spoiler! - Andy Civella (Dean Stockwell) and Tom Oakley (Richard E. Grant) pitch a premise to slick but sleazy studio exec.Griffin Mill (Tim Robbins) - a dark thriller about an innocent woman sentenced to death. Oakley insists that the project be done with no stars and no happy ending – “she’s dead because that’s the reality – the innocent die” and “when I think about this - this isn’t even an American film” he stresses. 

When "Habeas Corpus" emerges a year later we see its final scenes in a studio screening room as the creators and execs look on. It’s now completely populated by stars (Bruce Willis, Julia Roberts, Susan Sarandon, Peter Falk, Louise Fletcher, Ray Walston, etc) and has a contrived feel-good one-liner ending – “traffic was a bitch” Willis retorts after rescuing Roberts from the gas chamber. Why was this vision so disgustingly comprised? With dollar signs in his eyes Oakley responds “what about the way the old ending tested in Canoga Park? Everybody hated it, we reshot it now everybody loves it – that’s reality!” SNAP!

4.“Je Vous Presente, Pamela (Meet Pamela)” in DAY FOR NIGHT (NUIT AMERICAINE) (Dir. Francois Truffaut, 1974)

The making of “Meet Pamela” is the entire premise of the Oscar Award winning DAY FOR NIGHT. Truffaut plays a director much like himself who is consumed with every detail of his latest production. His cast and crew, all seemingly playing versions of themselves toil and plod through the never ending chaotic shooting schedule. The beautiful American actress Jacqueline Biset (who is one of the only actors that has a few lines in English) plays Pamela who in the mist of movie passion gets caught up in a romance with Jean Peirre Leaud (Truffaut regular and alter ego in the ANTOINE DOINEL series) who continually asks everyone he meets “are women magic?”

The first scene shows a busy Parisian street with dozens of people walking, children playing, a bus passing, and a man (Leaud) walking up the stairs from a subway tunnel to confront another man on the sidewalk then slap him. The director yells “cut!” and we have a unit director through a bullhorn - “the bus was 2 seconds late, the background activity was late too!” We are immediately inside both the film being made and the outer film about making it. And so it goes throughout the whole picture – we get a sense that "Meet Pamela" is a cliched melodrama far less interesting than what goes on behind the camera – which of course is in front of the camera in this film but before I blow my meta-mind out I digress…

5. “Chubby Rain” in BOWFINGER (Dir. Frank Oz, 1999) Another movie about the making of a fictional movie but this one is so uniquely American in its con-artistry. BOWFINGER has many detractors but I consider it the best Steve Martin movie of the last 10 years. Granted that’s not saying much – I mean CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN, BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE, PINK PANTHER – uh, anybody? The movie being made was chosen by Martin’s not so wild but at times completely crazy small-time movie-maker wannabe Bobby Bowfinger character from a sci-fi script by his accountant (Adam Alexi-Malle) about aliens who come down in the raindrops hence “Chubby Rain.”

After a cursory script skimming by slimey studio exec Robert Downey Jr. Bowfinger finds that his project would get greenlit if he gets self proclaimed “biggest black action star in the world” Kit Ramsey (Eddie Murphy). So when Ramsey is uninterested in the doing the film, especially after meeting Bowfinger – the cast and crew (including Heather Graham, Jamie Kennedy, and Christine Baranski) stalk him shooting film of him without his knowledge to star in “Chubby Rain.”

The hoax works for a bit but Ramsey being extremely paranoid and a pawn of a Scientology-like organization called Mindhead goes ballistic at the movie manipulations surrounding him. In the end though a deal is struck and the completed “Chubby Rain” is a pure crowd pleaser from the unknowing participation from Ramsey and the knowing participation from his geeky twin brother Jiff who serves as his double (of course also played by Murphy).

A glimpse at another ficticious film “Fake Purse Ninjas” starring Bowfinger and Jiff is seen at the end. Sure "Chubby Rain" as a film within a film is silly beyond belief but even in its fake truncated form when we see a montage of scenes from it at its premiere it looks more valid and a more solid credible film than say DADDY DAY CARE, I SPY, HAUNTED MANSION, or even NORBIT for Christ’s sake!

6. “The Purple Rose Of Cairo” in THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO (Dir. Woody Allen, 1985) 

Since the Woodman is a fully functioning film historian himself, the idea that he would construct a completely realized movie to be watched and worshipped during the depression especially by domestically abused Celcelia (Mia Farrow) is not far fetched at all – in retrospect it seems natural as all get out. It’s just harmless escapism involving dapper dressed witty socialites on a Egyptian expedition before enjoying "a madcap Manhattan weekend" until protagonist pith-helmet wearing explorer Tom Baxter (Jeff Daniels) walks offscreen into Farrow's life and a world of trouble.

Then the actor playing the character - Gil Shepherd (also Daniels) has to appear to talk his alter-ego back onto the screen so the movie can play out. The other characters in "The Purple Rose Of Cairo" remain on the screen squabbling about their predicament and sometimes ridicule the few audience members while Cecelia is torn between the two men - "I just met a wonderful new man. He's fictional but you can't have everything.." One of Allen's greatest lines ever in his entire cinematic canon is spoken by an extra - credited as "Moviegoer" an irrate old lady (too lazy to do the full research on this one - several women are listed as "Moviegoer" on IMDb) complains at the box office - "I want what happened in the movie last week to happen this week; otherwise, what's life all about anyway?" 

7. "Codename Dragonfly" in CQ (Dir. Roman Coppola, 2001) So the story goes, this movie about a movie is a pastiche of the movies BARBARELLA (Dir. Roger Vadim, 1968) and DANGER: DIABOLIK (Dir. Mario Bava, 1968) - that is it's a nod to Italian knock-off spy thriller/cheap "it came from outer space" spoofs. Jeremy Davis plays an idealistic 60's film-maker in Paris in 1969 whose ego gets in the way of his artistic ambition when he works as an editor on "Codename Dragonfly". In the commentary cinematographer Bob Yeoman says "it's actually 3 movies within a movie" - the first being the black and white documentary that Davis's Paul character is self indulgentely making, the second - the sexy sci-fi "Dragonfly" project, and the third being I guess the entire CQ ("seek you") project surrounding it - I think that's it - maybe I need to watch it with commentary again. Anyway "Codename Dragonfly" is available as an extra on the CQ DVD in 2 different versions each running roughly over 10 min. - one is Paul's (Davis) the other director Andrezej's (Gerald Depardieu) compromised cut with fake "scene missing" bits and incomplete matte paintings. 

8.“Home For Purim” (later changed to “Home For Thanksgiving”) in FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION (Dir. Christopher Guest, 2006)

As one of Guest's lesser ensemble comedy works the film within a film here is actually pretty funny. The plot of the movie being made is about a daughter's confession of her lesbianism to her ailing mother upon coming home for a traditional holiday. Such issue driven content must be Oscar rewarded, right? So goes the premise here - funny in spurts - some of which spurts have studio exec Martin Gibb (Ricky Gervais) suggesting that they should "tone down the Jewishness" - hence the title and holiday change. Insinuated online Oscar buzz goes to the heads of the cast of "Home For Thanksgiving" particularly to unfortunately and cruelly named Marilyn Hack (Catherine O'Hara) and pretentious veteran actor Victor Allan Miller (Harry Shearer). From the evidenced quality (or lack of) in said film within film we can see way in advance how their fortunes (or lack of) will turn out. 

9. “The Orchid Thief” in ADAPTATION (Dir. Spike Jonze, 2002)

It could be argued that this entire movie is a movie within a movie here - it is hard to see where the screenplay Charlie Kaufman (Nicholas Cage) is writing ends and his brother Donald's (also Cage) begin. Hired to adapt Susan Orlean's (Meryl Streep) bestselling "The Orchid Thief" Kaufman sweats bullets on how exactly to make a story out of a story-less book. He declares "I don't want to cram in sex or guns or car chases or characters learning profound life lessons or growing or coming to like each other or overcoming obstacles to succeed in the end." His brother Donald is working on a populist thriller called "The 3". When Charlie realizes that Donald may have the accessible keys to making his work adaptable they collaborate and the movie concludes with sex, guns, a car chase, characters growing, coming to like each other, learning profound life lessons, and overcoming obstacles to succeed in the end. Charlie: “I’ve written myself into my screenplay.” Donald: “That’s kind of weird, huh?”

10. “The Mutants of 2051 AD” in STRANGE BREW (Dirs. Rick Moranis & Dave Thomas, 1983)

SCTV's beloved beer-swilling Canadian spokesmen Doug and Bob McKenzie introduce their new movie at the beginning of STRANGE BREW. It's a cheapie sci-fi epic set in the future after a worldwide holocaust. We see Bob (Moranis) drive their beat-up van suspended on very visible wires through what he calls "the forbidden zone" - "I was kinda like a one man force, eh? Like Charlton Heston in OMEGA MAN. Did you see it? It was beauty." The film breaks down, the audience revolts wanting their money back and STRANGE BREW regresses to a regular comedy setting. Too bad - if they kept the non-existant budget sci-fi thing going through the whole movie we might have really had a classic here.

Honorable Mention : “The Dueling Cavalier” (later changed to "The Dancing Cavalier" in SINGIN' IN THE RAIN (Dirs. Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly) We see little of this film within a film but its production meeting brainstorming makes the concept take on a life of its own. Especially as Wikipedia notes - "The film "The Dueling Cavalier" is probably a reference to THE CAVALIER (Dir. Irvin Willat, 1928) a largely silent picture notable only for its poorly dubbed songs that were thrown in when it became clear talkies were popular."

"American Scooby" in STORYTELLING (Dir. Todd Solondz, 2001) The second half of STORYTELLING entitled "Non-fiction" details documentary film-maker Toby Oxman (Paul Giamatti) filming Scooby (Mark Webber) - a high school student and his family (including father John Goodman * and mother Julie Hagerty) through the college application process. The film that results - "American Scooby" with its title, identical soundtrack and right on down to the "straw wrapper blowing in the wind" (a substitute for that plastic bag of course) is obviously a huge dig at AMERICAN BEAUTY. Apparently this is because Director Sam Mendes put down Solondz's work so file this under pay-back time. * 

Goodman, again. He is surely the meta-man to go to for fictional film appearances! "Stab" in SCREAM 2 (Dir. Wes Craven, 1997) Robert Rodriguez filmed the film-within-a-film here that dramatized the events of the first SCREAM. Also it should be noted that SCREAM 3 which was the series concluder also featured the fictional series concluder "Stab 3: Return to Woodsboro."

Also: “Tristram Shandy” in TRISTHAM SHANDY: A COCK AND BULL STORY (Dir. Michael Winterbottom, 2005) and "Raving Beauty" in CECIL B. DEMENTED (Dir. John Waters, 2001)

Dishonorable Mention : S1m0ne (Dir. Andrew Niccol, 2002) Computer generated actress Simone (Rachel Roberts) created by washed-out film maker Viktor Taransky (Al Pacino) stars in 3 fictional films - "I Am Pig", "Sunrise Sunset", and "Eternity Forever". What we see of them is just as unconvincing as she is. "Jack Slater IV" in LAST ACTION HERO (Dir. John McTiernan, 1993) The less said about this Schwarzenegger dud the better. Don't know why I even brought it up. "Time Over Time" in AMERICA’S SWEETHEARTS (Dir. Joe Roth, 2001) Diddo. 

Send your favorite film-within-a-film to boopbloop7@gmail.com 

More later...

DVD Babble Blurb Bash-tacular!

I have seen a lot of recent DVDs over the last few months that I haven't been blogged about so I thought it would be good to take a break from the summer sequel season and round up a handful and square them off. I tried to keep it in a brief blurb format but since this is film BABBLE the reviews of course wind on and on. Let's start with -

New Release DVD Recommendations :

LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA (Dir. Clint Eastwood, 2006) Word was that this was vastly superior to FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS but this politically correct companion piece is roughly the same quality in my estimation. Told from the Japanese point of view entirely in their language with sub-titles LETTERS has the same sense of earnest honor and the same grey overcast tint. The standout characters are General Tadamichi Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe) the young Saigo (Kazunari Ninomira) who run into each other more than once in the tunnels between Mount Saribachi and the north side of the island as bombing and ground attacks by the American troops rage above. The melodrama involving the sympathy that emerges is handled deftly by Eastwood while the sentiment - such as the sunny Speilbergisms that sadly have defined the modern era war-film is kept in check. It may be too much to watch both FLAGS and LETTERS in one sitting or some double feature setting but both even with their glorified old-school faults (most likely from the screenplay written by CRASH * director Paul Hack-ish, oh - I mean Haggis) should not be missed.

* Incidentely my least favorite Best Picture Academy Award winning film ever!



49 UP (Dir. Michael Apted, 2005) The 7th in the excellent documentary series that began in 1964 with the bold statement - "Give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man" and followed 14 British children catching up with them every (yep) 7 years. Since most people I know haven't seen any of these movies I'd highly recommend the Up Series box-set which has the previous 6 films but honestly that's not absolutely necessary to enjoy this movie. Plenty of clips from all the films inform and enhance the new material and don't come off as redundant for those who have kept up. It would be too much for me to recount all the names, stories, and economic backgrounds so check out this Wikipedia entry if you are curious. Seeing this group of real people at the various stages of their lives through turmoil and peace makes for extremely satisfying viewing. Bring on 56 UP!

ROCKY BALBOA
(Dir. Sylvester Stallone, 2006)

It's hard for me to believe this is making my recommendations list. I mean as a kid I hated the ROCKY movies, ridiculed them with other snotty pimpled faced friends, and grew up to believe them to be populist Narcissistic America at its most lame brained epic-wannabes. At some point when I got older I caught the original Best Picture winning ROCKY and found myself liking it. It came from my favorite era of cinema (the 70's dummy!) and it was grittily touching in its portrayal of the boxing underdog making a name for himself. Then sequel-itis set in and the character became a machine who could never lose in glitzy gimmicky match-ups with Mr. T (III) and that evil Russian powerhouse played by Dolph Lundgren (IV) - yes that's right - Rocky was going to win the Cold War! I never even saw ROCKY V (1990) - so why do I like and recommend ROCKY BALBOA? Because we have Stallone at his most likable - an aging humble simpleton running a restaurant named after his deceased wife Adrian (Talia Shire - who is not deceased; she just didn't return to the series), telling the same fight stories, and brushing off daily indignities. It seems oddly necessary for Stallone to return to his Rocky roots - this is his best and most definable character and even with the contrived 'inspired by a video game simulation Rocky gets an exhibition match with the current troubled champ Mason 'The Line Dixon' (Antonio Tarver)' scenario, I hate to admit it but it works. Bring on JOHN RAMBO! Okay, no wait - that's a bit much.

And now :

New Release DVD Disses :

BOBBY (Dir. Emilio Estevez, 2006) I had heard the news upon its theatrical release that this was a NASHVILLE remake - relocated to the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles with the RFK assassination the backdrop to a convoluted mishmash of over 20 cliched '60s stereotypes. I held out 'til it came in that red Netflix envelope because of my love for political period pieces but damn was that description right on the money! The Altman derived framework doesn't disguise the awful screenplay with ham-fisted base dialogue like Nick Cannon playing an insufferably idealistic Kennedy staffer emoting "now that Dr. King is gone - no one left but Bobby. No one." Cannon joins an ace cast including Anthony Hopkins, Lawrence Fishborne, William H. Macy, Harry Belfonte, Christian Slater (one of the few non-idealist characters - he plays a base racist), and Estevez's Daddy Martin Sheen. Not so ace actors here include Elijah Wood, Lindsay Lohan, Demi Moore and Estevez himself. The cringe inducing cliches pile up - Ashton Kutcher does his worst acting ever (can't believe that was possible) as a hippy that would look phony on Dragnet 1967- during a horrifyingly stupid acid trip sequence actually sits staring at an orange in his hand saying "no, you shut up!", every TV set has a perfect quality picture of carefully chosen clips of RFK speeches and there's even a MAGNOLIA-esque montage going from strained close-up shots actor to actor. Can't deny the heart that went into this movie but all we have here is an A-list cast, B-list production values, C-list cliches, D-list overused soundtrack standards, and an F-list script. Somebody revoke Estevez's cinematic license! He should be exiled to the TV movie circuit after this film felony.

SMOKIN' ACES (Dir. Joe Carnahan, 2007) Another better than average cast slumming it through derivative drivel. Flashy Vegas gangster caper in which every one in the cast is after sleazy magician soon to be snitch Buddy Aces (Jeremy Piven - pictured on the left). Some are trying to protect him - (lawyer Curtis Armstrong, FBI agents Ryan Reynolds and Ray Liotta under the supervision of chief Andy Garcia) but everybody else is trying to kill him including Alicia Keys, Ben Affleck, Jason Bateman, and rapper Common - okay yeah so it's not A-list but most of them are still better than the material in this worn entry into the PULP FICTION-GET SHORTY-LOCK STOCK-GO sweepstakes that expired over a decade ago. Kind of like Shane Black's also post-dated glib witless KISS KISS BANG BANG (2005) SMOKIN' ACES is a lesson in how quick cutting and hip-hopisms don't ensure a clever crafty meta-movie. Just say Tarenti-NO to this piece of pop-nonsense.

This post (especially the disses) is dedicated to Good Morning America critic Joel Siegel (1943-2007). He became a film babble hero when he walked out of a screening of CLERKS II last summer. Knowing his days were numbered he figured he didn't want to waste his last hours on that crap. The fact that it pissed off Kevin Smith was the icing on the cake! Check out Roger Ebert's heartfelt tribute.


More later...

The Evolution Of Michael Moore

“…oh and remember let’s defeat the terrorists over there so we don’t have to fight them here.” - Michael Moore (SiCKO, 2007) So Michael Moore’s latest event movement movie-doc is opening Friday at my local hometown theater The Varsity but like many folk here on the internets I watched a copy online. I'll still see it at my theater and urge everyone I know to do so 'cause as my review below sez it's a keeper. Since Moore and me have had our ups and downs through the years I thought It would be cool to look back over his movies (this is film babble blog so I'm not going to discuss his books or TV programs) and break them down a bit. A formula of sorts emerges when we look at the basic ingredients in a Moore movie - first though we must look at one of his principle inspirations. In April of 1986 shortly after General Electric bought NBC, David Letterman - the top-rated late night talk show host at the time - on his old 12:30 broadcast Late Night With David Letterman did a camera remote film piece in which he took a fruit basket as a welcoming gift to GE's corporate headquarters in New York. Letterman kept a good game-face as he was told to leave and his director scolded to turn off his camera. This bit which should be regarded as a TV classic (I'll settle for the "memorable moment" status that Wikipedia has granted it) is the template for Michael Moore's entire schtick. You can see the bit here. Moore took that bit and ran with it as far as his fat ass can take him. Moore even acknowledged it as a huge influence on The Late Show With David Letterman when promoting FAHRENHEIT 9/11 in 2004. You've got to have more than invading corporation lobbies and harrasing the staff that to make a full fledged documentary so let's look at : 5 MICHAEL MOORE MOVIE METHODS Yep, one can't imagine Moore's films without these tried and true stylistic devices - 1. Idyllic 50’s stock footage - In the first third of all of Moore's films we see archival footage depicting a supposedly simpler time. Public service films, shots from grainy newsreels, bits of TV commercials, clips from forgotten drive-in fodder, sometimes even Moore's own childhood home movies are presented to put us in a Leave It To Beaver-Father Knows Best mindset before showing us a series of modern atrocities. This definitely shows the influence of Moore's mentor and cinematographer Kevin Rafferty *. Rafferty's own documentary made of likewise footage - THE ATOMIC CAFE (1982) is another huge piece of the Moore movie puzzle. * Incidentally Rafferty is a first cousin of President George W. Bush. Thanks again Wikipedia! 2. Baby Boomer Era Hit Songs - The precedent was set in ROGER & ME when auto worker Ben Hamper talks about the groove (yes, groove) he had trouble working up listening to The Beach Boys's "Wouldn't It Be Nice" on his car stereo after telling his employers he couldn't take it anymore. The song plays as shots of boarded-up houses, abandoned storefronts, and a TV report about the rat population escalating after the factory closing in Flint, Michigan rolls by. That groove resurges in the well known songs by the Animals whose "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place" - in FAHRENHEIT 9/11 serenades the sequence of planes taking off to drive home the point about the Bin Laden family being given the privilege to fly in the days after 9/11, Neil Young's "Rockin' In The Free World" played at the end of the same film, The Beatles "Happiness Is A Warm Gun" made an obvious point in BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE, and most aptly Cat Stevens' "Don't Be Shy" is used to great effect in SiCKO. 3. A Megaphone - In SiCKO we see Moore in a boat in Guantanamo Bay with a group of 9/11 rescue workers after learning that terrorist detainees are getting top notch medical treatment. With trusty megaphone in hand Moore yells "we just want some medical attention - the same kind the evil doers are getting!" This should be no surprise to Moore movie-goers because he employs the same tactic in almost every movie. This also can be traced back to Letterman - he disrupted a taping of The Today Show from a window above Rockefeller plaza with a megaphone. Of course Dave's agenda wasn't political - "this prime-time program was my idea and I'm not wearing any pants!" 4. Stern Evil Unemotional Old White Men - Of course General Motors President and inspiration for Moore's first film - Roger Smith is the archetype but throughout his canon we have more old money villains who apparently rule the world than we know what to do with. His book Stupid White Men confirms this premise. It's as if the Cancer Man (sorry Cigarette Smoking Man) and his elite friends from the X-Files have truly an identity and source of blame that we can finger. 'As if' indeed. 5. Bringing It All Back Home To Flint, Michigan - Moore's hometown has a pivotal place in all of his films (oddly not SiCKO - this is the only method on this list that isn't used) even the wide-ranging Global kaliedoscope that is FAHRENHEIT 9/11 has the story of Lila Lipscomb a Flint resident and proud flag waver whose son Michael was killed in Iraq. I would make some lame pun about Flint 'sparking' the whole Moore-apolaza but I digress... Now let's look at the movies themselves : THE BLUEPRINT – ROGER AND ME (1989) - "My mission was a simple one. To convince Roger Smith to spend a day with me in Flint and to meet some of the people who were losing their jobs." So it was, a young aspiring documentary film maker centers on the legacy of his hometown. The devastation that occurred after major auto factories laid off thousands of workers then later closed down. The evictions and fat-cat revisionisms that plagued normal workingman's schedules and laid bare the prospect of America at its outsourced greediest. It's all here in this grainy wet behind the ears debut. Though it has been noted that while Moore documented his struggle to get behind closed doors to interview General Motors President Roger Smith - he did actually talk to him before the film was made - in a question-and-answer exchange during a May 1987 GM shareholders meeting (seen in the doc MANUFACTURING CONSENT). The backlash was just beginning. THE MISFIRE – CANADIAN BACON (1995) "Canadians are always dreaming up a lotta ways to ruin our lives. The metric system, for the love of God! Celsius! Neil Young!" - Gus (Brad Sullivan) After the success of ROGER & ME it's understandable that Moore would want to try his hand at making a fictional funny film. He had a great premise - an unpopular US President played by Alan Alda tries to get a polling statistic bump and votes by starting a fake war with Canada. Years ahead of WAG THE DOG and with a great cast including John Candy (his last film by the way), Rip Torn, Kevin Pollack, Rhea Perlman and Steven Wright how could you go wrong? Well, it went really wrong and became a slapsticky forgettable mess. The unfunniest of Moore's films despite a few random laughs CANADIAN BACON now stands as an oddity in his career. Thankfully he went back to non-fiction and wiped his hands clean of this mess. THE P.R. PIECE – THE BIG ONE (1997) Moore, not yet a household name but finding himself with a best selling book Downsize This! Random Threats from an Unarmed American he decided to film his publicity tour across America. Pretty fluffy but still has some sharp segments - especially a meeting with Nike CEO Phil Knight (the only such corporate head that would meet Moore on his tour) is an essential bit that can not be easily dismissed. When Moore asks why his companies shoes are made abroad and not here - '' But what about Indonesia's genocidal practices against minority groups?" Knight uncomfortably responds "How many people died in the Cultural Revolution?'' An incendiary moment in an otherwise glorified infomercial. THE RELOADING: BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE (2002) This re-established film going folk to the Moore method. Few film makers would attempt a pop doc about gun control but Moore brought such sweaty passion to the subject that it could not be ignored. Sure it maybe plays around with facts (Moore had arranged the "free gun when you open a bank account" transaction weeks in advance, and that customers have "a week to 10 days waiting period") and the showdown with a senile but still grand Charlton Heston was misguided and more embarrassing than point making but overall BOWLING deserved the Oscar it won for best documentary. Visiting With Timothy McVeigh's brother James Nichols and hearing out his militia views, Moore asks: "Why not use Gandhi's way? He didn't have any guns and he best the British Empire." Nichols blankly replies: "I'm not familiar with that." Right there - that's America caught on film. With just a few allusions to 9/11 and the administration's ties to the Saudi family the gun-site was almost completely in line: THE GUNSHOT HEARD AROUND THE WORLD: FAHRENHEIT 9/11 (2004) Moore's controversial (can't write a piece on Moore without using the word "controversial") Oscar speech really set the bar high for this one. Beginning with the grossly mishandled 2000 election and dogging President George W. Bush's every stupid move, Moore's movie won him a lot of movie fans and he became a world wide celebrity but at the same time he became a divisive personality. FAHRENHEIT 9/11 has aged a bit badly - it creaks with sloppiness at times - understandably it was rushed into production to have an impact on the election in 2004 -and some of its conclusions are speculative at best but the bottom line as stated in the Oscar speech referred to above "we live in fictitious times, with a fictitious president who was elected with fictitious election results and we’re fighting a war for fictitious reasons” is pretty damn effectively played out. And now, the new one : SiCKO (2007) The most focused and funniest of Moore's films by far. SiCKO has little by way of manipulative editing or Moore's particular brand of muckraking - it just simply presents people and their stories - for the most part. Sure, most people will be cynical about the objectivity here - which in a way is the point - but the basic facts about Canadian, then French, then most surprisingly Cuban healthcare is enough to make even a Moore hater raise their eyebrows. The irrefutable facts like - "And the United States slipped to 37 in health care around the world, just slightly ahead of Slovenia" and the testimony of Dr. Linda Peeno, a former medical reviewer for the health insurer Humana in which she admited :"I denied a man a necessary operation" are just a few of the examples that brought tears to my eyes. Yes, there are liberties taken and many will label this as propaganda (but what documentary isn't?) most likely dealing with the close to the ending bit where Moore sends a 12,000 dollar check to one of his most out-spoken critics Jim Kenefick (Moorewatch.com) whose wife was sick and his web site needed funding or had to shut down. SiCKO may be Moore's best film - don't let biased naysayers tell you otherwise. Moore In Other's Mediums : As a celebrity - a household name, a well-known entity, a figurehead, and most aptly a target Michael Moore has really arrived. A few examples : TEAM AMERICA: WORLD POLICE (Dir. Trey Parker, 2004) Apparently them there South Park guys thought their appearance in BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE was mishandled and the cartoon in said film was too much in the style of South Park (Parker - “We have a very specific beef with Michael Moore. I did an interview, and he didn’t mischaracterize me or anything I said in the movie. But what he did do was put this cartoon right after me that made it look like we did that cartoon”), so yeah Moore had this coming - he appears as a hot dog eating jerk who straps explosives to his body to blow up the heroes of the film's title - as reported on MSNBC - The puppet was reportedly stuffed with ham when it blew. Family Guy (1999-when the show is no longer profitable) Now I'm Pro-Simpsons Anti-Family Guy but this bit should be noted even if it is a bad fart joke - "like that time I outfarted Michael Moore" Peter Griffin (voice of Seth MacFarlane) recounts then we see him and Moore in a Men's room enter parallel-walled toilets. Then the farting begins. Actually maybe this shouldn't be noted. Oh well. Email Film Babble! - boopbloop7@gmail.com Moore later... No! I meant : More later...