Re: Fwd: Michael Moore

["Peter T. Chattaway" <petert@interchange.ubc.ca>]

On Thu, 5 Feb 2004, Don Smith wrote:
> Now, that said, all the Canadians *I* know lock their house doors, and I
> know a fair number of Americans who do not.  I have no idea if he staged
> that bit about checking random house doors, but certainly my friends in
> Toronto lock their doors.  Peter?  :-)

Let's just say I would want to see the raw footage, and see how many doors
*were* locked as compared to the number that were *not* locked.  :)

> I think he really blew his opportunity when talking to Charlton Heston
> -- instead of taking the opportunity to really get to the heart of the
> issues, he chose to browbeat the guy and ask unanswerable questions
> about little kids being shot.

Yes, and I thought it was deplorable how Moore took Heston's phrase "mixed
ethnicity" (which he offered in response to Moore's question regarding
what makes America "unique") and turned it into the notion that violence
was "an ethnic thing", which has a whole different set of connotations.  
Moore wasn't really trying to give Heston a chance to speak at all.

It would have been interesting to see what Heston and Moore had to say
about Heston's claim that Canada wouldn't have so many guns for much
longer ... Moore clearly cuts something out of the conversation at that
point and tries to cover it up by inserting a shot of Heston's face.

(This is another problem with Moore's approach -- he tries to *hide* the
edits by intercutting the speeches and interviews with the equivalent of
'reaction shots', whereas a documentarian like Errol Morris will quite
happily cut down a monologue by Robert McNamara with jump cuts, which make
it perfectly obvious to the audience that *something* has been cut.)

--- Peter T. Chattaway --------------------------- peter@chattaway.com ---
Nothing tells memories from ordinary moments; only afterwards do they
   claim remembrance, on account of their scars. -- Chris Marker, La Jetee

---------------
Unsubscribe by going to http://www.actwin.com/OtR/