Movie Review: Slacker Uprising

Michael Moore's latest film was released with little
fanfare, for free, over the internet prior to this year's Presidential
election. Moore released it for free not only because he wanted to reach as
many people as possible, but because he feels it's important that the American
people be GIVEN the facts about what is going in our country, rather than
having to pay for it or be force-fed falsehoods by the mainstream media. He may
also have given it out for free because it's the least interesting of his documentaries,
and it's also extremely outdated.



"Slacker Uprising" follows Moore's nationwide tour of the same name.
The purpose was to get people out to vote, new voters in particular, in hopes
that George W. Bush would not win another term in office. Moore makes stops at
various college campuses, and invites several celebrity guests and musicians to
speak and perform at his rallies.



A large part of what makes this film so...well, boring...is the fact that he
released it four years too late. The documentary was being filmed all the way
up until the 2004 election, which would make it impossible to release before
the election. How about stopping filming a month before the election and
releasing it the weekend prior to the election? Four years after Bush did indeed
win a second term; this film does little to invoke emotion because we already
know what happened. It is also peppered with too many musical performances,
none of which were entertaining. The film feels thrown together, and was
essentially only released so that all the time and money would not be a
complete waste. We can only hope that the film may have reached some people who
were still undecided on whether or not they were going to vote for Obama or
McCain, and were swayed to vote for Obama by this film.



However, the film was not an entire snooze fest. It actually offered up some
very insightful quotes, and had a particularly interesting portion that
documented the presence of Republicans at Moore's rallies. During a press
conference following his previous film, "Fahrenheit 9/11," Moore was
asked by a reporter if his films are propaganda. This is one of the biggest
criticisms of Moore and his films, and his answer could not have been better:



"The propaganda that exists appears every night on the nightly news. Night
after night after night before this war started, "There are weapons of
mass destruction! Saddam had something to do with 9/11!" And there were
all of you (the media), on TV every night, flying our flag all over the screen
as you told these misstatements and these untruths to the American people. How
much were we propagandized by the Bush administration and by our mainstream
media, over and over and over again? What if you'd done your real job? What if
you'd asked the hard questions and demanded evidence about this war? Because
the great thing about the American people is, once they have the truth - that
there were no weapons of mass destruction, that there was no connection to 9/11
- they flipped. 70% were for the war when you didn't do your job, and now when
they are informed, 54% are opposed to the war: the majority. Because they got
the truth. Because they got the information. What took so long? My movie exists to counter the managed, manufactured news, which is essentially a propaganda arm of the Bush administration. My movies are the anti-propaganda. The only
thing sad about that is that people have to pay 8 or 9 dollars, to come to a
movie theater, get a babysitter, to learn things they should be getting for
free, sitting on the couch, eating Tostitos."



Bravo, my good man. Bravo.



Another interesting segment takes place at the University of Florida. There are
many Bush supporters at Moore's rally, included brainwashed children who shout
"Michael Moore sucks!" at the camera. It's nice to see that
Republican parents are wasting no time instilling their own beliefs into their
children, who are too young to even know what Moore, or what their parents for
that matter, are even talking about. The Bush supporters decide to do
interviews for the film, and offer up various "facts," including, but
not limited to, the "fact" that Moore is a communist and all of his
supporters are anti-American. They bash his film, "Fahrenheit 9/11,"
saying that it is full of lies. Then, in typical Republican fashion, they admit
that they have actually not SEEN the film, but they've HEARD ENOUGH to know
that it's full of lies. They wouldn't pay to see a Michael Moore! What an
outrageous thought! Apparently they won't pass up on the opportunity to speak
on it, though. Viggo Mortenson also makes an interesting cameo during which he
points out that, unlike Canada and other nations; we don't get automatically
registered when we turn 18.



This film is free for a reason. It's not a bad film, it just has bad timing.
Maybe if it were released prior to the 2004 election, Bush may not have ever
seen that second term. As it is, we already know what happens, and it's
difficult to have interest in rallies for a goal that ultimately was not
accomplished. There are also too many musical numbers and the film drags on
much longer than is necessary. Seeing as how it was released four years late,
there is much that could have been trimmed from it. The best portions of the
film have already been outlined in this review, so unless you insist upon
seeing them for yourself, don't bother downloading this movie. However, it is
free, so it couldn't hurt.