...apparently. That was what this movie was telling me. But rather than degenerating into the usual argument of left wing vs. right wing politics -- I'm much more interested in addressing the distressingly high rate of prejudiced, bigoted and downright hateful moments in the film...
The first five minutes of the movie (portraying terrorists in Afghanistan) contain a joke that the terrorists are all, apparently, named Muhammed Hussien. Now, I'm not expecting the screenwriters of this flick to have done any research, but this is both completely inaccurate to the sects of Islam in Afghanistan and reductive and lame (The Terrorists are all EXACTLY the same, therefore, easy to hate. Why look at them as human beings at all?) Moments later we are treated to a racist depiction of Mexican immigrants; seen as cheap labor for the terrorists (because, honestly, Mexico MUST have a worse economy than Afghanistan). Joke or not, this is literally the last time anyone who is not white will have a speaking role in the movie, until we meet the slaves (more on that later).
There are no women in major roles in the film, apart from the exceedingly small role of Michael's assistant. Otherwise they are either sex objects for leering; screeching menstruating witches; or butch, angry lesbians. (Sometimes a mix of those.) A conservative female in my viewing group was so put off by the bigoted depiction of women that she spent half an hour muttering to herself and not watching the screen.
Most egregiously, this film is openly hostile to any religion that is not Christianity (and, I'm guessing, Evangelical Christianity, at that). Islam is, of course, shown as being simply the religion of terrorists and no one else. Judaism is given a backhand slap in a scene where Mike is shown the future if we had not fought the Civil War: he, ludicrously, lives in the South and owns slaves. At one point, they begin to serenade him with "Hava Negila." Everyone in my viewing group threw up their hands at this blatant anti-Semitism. (Correct me if I'm wrong, but Michael Moore is Catholic, right? And also, if there were a South that was its own country, I'm expected to believe a LIBERAL would be living there and owning slaves, in direct counter to his beliefs? Nice try, movie... But that still doesn't distract me from wondering why you hate Jews.) Later, American soldiers are shown having a Christian prayer meeting just before going off to fight the good fight -- which is a pretty direct insult to all our brave fighting men and women who do not ascribe to that particular belief system. My best friend, who signed up for the Army days after 9/11, was really ticked off at the flick by this point. And nobody appreciated the slapstick humor set at the site of Ground Zero. Not cool.
I don't mean to be reductive, but this kind of film reflects the low level of public discourse in our country. Suddenly, belonging to a political party has become some kind of moral imperative and some people now act like they are allowed to treat those who do not ascribe to their views with outright hatred -- no more giving those they disagree with the respect they once enjoyed as fellow Americans to state their beliefs and live alongside them. Bob Hope snuck jokes at the expense of Democrats into his movies, but always with the good humor that goes with knowing we are all citizens who love our Constitution and the freedoms we are all entitled to; no matter how we differ on fiscal or social policies. If you are a conservative, I would hope that you have the intelligence and decency to look past the superficial preaching to the choir in this movie to see the irrational hate below; and shun it. And if you cannot do so or, heaven forbid, support the bigotry expressed in this film; I would counsel YOU to either start loving this country and our freedoms, or leave it.
P.S. As a personal note, if somebody who reads this who knows David Zucker, please tell him that if he's going to trash on documentary movies as "not being real movies" over 20 times throughout his flick, he might want to make a movie that looks like it cost more than a hundred bucks. My girlfriend makes documentaries -- you can suck it, David Zucker.
The first five minutes of the movie (portraying terrorists in Afghanistan) contain a joke that the terrorists are all, apparently, named Muhammed Hussien. Now, I'm not expecting the screenwriters of this flick to have done any research, but this is both completely inaccurate to the sects of Islam in Afghanistan and reductive and lame (The Terrorists are all EXACTLY the same, therefore, easy to hate. Why look at them as human beings at all?) Moments later we are treated to a racist depiction of Mexican immigrants; seen as cheap labor for the terrorists (because, honestly, Mexico MUST have a worse economy than Afghanistan). Joke or not, this is literally the last time anyone who is not white will have a speaking role in the movie, until we meet the slaves (more on that later).
There are no women in major roles in the film, apart from the exceedingly small role of Michael's assistant. Otherwise they are either sex objects for leering; screeching menstruating witches; or butch, angry lesbians. (Sometimes a mix of those.) A conservative female in my viewing group was so put off by the bigoted depiction of women that she spent half an hour muttering to herself and not watching the screen.
Most egregiously, this film is openly hostile to any religion that is not Christianity (and, I'm guessing, Evangelical Christianity, at that). Islam is, of course, shown as being simply the religion of terrorists and no one else. Judaism is given a backhand slap in a scene where Mike is shown the future if we had not fought the Civil War: he, ludicrously, lives in the South and owns slaves. At one point, they begin to serenade him with "Hava Negila." Everyone in my viewing group threw up their hands at this blatant anti-Semitism. (Correct me if I'm wrong, but Michael Moore is Catholic, right? And also, if there were a South that was its own country, I'm expected to believe a LIBERAL would be living there and owning slaves, in direct counter to his beliefs? Nice try, movie... But that still doesn't distract me from wondering why you hate Jews.) Later, American soldiers are shown having a Christian prayer meeting just before going off to fight the good fight -- which is a pretty direct insult to all our brave fighting men and women who do not ascribe to that particular belief system. My best friend, who signed up for the Army days after 9/11, was really ticked off at the flick by this point. And nobody appreciated the slapstick humor set at the site of Ground Zero. Not cool.
I don't mean to be reductive, but this kind of film reflects the low level of public discourse in our country. Suddenly, belonging to a political party has become some kind of moral imperative and some people now act like they are allowed to treat those who do not ascribe to their views with outright hatred -- no more giving those they disagree with the respect they once enjoyed as fellow Americans to state their beliefs and live alongside them. Bob Hope snuck jokes at the expense of Democrats into his movies, but always with the good humor that goes with knowing we are all citizens who love our Constitution and the freedoms we are all entitled to; no matter how we differ on fiscal or social policies. If you are a conservative, I would hope that you have the intelligence and decency to look past the superficial preaching to the choir in this movie to see the irrational hate below; and shun it. And if you cannot do so or, heaven forbid, support the bigotry expressed in this film; I would counsel YOU to either start loving this country and our freedoms, or leave it.
P.S. As a personal note, if somebody who reads this who knows David Zucker, please tell him that if he's going to trash on documentary movies as "not being real movies" over 20 times throughout his flick, he might want to make a movie that looks like it cost more than a hundred bucks. My girlfriend makes documentaries -- you can suck it, David Zucker.