Manufacturing Dissent (2007)

User Rating:

5.9/10   

Directors:

Rick Caine
Debbie Melnyk

Writers:

Rick Caine (writer)
Debbie Melnyk (writer)

Release Date:

5 October 2007 (UK)

Genre:

Documentary

Tagline:

It's never been so hard to get Michael Moore in front of a camera.

Plot:

A documentary that looks to distinguish what's fact, fiction, legend, and otherwise as a camera crew trails Michael Moore as he tours with his film, Fahrenheit 9/11.

Cast

Dave Barber
Peter Bart
Tony Bennett
Elizabeth Bourgeois
José Bové
Laura Bush
Rick Caine	...	Himself
Jimmy Carter
Rosalynn Carter
Dick Cheney
Noam Chomsky	...	Himself
Wesley Clark
Peter Damon
Howard Dean
John Derevlany
Phil Donahue
Michael Donovan
Mark Dowie	...	Himself - former investigative journalist
Ryan Eashoo
Roger Ebert
Diedre English
Al Franken
Janeane Garofalo	...	Herself
Richard Gere	...	Himself
David Gilmour
Kathleen Glynn
Danny Goldberg
Ben Hamper	...	Himself
Sean Hannity
Terri Hardesty
Don Hazen
Joseph Heath
James Hirsen
Christopher Hitchens	...	Himself
Adam Hochschild
Jim Hubbard
Jesse Jackson
Gilles Jacob
Harlan Jacobson	...	Himself
Mick Jagger
Jim Kenefick
John Kerry
Jesse Larner
Chris Lehmann
Chad Lowe
Henriette Mantel
Dave Marsh
Jack Matthews
Albert Maysles	...	Himself
Nick McKinney
Debbie Melnyk
Moby
Anne Moore
Michael Moore	...	Himself
Errol Morris	...	Himself
Govindini Murty
Ralph Nader	...	Himself
Alanis Obomsawin
Bill O'Reilly
John Pierson	...	Himself
Kevin Rafferty
Ronald Reagan
Sam Riddle
Roseanne	...	Herself
Guy Saperstein
Susan Sarandon	...	Herself
Barbara Schroeder
Roger B. Smith
Ken Starr
Helga Stephenson
Quentin Tarantino	...	Himself
Peter von Bagh	...	Himself
Harvey Weinstein
Mike Westfall
Haskell Wexler
Michael Wilson
Byron York

Also Known As:

Manufacturing Dissent: Uncovering Michael Moore (International: English title)

MPAA:

Rated R for some language.

Runtime:

97 min

Country:

Canada

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

USA:R

Company:

Persistence of Vision Productions

Trivia:

This film alleges that Michael Moore did speak with Roger B. Smith twice in 1987 (at General Motors' shareholders meeting) and 1988 (at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York), but Michael Moore didn't put that footage in Roger & Me (1989). However, even Roger B. Smith himself said in a 1990 interview with Los Angeles Times that he had never stayed at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York. Michael Moore himself also denied this allegation to Associated Press: Moore said that he did speak with Roger Smith at the 1987 shareholders' meeting, but that was before he started working on Roger & Me (1989) and the conversation had nothing to do with the film.

Quotes:

Dave Marsh: If you won't tell the truth because it's bad for the cause then the cause becomes a fiction, which is exactly what's happened. It's happened with the Left in the United States as a whole and it's happened with Michael Moore.

Movie Connections:

References Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media (1992)

Manufacturing Michael

Im not a blind Michael Moore fan by any stretch, in fact I think "The Big One" is probably one of the worst films of all time, and I think that he is an annoying blowhard. Being a proud independent, I can see the idiots on both sides.

But as Im watching this, I noticed a glaringly ridiculous scene (mentioned briefly by someone else in an earlier review). They showed a group of Flint High School girls doing some sort of irritatingly silly amateur schoolie play that mocks "Roger and Me" (the kind that only the mostly blindly adoring of right wing parents would be able to endure in their pompous little brats), and then the teenage girl "writer" of this play is interviewed, and she claims that Moore "fabricated" a news report that shows a female reporter stating that a Nightline report was cancelled because their news van was stolen, even as the scene from the film with her report is being shown over the girl's claims. It is from all visual inspection a real news report. Is she truly trying to say that Moore literally created the report in the film himself, hiring an actress to pose as a reporter and putting a fake station logo on the screen? If so, its funny because I cant seem to find any mention of it anywhere else but on this site, about this film. Did this little girl just make it up and these idiot filmmakers put it in at face value? Doesn't that make them complete hypocrites (like most people who do these kinds of amateurish no-budget "gotcha" documentaries).

The female narrator (I assume its a woman named "Debbie Melnyck", who is listed as one of the "writers" and "directors") tries for a parody of Moore's sardonic style, but her lispy, effete elementary school teacher housewifey monotone would be more apt for Romper Room or selling jewelry on QVC. (Maybe the girl who put on the play is her daughter or something.) Sure, Michael Moore is a jerk, but what comes out much more glaringly in this film is the vapidness of young people in the majority of the spineless post-baby boom generations. We're doomed, folks. Face it now and save yourselves the Christmas shock. There's no hope. This documentary is depressingly effective at showing how our nauseatingly effete youth are going to sissy their way into the end times. We're all going out with a whimper, followed by a bang. This film is a good argument in favor of everyone deserving it. Both sides are chock full of fooles. The difference between the swishing grade Z Canadian twits who created this and Michael Moore is, Moore has talent for making films, and they don't. Stay home, Debbie dear, you aren't worthy to speak to Moore for a reason. It's not because he's avoiding you. It's because you are insignificant.

This wretched film is showing on Sundance Channel this month, so watch it for FREE by all means, if you must at all (please don't pay people like this to make more films like this). Or better yet, watch a good documentary instead (like "Grey Gardens", which is also playing this month on Sundance).