Dir: Michael Moore. US. 97 mins.
Move over, Meatloaf. Michael Moore is a rock star, or at least he was for a short season, in an autumn 2004 US tour to exhort non-voting young Americans to register and cast ballots for the Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. Captain Mike Across America chronicles that tour.
More Moore will be welcomed by the film-maker's US fans, like the release of a vintage live recording.
The European appetite for Moore's jabs at the US government seems insatiable, so this concert film should expect robust audiences in theatres there.
Given the Iraq War, anti-Bush products like this one can count on a growing market worldwide. Many in the theatrical audience will eventually want to own the dvd. This movie certainly extends the brand. And don't forget the potential appeal of the soundtrack.
Moore had hit his stride in autumn 2004, with the success of Fahrenheit 911 that summer. If he weren't enough to fill arenas, at his side were performers on the bill like Eddie Vedder, Steve Earle (in a heartfelt solo rendition of Rich Man's War), REM, Viggo Mortensen, and Roseanne Barr (who, to her fans' glee, hurls obscenities at the other side, her breasts bulging outward from an American flag t-shirt).
Yet Moore's 2004 campaign in Captain Mike Across America is more than a concert film clone, despite endless sweeping boom shots. There are no confessional interviews, no backstage gossip, no private Michael Moore behind the scenes.
Moore nicknames the Moore Tour the Slacker Uprising Tour, offering clean underwear and instant noodles to lay-abouts if they agree to vote and rally other voters.
Like a minister, he implores non-voters to stand up and pledge to change their sinful ways. Like the puckish political prankster Abbie Hoffman, he throws packages of underwear like doggie treats to his recruits in the audience. (The Republicans play right into his hands, charging him with 'bribery' for giving the underwear away, and the jokes go wild.)
Amid his mantras of a war based on lies fought by the poor for the rich, the bearish Moore trots out sobbing mothers and brothers of US troops killed in action. A soldier in a stadium is reduced to tears when Moore thanks him for his service and the crowd applauds.
Sceptics suffering from Moore-glut may find the film repetitive or just recycled, but Captain Mike Across America shows Moore to be a savvy entertainer who can sense just what his audiences want, and gives it to them on every stop on the show. (It is just what John Kerry failed to do.) You get the feeling that 'live' sequels are somewhere down the line.
Moore and his team rebut the notorious Swift Boat campaign that smeared Kerry with ads of their own, airing 30-second spoofs in packed arenas that rebut much-repeated charges that Kerry was a coward or that the decorated war veteran was injured by 'just shrapnel' rather than bullets.
When Bush-Cheney supporters heckle him, Moore reacts like a veteran stand-up comic, calling them 'brothers and sisters' and assuring his critics (no doubt opponents of gay marriage) that, when the Democrats take power, Republicans will enjoy 'the rights of any minority to marry each other.'
Fervent Moore-bashers in one stadium who hold hands and chant the 'Our Father' and 'Hail Mary' are so hilarious that they could have been placed there by Moore himself, who finishes sentences in the prayers from memory and asks if they plan to say 'the whole rosary.'
The film underscores an inconvenient truth that chagrins Republicans. Moore can be dazzlingly effective in rallying an important young constituency - a lot more effective, it turned out, that the Democratic candidate who was supposed to be leading it.
Any doubts about his effectiveness are dispelled when George H. W. Bush, the president's father, appears on television and calls the irksome Moore names that have to censored. So much for family values when the White House is at stake.
Yet Moore is not effective enough. John Kerry loses the 2004 election to Bush, in what the film informs us is the thinnest margin won by a sitting president in a bid for re-election.
Left unsaid is that the Republicans beat Kerry (and Moore) with their own shrewd campaign to get out the vote crafted by now-departed Karl Rove, the adviser known as 'Bush's Brain'.
Michael Moore may be no Karl Rove when it comes to winning elections, but anyone who saw Rove rap and dance at a recent White House correspondents' dinner will dread the thought of a Karl Rove concert film.
Director Michael Moore
Producers
The Weinstein Company
Dog Eat Dog Films
Producer
Monica Hampton
Executive Producers
Harvey Weinstein
Bob Weinstein
Associate Producer/First Assistant Director
Jason Pollock
Cinematographers
Bernardo Loyola
Kirsten Johnson
Editors
Bernardo Loyola
David Feinberg
Music
Eddie Vedder
Steve Earle
Robert Ellis Orrall
REM
Joan Baez
Move over, Meatloaf. Michael Moore is a rock star, or at least he was for a short season, in an autumn 2004 US tour to exhort non-voting young Americans to register and cast ballots for the Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. Captain Mike Across America chronicles that tour.
More Moore will be welcomed by the film-maker's US fans, like the release of a vintage live recording.
The European appetite for Moore's jabs at the US government seems insatiable, so this concert film should expect robust audiences in theatres there.
Given the Iraq War, anti-Bush products like this one can count on a growing market worldwide. Many in the theatrical audience will eventually want to own the dvd. This movie certainly extends the brand. And don't forget the potential appeal of the soundtrack.
Moore had hit his stride in autumn 2004, with the success of Fahrenheit 911 that summer. If he weren't enough to fill arenas, at his side were performers on the bill like Eddie Vedder, Steve Earle (in a heartfelt solo rendition of Rich Man's War), REM, Viggo Mortensen, and Roseanne Barr (who, to her fans' glee, hurls obscenities at the other side, her breasts bulging outward from an American flag t-shirt).
Yet Moore's 2004 campaign in Captain Mike Across America is more than a concert film clone, despite endless sweeping boom shots. There are no confessional interviews, no backstage gossip, no private Michael Moore behind the scenes.
Moore nicknames the Moore Tour the Slacker Uprising Tour, offering clean underwear and instant noodles to lay-abouts if they agree to vote and rally other voters.
Like a minister, he implores non-voters to stand up and pledge to change their sinful ways. Like the puckish political prankster Abbie Hoffman, he throws packages of underwear like doggie treats to his recruits in the audience. (The Republicans play right into his hands, charging him with 'bribery' for giving the underwear away, and the jokes go wild.)
Amid his mantras of a war based on lies fought by the poor for the rich, the bearish Moore trots out sobbing mothers and brothers of US troops killed in action. A soldier in a stadium is reduced to tears when Moore thanks him for his service and the crowd applauds.
Sceptics suffering from Moore-glut may find the film repetitive or just recycled, but Captain Mike Across America shows Moore to be a savvy entertainer who can sense just what his audiences want, and gives it to them on every stop on the show. (It is just what John Kerry failed to do.) You get the feeling that 'live' sequels are somewhere down the line.
Moore and his team rebut the notorious Swift Boat campaign that smeared Kerry with ads of their own, airing 30-second spoofs in packed arenas that rebut much-repeated charges that Kerry was a coward or that the decorated war veteran was injured by 'just shrapnel' rather than bullets.
When Bush-Cheney supporters heckle him, Moore reacts like a veteran stand-up comic, calling them 'brothers and sisters' and assuring his critics (no doubt opponents of gay marriage) that, when the Democrats take power, Republicans will enjoy 'the rights of any minority to marry each other.'
Fervent Moore-bashers in one stadium who hold hands and chant the 'Our Father' and 'Hail Mary' are so hilarious that they could have been placed there by Moore himself, who finishes sentences in the prayers from memory and asks if they plan to say 'the whole rosary.'
The film underscores an inconvenient truth that chagrins Republicans. Moore can be dazzlingly effective in rallying an important young constituency - a lot more effective, it turned out, that the Democratic candidate who was supposed to be leading it.
Any doubts about his effectiveness are dispelled when George H. W. Bush, the president's father, appears on television and calls the irksome Moore names that have to censored. So much for family values when the White House is at stake.
Yet Moore is not effective enough. John Kerry loses the 2004 election to Bush, in what the film informs us is the thinnest margin won by a sitting president in a bid for re-election.
Left unsaid is that the Republicans beat Kerry (and Moore) with their own shrewd campaign to get out the vote crafted by now-departed Karl Rove, the adviser known as 'Bush's Brain'.
Michael Moore may be no Karl Rove when it comes to winning elections, but anyone who saw Rove rap and dance at a recent White House correspondents' dinner will dread the thought of a Karl Rove concert film.
Director Michael Moore
Producers
The Weinstein Company
Dog Eat Dog Films
Producer
Monica Hampton
Executive Producers
Harvey Weinstein
Bob Weinstein
Associate Producer/First Assistant Director
Jason Pollock
Cinematographers
Bernardo Loyola
Kirsten Johnson
Editors
Bernardo Loyola
David Feinberg
Music
Eddie Vedder
Steve Earle
Robert Ellis Orrall
REM
Joan Baez
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