Well I asked for more information about THE BIG ONE, and here it is. Reports from 3 different folks on the documentary by Michael Moore.
I saw "The Big One" at a very small screening in NY several months ago. It seems that Moore has had some trouble getting the film picked up. Like you, I very much enjoyed Roger and Me, however I was a little disappointed with The Big One. As you probably know, the film documents Moore's travels on his book tour for "Downsize This". Although the film has some funny moments, it lacks the personal attachment and clever sarcasm that we saw in Roger and Me. Rather, most of the film consists of Moore making impractical requests to CEO's and being refused, and showcasing his "compassion" for the downtrodden - rather than trying to make a difference as he did in Roger. At some points it felt as though he blatantly exploited people - To a crying jobless woman he says "give me a hug" - like that's going help anything - his ego got in the way of this one. The other major problem was that the entire film was shot on various types of video and blown up to 35mm - making it a visual nightmare. To his credit, the film does have some touching moments, but not when he's hugging people. By the way - your page rocks.
(If you liked "Roger and Me", you should check out the 1/2 hour sequel "Pets or Meat" (if you haven't already) - it has more of the bunny lady and is pretty good.)
This is the next one!!!!
I just wanted to pass this little bit of info on The Big One (though you've probably heard all of this before anyway).. Michael Moore was on The Late Late Show a few days ago, and he went into it a little on what it was about it. Apparently, the Big One of it's title is Mr. Moore's suggestion for a new name for the good ol' U.S. of A.. if England can get away with calling themselves Great Britian, we can call ourselves "The Big One", right? So, he goes around the country asking people their opinion on this name change.. and at the same time commenting on how everyone is still doing lousy during this so-called "economic boom". At one part he interviews the employees of a book store chain that, after getting screwed by the company with a lousy HMO plan, form a union.
At least, this is what I got out of it.. he didn't go into it too much, though he did say it was most likely going to be out at the beginning of next year.
And here is the last one...
Just wanted to add a few things about Michael Moore's The Big One. I saw it at a screening in LA on 11 Sept. The film was screened, followed by Q&A with Michael Moore, followed by a book signing of Downsize This!
Moore was late arriving because he was late coming in from Toronto, where Miramax had just bought the North American rights to The Big One, as your Toronto informant reported. In the meantime, Miramax and/or Moore bought dinner for the screening audience (about 200 people): make your own deli sandwiches. :-)
The film is a documentary about his book tour for Downsize This!, which was supposed to hit 5 major metro areas but which he successfully got expanded to 47 cities in 50 days. About a week into the tour, MM got together a small crew to film the rest of the trip. What results is a trip log very much in the tradition of Roger and Me and TV Nation, filmed in such places as Rockford, IL (which came out lower than Flint, MI in the Worst City in the US rankings), Cincy, Milwaukee, and other similar cities.
Expect attacks on a large national bookstore chain, a very large athletic shoe company, a very large consumer products company, and a variety of smaller but still respectably-large companies throughout the US. Keeping in the same vein as the book being touted, all of them are asked hard questions about why they are downsizing and how they went about it. Predictably, no reasonable answers are received, but there's a lot of squirming and forced smiles by PR people. Interestingly, the only time MM founders a bit is facing off against the press secretary for the governor of a major Midwest state.
It's hilarious and riveting stuff.
After the screening, MM took questions for about an hour, and signed books for a while after that. The Q/A was moderated by Rusty Cundieff (Fear of a Black Hat), who was also a correspondent on TV Nation. MM expanded on many of the same themes he touched on in the book and The Big One, and talked about some of the TV Nation stories which were cut by the networks (but will be appearing on TV Nation vids released this fall). In short, they don't care about your politics as long as you don't alienate any sponsors. No shock there. :-)
I don't want to venture into spoiler territory, but if you like Michael Moore's work, you will find The Big One on your must-see list. One last comment: before this screening, my wife and I both tended to think of MM as sharp and funny, but it was unclear how to think of him as a person. After hearing him speak and talking to him briefly at the book signing, it's becoming clear that he really is as he appears in his work, and that he backs up his talk with action -- he claims to give away up to 1/3 of his income every year to causes in Flint, to film makers starting out, etc. We left very impressed, though we had not necessarily expected to.
