The Awful Truth - The Complete First Season

The Awful Truth - The Complete First Season

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Movie Reviews of The Awful Truth - The Complete First Season

Movie Review: The Moore I see, The More it Hurts so Good!
Summary: 5 Stars

Moore reminds me a little of a smarter but less charismatic Abbie Hoffman, without the baggage or controversy. The difference is that in the 60's, most people had a grasp of the hypocrisies and controversies Hoffman highlighted. Nowadays, it's a struggle to get people to even care what those controversies are. Thus, Moore's goals aren't as lofty as Hoffman's, but he uses similar guerilla theatre tactics. Hoffman demonstrated the Greed of the 60's by throwing money onto the New York Stock Exchange floor and watching the traders scramble on top of each other to grab it. Moore shows the greed of our time by getting a group of cancer stricken former smokers to sing Christmas carols to Tobacco companies through their mechanical voice boxes. Moore uses the same style of shock theatre to bring out into the open modern travesties, and exposes the recipient's hypocrisies. Moore uses guerilla tactics because he knows that if he does so, the perpetrator can't hide behind spin and his PR people. In this compilation, he is almost always successful, and the result is almost always humorous.

Moore is chubby and frumpy (sorry, Mike if you ever read this- do you think if you looked like Brad Pitt it would help your cause?), but this allows the focus to be his message instead of his pecks and sexy smile. This lets him appeal to the common man, who is his target audience anyway! Since this is guerilla theatre in documentary form made for a T.V. show, you can't expect the quality to be the best. The production isn't the slickest- it was made for the Bravo network, and if you're familiar with this network, it isn't exactly in the upper echelon of cable channel cash cows! That the show had a shoestring budget might be an understatement. But as above, the quality is not the point- it's the message, and on that point, Moore hits home runs on almost every account.

I think that many of Michael Moore's critics misinterpret the concept of "nonpartisan". That doesn't mean it's free of politics or opinions. The definition of nonpartisan that is being used is that of political party affiliations. He is definitely not a spokesman for the Democratic Party or its agenda (in present form anyway). Where many people get confused is how he chooses his "victims". He chooses to pick on the hypocrisies of Corporations and the rich- the fact that those groups are usually "Republican" or "conservative" is not his fault. In fact, it's secondary to his purpose; the fact that they are abusing their power is what Moore is concerned with. Besides, as shown by Enron, when it comes to politics, corporate ties are more often in the right than the left (if you go by campaign contributions, 3/4ths more!) Admittedly, Moore is a self-avowed left leaner. But if you familiarize yourself with some of his other work, he's definitely not a Democrat- he criticizes them just as much, albeit for different reasons. In fact, he supported Nader during the election, even though Nader fired him a decade ago!

Despite what his critics desire to portray him as, Moore is simply an equal opportunity offender, exposing hypocrisies wherever he sees them. For instance, Disney can hardly be considered a radical right wing organization (note their track record on gays and demonizing by conservative Christian groups), and yet the Big Mouse is the butt of one of his stunts. He simply wants to show the world how corporations and people in power simultaneously abuse their power while desperately trying to convince the common guy, you and me, that he has our best interests at hand. Moore simply wants to show us what's really going on, and does a bang up job in this compilation of the Awful Truth, as well as the rest of his work. Keep it up, Mikey!

Summary of The Awful Truth - The Complete First Season

Michael Moore, hailed by the New York Times as a modern-day Mark Twain, is at it again with the show that was shut down by the mayor of NYC, got Moore sued by a wealthy industrialist, and landed his Corporate Crime-Fighting Chicken in Disney World?s very own jail.

Shot in his signature "guerilla video" style, each half hour episode is filled with scathingly funny observations that bridge comedy and controversy and places Moore in the middle of today?s hot topics.

DVD Features: Michael Moore Biography; "Moore Awful Truths"; Interactive Menus; Scene Selection