Michael Moore's Oscar Backlash.

[Guest guest]

April 7, 2003

 

My Oscar " Backlash " : " Stupid White Men " Back At #1, " Bowling " Breaks

New Records

 

Dear friends,

 

It appears that the Bush administration will have succeeded in

colonizing Iraq sometime in the next few days. This is a blunder of

such magnitude -- and we will pay for it for years to come. It was not

worth the life of one single American kid in uniform, let alone the

thousands of Iraqis who have died, and my condolences and prayers go

out to all of them.

 

So, where are all those weapons of mass destruction that were the

pretense for this war? Ha! There is so much to say about all this, but

I will save it for later.

 

What I am most concerned about right now is that all of you -- the

majority of Americans who did not support this war in the first place

-- not go silent or be intimidated by what will be touted as some great

military victory. Now, more than ever, the voices of peace and truth

must be heard. I have received a lot of mail from people who are

feeling a profound sense of despair and believe that their voices have

been drowned out by the drums and bombs of false patriotism. Some are

afraid of retaliation at work or at school or in their neighborhoods

because they have been vocal proponents of peace. They have been told

over and over that it is not " appropriate " to protest once the country

is at war, and that your only duty now is to " support the troops. "

 

Can I share with you what it's been like for me since I used my time on

the Oscar stage two weeks ago to speak out against Bush and this war? I

hope that, in reading what I'm about to tell you, you'll feel a bit

more emboldened to make your voice heard in whatever way or forum that

is open to you.

 

When " Bowling for Columbine " was announced as the Oscar winner for Best

Documentary at the Academy Awards, the audience rose to its feet. It

was a great moment, one that I will always cherish. They were standing

and cheering for a film that says we Americans are a uniquely violent

people, using our massive stash of guns to kill each other and to use

them against many countries around the world. They were applauding a

film that shows George W. Bush using fictitious fears to frighten the

public into giving him whatever he wants. And they were honoring a film

that states the following: The first Gulf War was an attempt to

reinstall the dictator of Kuwait; Saddam Hussein was armed with weapons

from the United States; and the American government is responsible for

the deaths of a half-million children in Iraq over the past decade

through its sanctions and bombing. That was the movie they were

cheering, that was the movie they voted for, and so I decided that is

what I should acknowledge in my speech.

 

And, thus, I said the following from the Oscar stage:

 

" On behalf of our producers Kathleen Glynn and Michael Donovan (from

Canada), I would like to thank the Academy for this award. I have

invited the other Documentary nominees on stage with me. They are here

in solidarity because we like non-fiction. We like non-fiction because

we live in fictitious times. We live in a time where fictitious

election results give us a fictitious president. We are now fighting a

war for fictitious reasons. Whether it's the fiction of duct tape or

the fictitious 'Orange Alerts,' we are against this war, Mr. Bush.

Shame on you, Mr. Bush, shame on you. And, whenever you've got the Pope

and the Dixie Chicks against you, your time is up. "

 

Halfway through my remarks, some in the audience started to cheer. That

immediately set off a group of people in the balcony who started to

boo. Then those supporting my remarks started to shout down the booers.

The L. A. Times reported that the director of the show started

screaming at the orchestra " Music! Music! " in order to cut me off, so

the band dutifully struck up a tune and my time was up. (For more on

why I said what I said, you can read the op-ed I wrote for the L.A.

Times, plus other reaction from around the country at my website )

 

The next day -- and in the two weeks since -- the right-wing pundits

and radio shock jocks have been calling for my head. So, has all this

ruckus hurt me? Have they succeeded in " silencing " me?

 

Well, take a look at my Oscar " backlash " :

 

-- On the day after I criticized Bush and the war at the Academy

Awards, attendance at " Bowling for Columbine " in theaters around the

country went up 110% (source: Daily Variety/BoxOfficeMojo.com). The

following weekend, the box office gross was up a whopping 73%

(Variety). It is now the longest-running consecutive commercial release

in America, 26 weeks in a row and still thriving. The number of

theaters showing the film since the Oscars has INCREASED, and it has

now bested the previous box office record for a documentary by nearly

300%.

-- Yesterday (April 6), " Stupid White Men " shot back to #1 on the New

York Times bestseller list. This is my book's 50th week on the list, 8

of them at number one, and this marks its fourth return to the top

position, something that virtually never happens.

-- In the week after the Oscars, my website was getting 10-20 million

hits A DAY (one day we even got more hits than the White House!). The

mail has been overwhelmingly positive and supportive (and the hate mail

has been hilarious!).

-- In the two days following the Oscars, more people pre-ordered the

video for " Bowling for Columbine " on Amazon.com than the video for the

Oscar winner for Best Picture, " Chicago. "

-- In the past week, I have obtained funding for my next documentary,

and I have been offered a slot back on television to do an updated

version of " TV Nation " / " The Awful Truth. "

I tell you all of this because I want to counteract a message that is

told to us all the time -- that, if you take a chance to speak out

politically, you will live to regret it. It will hurt you in some way,

usually financially. You could lose your job. Others may not hire you.

You will lose friends. And on and on and on.

 

Take the Dixie Chicks. I'm sure you've all heard by now that, because

their lead singer mentioned how she was ashamed that Bush was from her

home state of Texas, their record sales have " plummeted " and country

stations are boycotting their music. The truth is that their sales are

NOT down. This week, after all the attacks, their album is still at #1

on the Billboard country charts and, according to Entertainment Weekly,

on the pop charts during all the brouhaha, they ROSE from #6 to #4. In

the New York Times, Frank Rich reports that he tried to find a ticket

to ANY of the Dixie Chicks' upcoming concerts but he couldn't because

they were all sold out. (To read Rich's column from yesterday's Times,

" Bowling for Kennebunkport, " go here . He does a pretty good job of

laying it all out and talks about my next film and the impact it could

potentially have.) Their song, " Travelin' Soldier " (a beautiful

anti-war ballad) was the most requested song on the internet last week.

They have not been hurt at all -- but that is not what the media would

have you believe. Why is that? Because there is nothing more important

now than to keep the voices of dissent -- and those who would dare to

ask a question -- SILENT. And what better way than to try and take a

few well-known entertainers down with a pack of lies so that the

average Joe or Jane gets the message loud and clear: " Wow, if they

would do that to the Dixie Chicks or Michael Moore, what would they do

to little ol' me? " In other words, shut the f--- up.

 

And that, my friends, is the real point of this film that I just got an

Oscar for -- how those in charge use FEAR to manipulate the public into

doing whatever they are told.

 

Well, the good news -- if there can be any good news this week -- is

that not only have neither I nor others been silenced, we have been

joined by millions of Americans who think the same way we do. Don't let

the false patriots intimidate you by setting the agenda or the terms of

the debate. Don't be defeated by polls that show 70% of the public in

favor of the war. Remember that these Americans being polled are the

same Americans whose kids (or neighbor's kids) have been sent over to

Iraq. They are scared for the troops and they are being cowed into

supporting a war they did not want -- and they want even less to see

their friends, family, and neighbors come home dead. Everyone supports

the troops returning home alive and all of us need to reach out and let

their families know that.

 

Unfortunately, Bush and Co. are not through yet. This invasion and

conquest will encourage them to do it again elsewhere. The real purpose

of this war was to say to the rest of the world, " Don't Mess with Texas

- If You Got What We Want, We're Coming to Get It! " This is not the

time for the majority of us who believe in a peaceful America to be

quiet. Make your voices heard. Despite what they have pulled off, it is

still our country.

 

Yours,

 

Michael Moore

 

www.michaelmoore.com