Job Discussion Forums

[7969]

i'm not american and i'm not a big bush supporter, but i was a soldier. i saw that movie.... fahrenheit 9/11. and i thought it was a load of rubbish. moore certainly did manipulate much of that movie. on a very basic level, here are my comments:

he must have paid those military recruiters to act like idiots out in that mall parking lot, because i was a military recruiter at one point, and i cant believe what some of those guys were doing and saying to try and get recruits. further, he must have searched out the stupidest soldiers in the entire US army in irak (the fools singing whatever song that was about burning people or whatever) for cameo appearances in his film. some of the s*** those guys were saying sure isnt representative of real soldiers. that part's actually a disgrace and an embarrassment to the US military......

i know i'd never show a film that was so obviously one-sided. dont think chinese students are going to debate anything in this film with you. and i doubt you'll provoke any "interesting" thoughts. it wont happen.

those are just my feelings.

[kev7161]

[7969]

i like to spell irak with a "k." phonetics and all.

[Mugato]

big hmmmmmmmmmmmmm from...

Hmmmmmmmmmgato

[ChinaMovieMagic]

Irak Attak

Big Mak Attak

Amerika...
To kill...or not to kill...
That is the kwestyun...
y'all...

[Mugato]

kool

might this thread have run its course? or is this just the beginning of something big and beautiful?

kreetings from eye-rak

Mooregato

[cj750]

To show this film in the sprit of what it is ...a mockumentery....would be productive to a media class trying to understand "slant", "spin" and "journelism for entertainment"..
there is not much to get upset about here...it is just entertainment...

[Mugato]

yeah, it's all edutainment what we do here and i just wanted to get some feedback from those who have watched moore-movies in the classroom before.

[Norman Bethune]

Michael Moore has made more Films than just Farenheit 9/11.

If you do plan to use his movies in class, I'd advise using "The Big One," or "Roger and Me".

Both present sides of America that Chinese students who Clamour to emigrate there never really consider...unemployment and poverty caused by the relocation of America's manufacturing base and service industries to nations such as....CHINA.

In the Big one, I think there is a scene where good old boy Mike slams China for using Prisoners to make shoes for GASP.....no pay.

What would a Chinese student have to say about that in English?

[rickinbeijing]

I'm alarmed that you would even contemplate such a move without at least an alternative perspective. Even Moore himself admitted in an interview last year that much of what he records in his film is speculation and contrivance. It is the New Historicism run amok. Moore is above all else a self-promoter, or as we say on the American street, a hustler. Whether you believe his tale or not is immaterial, however. You're there to teach, not to preach. Save the soap box for Hyde Park. And please remember that these students have endured many years of indoctrination in their history and politics classes (that's why they despise these subjects).

I once taught a course in American Culture at the Foreign Affairs College, run by the Foreign Ministry. I tried to offer a balance of viewpoints and let the students decide for themselves. Anything less would have been paternalistic.

[ChinaMovieMagic]

R.I.B. wrote:

[ChinaMovieMagic]

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/mar2005/holl-m14.shtml

Military interference in American film production
Operation Hollywood: How the Pentagon shapes and censors the movies by David L. Robb

Operation Hollywood: How the Pentagon shapes and censors the movies by David L. Robb, a former journalist for Daily Variety and the Hollywood Reporter, is a timely work. Published in 2004, a year after the US-led occupation of Iraq, it exposes one of the dark secrets of American movies�military interference in film production and Hollywood�s acquiescence to it.....

....While collaboration between the US military and Hollywood, of course, is not a new phenomenon, few moviegoers realise how much control the Pentagon has over the American film industry. Citing letters, internal memos and interviews with producers, writers and directors, Robb�s book contains valuable information about its insidious and destructive influence on American cinema.....

...Today a handful of giant companies, Disney, AOL-Time Warner, Sony, General Electric, Murdoch�s News Corporation and Seagram, dominate all aspects of the American film, television and entertainment industry. While their multi-billion dollar interests are not identical to those of the Pentagon, there is a clear recognition that their profits are bound up with Washington�s attempts to seize control of strategic resources in the Middle East and elsewhere. As Rupert Murdoch declared in the lead up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, a successful American occupation would lower oil prices and benefit the world economy. �This would be bigger than any tax cut in any country,� he said....

...Operation Hollywood ignores these issues and fails to even mention the highly publicised meeting between Karl Rove, President Bush�s chief political advisor, and the film and television chiefs and the industry�s union bosses straight after the September 11 terrorist attack on the US. Rove called on those assembled to assist in Washington�s so-called �war on terror�. Predictably the entertainment industry chiefs promised to do all they could to help....

...The omission of these and countless other examples of the deepening collaboration between the entertainment and media corporations is bound up with Robb�s underlying political perspective�that military meddling and censorship of the movie industry can be overcome with a bit of pressure and a few minor reforms.