Kerry has a long face. At the time of writing Bush leads in the polls by 10 per cent. Despite everything. If only the volatile, human Howard Dean hadn’t scared the Democrats into playing safe. Moore’s documentary mostly doesn’t, but if it can’t swing the election, history might deem it a failure, a rebel yell forgotten at daybreak. We live in interesting times, which sucks.
Considering all the Vietnam literature/cinema, Moore isn’t doing anything new. He’s doing necessary protest for the 21st century. He manipulates our emotions brilliantly, and is certainly a force for good. We must forgive his smugness and egomaniacal swaggering. We’ll forgive everyone else for forgetting that Spike Lee did a better hatchet job on the Florida election fiasco in his short in “Ten Minutes Older”.
Moore’s cheap shots at Bush (which dilute the expensive, earned shots) are funny, sure. The golf moment. That bewildered gaze. The question of what he was doing when he didn’t know what he was doing (when informed of 9/11). Those eyes flitting like flies in a glass jar. The possibility that he brought it on…not himself, but on the poor kids he gladly sent off to be disembowelled in the name of his dad’s war. The way he claims credit for hitting the wrong target every time. Moore is his own hero as well as ours, but that’s OK. He bullies a bully.
Sometimes, that’s, what it takes. But this time it’s going to take much more than Moore. Next time, Hillary, step to the plate.