Debunking the Oscar 'Backlash'
By Michael Moore, MichaelMoore.com
April 14, 2003
It appears that the Bush administration will have succeeded in colonizing
Iraq sometime in the next few days. This is a blunder of much 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.
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 percent (source: Daily
Variety/BoxOfficeMojo.com). The following weekend, the box
office gross was up a whopping 73 percent (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 percent.
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, eight of them
at #1, 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.
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 percent 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. |
