With impressive showmanship, Oscar-winning filmmaker Michael Moore premiered his new, surprise movie Michael Moore In TrumpLand in New York on Tuesday night. Its mischievous timing is clearly intended to influence voters in the run-up to the presidential election, now less than three weeks away.
The movie was assembled in just two weeks from start to finish, and released without fanfare or pre-publicity, apart from a few hints tweeted by Moore.
Yes, some rumors may be true. I "might" be putting the finishing touches on an "October Surprise" for this election. Then again…
— Michael Moore (@MMFlint) October 15, 2016
Michael Moore In TrumpLand is partly a comedy stage show starring Moore himself, partly a heartfelt appeal to undecided voters to get behind the Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. It is perhaps aimed especially at those voters whose original preference was for Sen. Bernie Sanders.
The stage show was filmed in Wilmington, Ohio, a county which voted strongly for the Republican candidate Donald Trump in the primaries. A large contingent of the invited audience were avowed Trump supporters. As one reporter commented:
“They make up about 30 percent of the audience and it’s not hard to spot them, as the camera cuts from each punchline to a few stony-faced white men stoic as Easter Island heads in the crowd.”
It must be said that first reviews of the movie have been divided, possibly as a result of its hasty production.
Several state the opinion that Moore’s stand-up routine has some glorious moments but is only partly successful. However, many also agree that the movie truly gains momentum when Moore changes to a powerful expression of support for Clinton. As the review from Vice magazine put it:
“The second, more interesting half of the film shelves the populist appeals and hokey doomsday gags for a misty-eyed paean to Clinton that eloquently—even reverently—re-frames the beleaguered candidate as a deserving, patient, ultra-competent politician whose election will empower women worldwide. And women, Moore says, flanked by giant photographs of young Clinton, “don’t generally shoot you unless you deserve it.”
The movie will go on limited theatrical release this weekend. In order to reach the widest possible audience before the election, its makers have promised Michael Moore In TrumpLand will be available soon on the internet, free of charge.
One point that Moore makes in the movie, and has made repeatedly in the past, is that the possibility of Trump becoming president must be taken seriously. In this clip, he talks about the Trump threat in detail.
Featured image: Nicolas Genin/Wikimedia Commons/Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License.
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