No Moore, No Less
I’ve been in the habit of watching documentaries lately and I’ve made some observations that I’d thought I’d comment on. I’ve watched quite a number of different kinds including some of Michael Moore’s stuff, Al Gore’s ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, and well as others that have nothing to do with politics at all. This might also shed some interesting light on the upcoming ‘Expelled’ documentary that should be hitting theaters soon.
~ First off, Michael Moore’s style of bombarding the person you’re going to interview unannounced is sloppy at best. It reminds me of a story Doug Wilson liked repeating about how an preacher, while preparing his sermon one week, scribbled in his margin “argument weak, shout here”. Michael Moore’s style of catching someone off guard and then verbally assailing them until they answer some question unprepared. If your documentary is going to be shown to a bunch of people who share your views, then maybe this method will be most effective, but to a broader audience….hmmmmm….no. Now Michael Moore isn’t the only one guilty of making propaganda, he’s just guilty of making crappy propaganda.
~ Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” is funny because there are three carefully timed vignettes that play up the humanity and feelings of Al Gore. I guess the filmmakers thought that Al Gore’s robot with a drawl persona wasn’t good enough.
~ The most effective documentary style I’ve come across is one where you let the folks involved speak for themselves. People with very fancy credentials look good. And those folks who don’t sound shrill when they’re being interviewed are even better. So far the documentary I keep returning to is ‘Why We Fight’. It kept the pathos to a minimum, and had tons of ethos and logos. This brings me to my last comment.
~ While I think it’s neat that some I.D. sympathizers have gone and made themselves a movie, and one that is getting a decent exposure and release, I can’t help but wonder why they chose the style they did. Ben Stein is acting like Michael Moore in Expelled. He’s playing David against an academic Goliath. No doubt that is the idea behind it but frankly that worries me. If we truly believe we have the stronger case as I.D. folks, then why resort to a pathos heavy documentary?
I guess the moral of the story is NOT to watch stuff you want to watch, but watch stuff you need to watch. Watch the documentaries you disagree with as well as the ones you agree with.
Comments
Not having seen Stein’s movie yet, I think that the idea is probably to treat the darwinists the way they need to be treated, as tragicomic. Stein could pound away at the facts and argue passionately that it is not fair. And we would snooze. Or he could treat the colleges as silly for their bigotry and intolerance, and reach a broader audience that would normally not care about what the right wingers think. The colleges take themselves so seriously, the most effective way is to pop that balloon.
Unfortunately though, what often happens is, people like Stein end up overstating their case and wind up with a film that will pop like an overfilled water balloon when any critic weighs in.
Michael Moore is funny to watch. That’s all I have to say about that.
You’re right about the effectiveness of no narration. It gives the impression that everything being said is even more true – it doesn’t need commentary. A great example of this are the LOTR documentaries on the extended editions.
I think Haven’s right - if we take Darwinism seriously, that’s just because we haven’t actually studied Darwinism. I took a class last year when the professor was defending Darwinism, and I was more embarrassed for him than anything else. He had a fun quote, I’ll see if I can dig it up.
I was thinking about this, and I think a good example is Elijah and the prophet of Bail. He did not act more devout than them, but instead crudely mocked their false gods. He did not try to enter into dialogue about religion, he called them out, and when Bail did not put out, he called it what it was. Of course he was a prophet, but I still think it’s a good lesson.
I agree. But unfortunately what is happening here is that the Christians want approval from the worshipers of Baal so they are taking a page from Baals play book and copying it poorly.
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