As a documentary that is not an objective record but instills subjective opinions into the audience, it is likely to make the audience bored or disgusted, but once it mobilizes the audience's emotions, its influence is huge. This film is a classic example of success that shocks and delights the audience. This is exactly what Moore has always been style and what he is good at. The success of this film lies in its strong persuasive power despite its strong personal subjective color. A very important aspect is reflected in his powerful narrative system.
First of all, the reasoning of the film is very clear. It started with the suspected fraud in Bush’s election campaign, and then showed that Bush had no leadership and sense of responsibility (the support rate fell and went on vacation); the subsequent 9/11 incident led to the Bush administration’s inadequate anti-terrorism efforts in the early stages. , The later investigation was not timely and opaque, and immediately began to analyze the reasons, that is, Bush and his leadership team, Osama bin Laden and the Arabs inextricably linked interests (Bush and Osama Bin Laden family investment business financial connection, Bush modified his own records to cover up Certain relationships); after the 9/11 incident, the Patriotic Act exaggerated fear and increased people’s sense of insecurity and created a public opinion environment. At the same time, on the one hand, the government has stepped up monitoring of the behavior of ordinary people, but it has done little in terms of real public safety. The various interests of the people involved the United States only symbolically attacking Afghanistan in order to confess the people, but in the name of national security, in the name of national security, in order to divert attention and oil and other tangible benefits, the American people attacked Iraq. The whole film is in-depth step by step, although the amount of information is large, the analysis is meticulous and logical.
Another very important aspect is that all the demonstrations of this film are indeed based on real data, reports, and videos. The director conducts field inspections, interviews professionals in various fields, and even often quotes authoritative media reports and data in the commentary, such as in the show During the Bush vacation scene, the narrator mentioned that according to the "Washington Post", Bush spends 42% of his time on vacation. It is these facts that strengthen the image of this documentary and are also an important reason for convincing people. In this regard, director Michael Moore’s extensive contacts and popularity have played a huge role. His information collection is very in place, including inside information that we don’t know (even Bush’s military record before the revision), and also selected our daily contacts. Things that have never been paid attention to (such as daily news) and integrate them and put them in the spotlight before presenting them, so that we have to pay attention to and re-recognize the rhetoric that we once accepted as a matter of course and start thinking boldly. The director hopes to let us. Accept the doubt. I have to admit that whether it is the daily routine after careful organization or the inside story after the reveal, in the face of the facts listed in this film, all its analysis and speculation appear so reasonable.
Therefore, if you know the relevant information of the movie content and carefully analyze each of his analysis, you will be persuaded by his logic. If you are sometimes unclear about the specific background or cannot keep up with his layered derivation-in a large number of This is very possible in the process of enumerating the facts-then the director's narration will also help you analyze and draw conclusions, and based on clear logic and a large number of facts, the audience is willing to directly accept his conclusions under his guidance. . For example, Moore introduced a series of dazzling relationships between the upper echelons of the U.S. government and the Arabs and the Bin Laden family, and added his summary as follows: "There is a group of people who pay you $400,000 a year for you to be their president. A group of people have invested 1.4 billion US dollars in you, your friends, and your business for many years. Then who is your father?" Most people will choose to accept this conclusion directly even if they have not clarified this relationship. .
In addition, the performance of the film is also an important factor that directly mobilizes the audience. The most important thing is editing. The film shows various contrasts and enhancements through editing. The first is the cross-editing of the people’s views, demands, real life and government official rhetoric. For example, Bush said congratulations on the victory on a warship. The next shot is an Iraqi bomb next to a US soldier. Explosion; on the one hand cruel scenes of war, local people’s hurt, anger, crying, and soldiers’ self-blame, on the other hand, officials coldly introduced the advanced weapons and the efficiency of offensive; on the one hand, the war did not go smoothly and the soldiers were strongly dissatisfied with the government’s propaganda. The continued increase in troops, conscription, and the strong gap between the ideal situation and the reality in the propaganda film. The second is that the same rhetoric or inconsistent behaviors on different occasions are cut together to make the irony objects in the film contradictory: for example, Bush repeatedly emphasized smoke him (bin Laden) out, but it contrasted with the actual perfunctory on the battlefield in Afghanistan; Various radio stations reported that Al Gore had an advantage in the general election and then collectively announced Bush's victory, and so on. In addition, its presentation of the scene is infectious and stylized, brewing the mood of the audience and paving the way for the explanation of the point of view. You can look at the 9/11 scenes that the director has reproduced powerfully: noise in the dark, screams, news broadcasts-the fearful expressions of people around-the sound of music, the messy scene-revelation of missing persons, memorial activities-narration, victims The family members face the camera—in one go, they completely mobilized the emotions of the audience and reproduced the shadows that 911 brought to people—and then compared Bush’s stupidity and overwhelming in the elementary school classroom. At this time, Moore could enjoy the irony. Because the audience will stand with him. There is also a part before the war in Iraq. The moment when happy Iraqi children slide down the slide, the explosion is directly connected to the scene, which is shocking and powerful. The innocence of the Iraqi people and the cruelty and absurdity of the war are self-evident.
In addition to editing, this phenomenon can also be seen from the performance of music. Cheerful and funny music is used for ridicule, satire, and affectionate/heavy/tensed music to show sorrow, injustice, etc. These two kinds of music are used in conjunction with the editing and narration, and the two styles are cold and hot, and they can be converted freely, such as After Bush took office, the situation was in a mess, and then he went on vacation, mobilizing the audience's anger, questioning and mocking emotions, making the film extremely enjoyable and tense.
In fact, every documentary reveals the producer’s personal views more or less, and even in a sense, the success and influence of a documentary is due to the audience’s strong recognition and resonance with the author’s views and intentions. And impressed.
Director Michael Moore is a very individual filmmaker. His radical stance, sharp criticism and never shy away from personal touch in documentaries are his consistent characteristics. He is keen to pay attention to performance and criticize the reality of American society and sometimes even performance art. Participate in various real-life activities (you can see in this film, he read aloud the content of the patriotic bill for the parliamentarians in the square, directly besieged the parliamentarians to propagate conscription to their sons, embarrassed, embarrassed, and revealed self-contradictory The embarrassing face, the effect of this practice is very powerful, and it also reflects the director's cunningness), which made him quite well-known in all walks of life in the American society. Some of his previous highly influential masterpieces have adhered to this concept: "Bowling in Columbine" aimed at gun management and social security in the United States, "Neurologist" directly pointed to the ills of the American medical system, and the film released last year. "Capitalism-A Love Story" is about the financial turmoil of the capitalist world.
And the content presented in this film is undoubtedly shocking to ordinary people, whether they are American or not. No matter how true this conspiracy theory of the Bush administration is, we cannot help but lament the complexity of politics. The government that the people rely on is abusing their rights in an unknown way, and how ordinary people are living and being used in the social system without knowing it. The director has a narration: "I have always been surprised by the people who are forced to live in the worst parts of the city. They go to the worst schools and have the hardest life, but they are always the first to stand up and defend the people who have suffered. System. They go to serve, so we don’t have to; they are willing to give their lives, so we can be free. The gifts they give us are extraordinary, and the reward they demand is that we don’t deliberately hurt them. Unless forced to...will they believe us again?" Although it is sensational, although it is to strengthen their own views and guide the audience's psychology, this is truly a voice from the perspective of the American people, and it is a high-sounding voice for the government and the people. The deceptive protest. Often the most vulnerable people who don’t know the truth and make sacrifices for the system are socially and politically wooed, used, and essentially abandoned.
It makes us see once again that it is difficult to understand the system in which we live. There are too many social forces and social rules that ordinary people cannot control, and even people's established cognition of themselves is difficult to change. In the film, the mother who lost her son in Iraq bitterly accused Bush in front of the White House, but was blamed by women passing by for making trouble, thinking that it should be a problem with Al-Qaeda. This mother said: "We have to face the ignorance of ordinary people. They don't understand the truth. Everyone thinks they understand, but they don't."
Therefore, it is hard to criticize reality and challenge authority, let alone. changed. We can see that even such a film failed to prevent George W. Bush from being re-elected. But this kind of voice must exist, which is also an important mission of documentary filmmakers.
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