Posted on 11-4-2003
MY
OSCAR "BACKLASH"
By Michael Moore, April 7, 2003.
Dear friends,
It appears that the Bush administration will have succeeded
in colonising Iraq sometime in the next few days. This is a
blunder of such 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 pretence 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 neighbourhoods
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
honouring 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, you're 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. (For more on why I said what I
said, you can read the op-ed I wrote for the L.A. Times, plus
other reaction from around the country at my website http://www.michaelmoore.com)
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 criticised Bush and the war at the Academy
Awards, attendance at "Bowling for Columbine" in theatres
around the country went up 110% (source: www.BoxOfficeMojo.com).
The following weekend, the box office gross was up a whopping
73% (Variety). It is now the longest-running consecutive commercial
release in America, 26 weeks in a row and still thriving. The
number of theatres showing the film since the Oscars has INCREASED,
and it has now bested the previous box office record for a documentary
by nearly 300%.
-- Yesterday (April 6), "Stupid White Men" shot back
to #1 on the New York Times best-seller list. This is my book's
50th week on the list, 8 of them at number one, 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. (To read Rich's column
from yesterday's Times, "Bowling for Kennebunkport,"
go here: www.michaelmoore.com/articles/index.php?article=20030406-nytimes>.
He does a pretty good job of laying it all out and talks about
my next film and the impact it could potentially have.) 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% of the public in favour
of the war. Remember that these Americans being polled are the
same Americans whose kids (or neighbour'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 neighbours 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.
Yours,
Michael Moore www.michaelmoore.com
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