This free release chronicles Michael Moore's 62-city tour in 2004. It is his best effort, his slickest, most exciting, most inspirational film to date. It is not bent on educating us about dark truths. Instead, it's a rousing musical-speech-video tour aimed at Getting Out The Vote (GOTV). The film seeks to reach the nation's youth with its strong anti-war message. It calls for a nonstop movement for universal health care, quality education, marital and reproductive freedom, racial equality, and fair labor standards. Slacker Uprising is the best GOTV message on the market.Â
Moore applauds the 21 million youth who voted in 2004 and blames their parents for reelecting Bush. He slams mainstream media for lying to the public about the war in Iraq, but is pathologically silent on electoral cyber theft and Democrat wimplicity. The film flays Republicans, our evil warlords, but never mentions that Democrats refuse to impeach BushCo, that they continually vote to fund the war, to shred the US Constitution, and, most recently, to squelch dissent with terrorizing brutality. His lack of honest criticism of the Democratic Party dulls the brilliance of this motivational film. The genius of Slacker Uprising serves the plutocracy as effectively as Moore's past films condemned it.
An instrumental When Johnny Comes Marching Home by Instant Death and Andrew Weiss opens the film, immediately commanding our attention. This song choice is subtle and effective in an antiwar film that salutes our troops. Other musical appearances include REM, Eddie Vedder, Steve Earl, Joan Baez, and Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine. Takin' My Country Back by Honky Tonkers for Truth provides background as Moore arrives in Nashville. Robert Ellis then performs Al Gore, a humorous foot tapper with a familiar tune.
Joan Baez sings Finlandia a cappella, which she introduced as Finland's national anthem:
This is my song O gods of all the nations A song of peace for lands so far away This is my home, a country where my heart is Here grew my hopes and dreams for all mankind But other hearts in other lands are beating With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine My country's skies are bluer than the ocean And sunlight shines on clover leaf and pine But other lands have sunlight too and clover And skies are ev'rywhere as blue as mine O hear my prayer, o gods of all the nations A song of peace for their lands and for mine
Most of the tour stops host large crowds in filled arenas, with hundreds and often thousands of loud, cheering youth. But Moore is somber when visiting Kent State University. He pays tribute to the four students who opposed the Viet Nam war and were murdered by the Ohio National Guard, on orders of then-Governor Jim Rhodes.Â
Back in 2004, Moore was promoting his film Fahrenheit 911 Â- a topic many are still trying to suppress. He shows how San Diego successfully prevented him from speaking on campus in a 1,500 seat auditorium. That speech-suppression effort became a boon for Michael, when the students moved his appearance to a sold-out 15,000 seat venue at the nearby Del Mar Fairgrounds.Â
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