This is a pretty interesting look at the film from a film industry perspective: http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/06/30/stern.bush/index.html (He makes some good points about how well Moore worked the system to get plenty of publicity for the film. BTW, I REALLY loved Michale Pollak's recent discussion of the film as using agitprop against the Busheviks agitprop. Someone claimed Moore's film was "filled with partisan lies". I wanted to know when it became BAD to be partisan. Christ.)
I see anti-moore folk are also distributing the film for free on the 'net, challenging Moore to stand by his claim that he wants people to see it, even if they're pirating it. With opening weekend numbers, I doubt Moore will challenge it and doubt he would have had it been a flop <-- it would have had to suck to be a flop. Half the nation's eligible voters pretty much can't stand Shrub. That's a big chunk of the population.
It's great that his detractors are providing such a nifty service!
Crooked Timber, the blog to which our own Daniel Davies posts, says that Focus on the Family is publishing Moore's home address: http://www.crookedtimber.org/archives/002099.html (where you can find get FotF's telephone number and complain)
Also, I saw that ass, Hitchens, on MSNBC the other night. The only thing he did was rant and rave, lobbing logical fallacies about one after the other. They even showed the infamous clip of the debate at Telluride. It's clear that Moore's taking the position that ObL should have been pursued by a police action, brought to justice, etc. Nonetheless, Hitch and MSNBC's Scarborough Country repeatedly characterize Moore as a conspiracy theorist who doesn't think OBL responsible for 9/11. What an ass.
MSNBC is supposed to be goddamnleftwingliberalmedia, right? They seemed to trash Moore left and right that night.
Can someone explain to me why lefties hate Moore so much? I've never paid much attention to any of it, because it struck me as upper Manhattan gossip among left glitterati.
Kelley
"We're in a fucking stagmire."
--Little Carmine, 'The Sopranos'