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This Issue 10/18/2002

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• Music: Subterranean sounds
• The Story of R5 Productions

Clad in a surgically attached polo shirt and jeans, Michael Moore takes to the streets of America, trying to figure out what the hell is wrong with this country. But is he a fearless leftist hero or just a manipulative bully with a camera?

Certainly, the guy has an occasional penchant for dangerous mischief, which is probably why some people are attracted to his films. At one point during Bowling for Columbine -- the prolific documentarian's latest opus -- Moore strolls into random Toronto homes to verify the assertion that Canadians leave their front doors unlocked at all hours of the day. It's a hilarious sequence, and the movie uses it to ask a terrific question: why is it that Canada -- a country whose love affair with firearms rivals ours -- has a gun homicide rate of just under 200 incidents a year, compared to our 11,000? Could it be, as a cornered Charlton Heston suggests late in the film, an "ethnic thing," or is the nightly fearmongering on the news to blame?

Moore has always made a point of asking more questions than he can answer. His wildly popular debut, 1989's award-winning Roger & Me, was the result of his tremendous outrage at the economic collapse of his hometown, Flint, Mich. The town was devastated when General Motors closed its local factory, leaving several thousand Flint residents jobless. Months later, Flint was named by Money Magazine as America's worst place to live.

The movie, which would go on to become the highest-grossing documentary of all time, intercuts footage of Moore's quest to confront General Motors CEO Roger Smith with a profile of the town after the plant's closing. Through his quixotic, ultimately futile battle, Moore bravely tries to penetrate Smith's cavalry of defenses -- security guards, secretaries, spokespeople, shareholders, health club managers, pesky key-activated elevators -- in an effort to convince the General Motors' honcho to return to Flint and confront the havoc his company has wreaked.

The documentary epitomizes Moore's entertainingly relentless approach. Wise to the fact that hounding a symbol of corporate greed was what made Roger & Me a critical box-office smash, Moore spent much of his subsequent career continuing that tradition. In 1997's The Big One, his second theatrical documentary, (it was preceded by a fictional offering called Canadian Bacon, and the television series TV Nation), he travels to 47 cities on a book tour, promoting the recently published Downsize This!: Random Threats from an Unarmed American. In each of his destinations, he visits a corporation, performing stunts like presenting human resources personnel with a "Downsizer of the Year" award and giving others an 80-cent donation to cover the cost of the first day of labor by one of their newly hired Mexican workers.