Slacker Uprising seems to be a combination of the kind of footage you'd find on a "bonus disc" of a deluxe DVD release and self-fellatio; there's not alot here to find entertaining or even interesting if you're not a fanatical Michael Moore devotee or Moore himself. This documentary, which follows director Michael
Moore around the country as he campaigns for the democratic party in the 2004 election, is available for free download online (and watching it seems to be a chore you wouldn't want to pay for) at "www.slackeruprising.com". Very little production seems to have gone into the film (or even the tour itself), which suffered from poor editing and especially poor sound mixing (I found myself having to constantly adjust the volume as some scenes blared and others whispered). The focus of Moore's 2004 election tour centered on the war in Iraq, getting Bush out of office, and getting college kids to vote. He brought out many guest musicians who sang protest songs (including a truly dreadfully self-aggrandizing acoustic performance by "Rage Against the Machine's" Tom Morello) mired in the kind of self-importance only protest songs seem capable of manufacturing. Michael Moore seems to be the kind of person when, even when he's right (as he was about Iraq), he generates a great deal of hostility. For whatever reason, he manages to strike an unappealing chord in alot of peoples' hearts. It's just fortunate for him that his opponents are so much more wrong-headed and unappealing in their views and positions, they come off in this film as little more than shaved baboons (and it's not through editing or special effects either, they're really just that stupid). Despite the controversys surrounding the tour, and subsequent attempts by local republican politicians and businessmen to get the rallies shut down, there's little that's actually happening in this film. The rallies, speeches and protest songs for the first 70 plus minutes, make it seem as though you're watching C-span coverage rather than an actual documentary. And the Bush presidency or even the 2004 election holds very little relevency post Obama election. Slacker Uprising is a film that died at birth. Better luck next time, Michael Moore.
November 30, 2008
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