Michael Moore Hates America

Overview

The film and its poster are patterned after Moore's film Roger & Me, during which Moore attempts to chase down Roger Bonham Smith for an interview. In this case, Wilson seeks an interview with Moore. Wilson also adopts other aspects of Moore's style in his efforts at satirizing Moore. For instance, Wilson interviews a mix of Americans across the country and well-known figures like conservatives Dinesh D'Souza, David Horowitz and Andrew Breitbart, liberal Albert Maysles and fellow libertarians such as Penn Jillette and Tim Slagle. Wilson revisits some of Moore's shooting locations and subjects from Roger & Me and Bowling for Columbine, and attempts to discredit many aspects of Moore's films.

Wilson's main criticism is that Moore misrepresents the truth by staging events and deftly cutting sequences to distort the truth. As an example, Michael Wilson offers the scene in Bowling for Columbine where Michael Moore gets a gun on opening a bank account. An interview with the bank employees suggests that Michael Moore had arranged for the gun to be delivered to the bank ahead of time so he could walk outside with it immediately after opening the bank account. In addition, Michael Wilson offers the scenes in Bowling for Columbine of NRA president Charlton Heston speaking. The scenes are cut together from different speeches; however, in the film they may be construed to be from one speech given shortly after the Columbine shooting at a meeting in Denver.

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film was found to receive a generally positive reception, with 75% of critics giving the movie favorable reviews. Some critics favored the film's examination of Moore's methods.