boy, did you ever try to contact Michael Moore?

[mimitabby]

If you don't have a URL to send him you can't even use the contact form!
So having no other choice, I sent him a link to my watercolor art blog with this letter:

The whole family gathered recently to scatter the ashes of my stepfather. My stepfather died almost exactly a year after he sustained the death of his first born son, Larry Flak, a one time "Texas Oilman" who was semi-famous at one time for putting out flaming oil well fires in the middle east.
At the gathering, one of the family members mentioned that Larry was in your movie Fahrenheit 9-11. Since his name was not in the extensive credits, I wondered if it was true.
So we sat down the other night and watched it. You really moved me (as you always do) with your relentless attention to details, drawing up the scenario that led us into this tragic war. After 1 hour and 50 minutes of the movie, though, Larry appeared. He was making a comment about how safe it was out there in the desert. But you really misrepresented him, because that film footage was about 10 years older than our war in Iraq. My relative told me that she no longer trusts documentaries because of this. She also suggested that the reason Larry's name is not in the credits is because he felt he was misrepresented by you, and it's true.
You know, Michael, we trust and rely on you, a muckracker, to show what is really happening in the world. But if you're bending the truth too, aren't you doing the same thing THEY are doing??

[Richardo]

1. Yes, he is doing the same thing they are doing, which is why I do not watch Michael Moore films

Sorry to hear that your relative was so misrepresented. And apparently used without his knowledge or permission.

[mimitabby]

2. gosh, why did someone unrec this?

[Richardo]

3. Oh it will be unrec'd well into the negative numbers - it questions Moore the Magnificent

[mimitabby]

4. Michael Moore has been one of my heroes!

that's why I bothered to write to him in the first place. I guess I'm not allowed to question authority.... it gets you unrec'd

[Hissyspit]

11. Well, I guess we should depend on critique of Moore from someone who

self-admittedly does not watch his movies?

Moore does not necessarily need to get someone's permission or knowledge to use them in a documentary.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

5. I like Moore's work and I recc'd this. n/t

[Ichingcarpenter]

6. He gets constant threats and the URL request

is for security purposes.

Great Letter BTW.

[myrna minx]

7. I'm sorry to hear this happened to your family.

I hope he responds to you.

[mimitabby]

8. I'll for sure let you guys know if he writes back!

[gateley]

9. I've heard Moore accused of things like this before which is too bad - there's

enough horrifying truths to what he presents without 'creative editing', and the topics he addresses are so important that he can't afford to be discredited lest the entire subject be dismissed. :(

I hope he knocks it off.

You deserve a response, and I'm sorry to hear this happened to you and your family. I can't help but think it would leave a bad taste in my mouth if it were my family. Again, it's too bad because we need him to call attention to these wrongs.

Thanks for posting this!

[Born_A_Truman]

10. Did you try this email?

[e-mail]

[Hissyspit]

12. Yes, I have:

http://www.michaelmoore.com/email/index.php

I'm assuming that is what you used?

I haven't seen F 9/11 in awhile, but I do know that Larry Flak was in Iraq fighting Saddam's oil fires in March of 2003.

[sabrina 1]

13. First, I am sorry for your loss

and I hope MM answers your letter. I have seen him questioned before on details from his documentaries, most notably by Christopher Hitchens and Dr. Sanje Gupta. He was able to completely eviscerate Hitchens' criticisms with links and research leaving little doubt that Hitchens was completely misinterpreting, maybe subconsciously deliberately since he was a rabid supporter of the Iraq War, the points he was trying to make.

Same thing with Gupta who accused MM of making false claims in his movie 'Sicko'. MM demanded time on CNN to refute Gupta's claims and did so. Airc, Gupta eventually apologized.

Wrt to your story, I am not clear on how you feel he misrepresented your relative.

After 1 hour and 50 minutes of the movie, though, Larry appeared. He was making a comment about how safe it was out there in the desert. But you really misrepresented him, because that film footage was about 10 years older than our war in Iraq.

Are you saying that MM presented statements ten years earlier than the war as though they were made during the war? And was Larry in Iraq during the Gulf War? I have seen the movie but don't remember it in detail so I cannot recall that scene. But what purpose would it have served, I mean what would MM have been trying to accomplish by using the footage and pretending it was made ten years later? That doesn't sound like his MO. I'm just wondering if you might have misunderstood the point he was making.

Otoh, if he did misrepresent Larry I hope he will respond as he did to other critics with back-up for his claims. He used to keep a list of critiques which the rightwing made about FH 911 on his website with responses to them, which I often used to refute some of the attacks on the movie from the right.

Anyhow, you did the right thing to contact him and give him a chance to explain.

[TroglodyteScholar]

14. Dunno if he's still on AOL, but...

...you used to be able to IM him at username MMFLINT.

[SKKY]

15. I really like Michael Moore, which makes things like this so frustrating for me...

...it's not like he has to fabricate this stuff to make his points. There is plenty of proof. Perhaps it's laziness on his part. Not sure.

Great letter by the way. Hopefully, it will reach him.

[Douglas Carpenter]

16. I have found one area where he bent the truth just a bit in the film "Sicko"

I watched the film Sicko with a friend of mine who had just returned from living three years in France. Although he agreed that most of it was accurate -Michael did an interview with a clearly upper middle class French family which he represented as average who lived well above average by French standards - that stuck out like a soar thumb to my friend who was quite familiar with the French standard of living and spoiled an otherwise fair representation.