Michael Moore in TrumpLand

source: Michael Moore in TrumpLand

Disclosure: I am a Liberal, but I am also a retired/disabled war veteran of 27 years and a gun owner. Personally, I do not like Donald Trump because of his racist, sexist, misogynistic, war-mongering, and degrading POW (re: Senator McCain) comments. Therefore, even though I hope I could be objective, I also acknowledge I support the same views as Mr. Moore which will skew my review. I have been both confused and angered by comments of Donald Trump and his supporters. I could not understand how any person could support and feel confident in the Republicans' 2016 Presidential candidate. Based on Michael Moore's previous books and films, I expected this documentary to follow the same pattern and be a full Trump/Conservative-bashing film; however, he chose a different path. Not only did he welcome people from differing political views, he actively engaged the audience, solicited their views/comments, and cultivated a two-way discussion. Mr. Moore describes the injustices many people - particularly the middle-class from the mid-West - have endured over the years, and why many look to Mr. Trump as a means to hopefully "Make America Great Again." It helped me see people of the opposing political spectrum not as opponents, but Americans who have many of the same values I hold dear and we as fellow Americans must work together. Even though Mr. Moore's documentary has a Liberal political agenda, he states his respects for the Trump supporters - and he even went on to say nice things about President George W. Bush, and even Donald Trump. Yes, Michael Moore is a Liberal - actually supported Bernie Sanders during the Democratic primaries - and this documentary can safely be classified as pro-Clinton. There are some parody films he shows, mocking Donald Trump. And even though "Michael Moore in Trumpland" is pro-Clinton, he does discuss some things he does not like about her. Additionally, he asks the audience what are some things they don't like about Ms. Clinton and after each comment he responds to them. It is no surprise most of his responses are positive about Ms. Clinton, but he does make valid points for each one. Based on the audience's interaction (laughter/clapter) I estimate they were roughly 70% Liberal/30% Conservative. One can see many in the audience who are not Moore/Liberal supporters. At first I felt a bit uncomfortable due to the lack of audience response, but as Michael Moore continues working the audience they begin responding positively, albeit there are some holdouts. Final thoughts: Liberals, Democrats, Clinton supporters, and probably many Bernie supporters will enjoy this film. Conservatives, Republicans, and Trump supporters will probably either not watch the film or, if they do, hate it. I hope I'm wrong on the latter.

In the mids of the race to the bottom in the unfolding of this election campaign this statement sure is a breath of fresh air. You may not, and do not have to agree with Michael Moore's viewpoints to see that he does manage to get some historical and future perpectives, a sense of common ground and good humor in the room. Polarisation is such a horrendous side-effect of (bad) election campaigns and defusing it in the heat of the moment is very, very tricky. With commentary from the mainstream media at kindergarten level we need Michaels kind of clowning to ridicule the court and help tie odds and options together. Clever and entertaining. But by all means, don't take his word for it...make up your own mind!

Moore is not a comedian. Throughout the film you will see attempts at comedy that really don't measure up spliced in between hyperbole and misleading half-truths. Michael Moore has always had a political agenda however in the past he has used this to shine light onto the human side of an issue and critique the establishment. While I always disliked his heavy bias in his documentaries I admired the fact that he did take the establishment on head on. It wasn't always perfect but it opened the discussion. This on the other hand seems to be a poorly written cash grab or political propaganda or both. He misleadingly examines the issues and will present half truths to make an argument. Truly a shame. To best illustrate this documentary take his argument about the 4 million petition to redo the vote. He posits these are millions of BRexiters that wish to undo their vote when in reality it was a poll largely manipulated by individuals outside of the United Kingdom (to the tone of 70% or more of signatures) and that those that signed were primarily far left anti-democracy totalitarians that believe in the notion of making the people vote until they give you the answer you personally desire. Of the people who voted for BRexit only 6% regret their vote which is far from the picture he paints where a horde of peasants is too stupid to vote correctly or understand the ramifications of voting to leave the European Union.

Loved, loved, loved this show! To me, the most beautiful aspect of this production was how it showcases how incredibly "renaissance" Moore is: Not only can he shoot and edit compelling documentary cinema, he can deliver those goods on his feet. In this production, he does what great standup comics do; stands in front of a vast horde and delivers a flawless one-man show which exemplifies what he does best: Reaching out and into our hearts and giving the strings he finds there a vigorous strum. He's circumspect, wise, funny, self-effacing, audacious. He's a performer, polemicist, every-man. Above all, in an election season where iconic balkanization has been amplified and seemingly bolted in place, Moore manages to send a tender breeze to cool the faces of forgotten middle America. He may despise Trump, but he never forgets why Trump has gotten traction. And he uses the power of that awareness to speak words of understanding and kindness directly into the maw of that angry beast. It's amazing to see that he's still got it, after all these years. Watch and enjoy.

this is awful in every aspect of moore objectivity. he says bad things for the first 30 minutes about the things trump has done. then he spends rest of the time telling that hillary went around the globe and was nice to poor kids around the world. he also mention she was really fighting for freedom when she was young. he doesn't mention +3000 mails hillary sent from private servers instead of government servers. still she had the opportunity to have bill clinton at her side, still this happens. she says she has revealed all mails now but still, if i sent +3000 mail from my work i'd be kicked out same day. have watched and liked all other moore production but it's apparent that he has either lost it or got paid for this production.

Michael Moore delivers his pièce de résistance, his tour de force, his best all-around presentation to date. He should win every conceivable award for his mastery, not of exploitation as some reviewer(s) have suggested and even went as far as declare, but of pure genius. You will be amazed by him, even more than you might have been (should have been) by all his excellent feature documentaries. Wow is a word that you will repeat to yourself and anyone around many times. Wow! Wow! Wow! I am still flabbergasted by his words and the ways in which he delivered them. There are numerous unforgettable instances that I will not mention so not to spoil it for you. It is perfection. Michael Moore will be remembered for this more than anything else he showed us. Thank you, Mr. Moore, for showing many of us that things are not as they seem. Kansas is no more!

I'm a fan of Michael Moore's work or I have been up till this little turd. It was hard going, not because the content was difficult to understand, but because it was delivered badly, was poorly written and to be honest, it was really boring in parts. People actually were expected to pay to be exposed to what is essentially Moore's terrified apologist endorsement of Clinton over Trump. The general message was 'you have 2 options, and if you don't vote for Clinton you're going to hell'. I expected a lot more from this guy who has understood and challenged some big players in his time, but obviously not up for the challenge of tackling the broken electoral system that presented the American voting public with two viable yet nonviable choices, and that's it. No mention of the broken undercurrent to the state of the country, no mention of nothing's going to get better, just we don't want it to get worse. This movie was insulting to the intelligence of the viewer in that it said the choice was voting for trump and if you were scared of that then you should accept Clinton, vote for her and then shut up and keep your head down lie a good little minion. Greatest country in the world? Who the hell says that? Not people from a healthy country that's for sure. The jokes were flat, and embarrassing, he didn't address why Trump is there and what people really see in him. Apparently subscribing to the 50% of voters are dumb philosophy, and that's a mistake. There are reasons things are how they are and insulting an audience into doing what you tell them to isn't a solution to that. I've no idea why Moore thought it would be. This has hurt his brand and credibility more than any movie he's done in his career, and it hasn't achieve a single good thing, and it so could have. Moore really doesn't know what he's dealing with here and it shows. The end result is Moore telling us he understands this stuff so much better than us, and we should just trust him and ignore the scary people hiding behind the curtains, except he gives us no indication that he really does understand things any better than the rest of us, so it ends up being exactly what it is, a Clinton campaign endorsement, just do what I say, don't think, don't feel, don't look any further. Fail.

This is not like producer-director Michael Moore's other, award-winning documentaries. While the opening is cinematic, the bulk of this material could best be described as Mr. Moore performing "stand-up comedy" for a movie theater audience. He sits down, too, on a sparse stage set. His language is frequently vulgar. There are a few interludes that include video, tape and photographs of 2016's US Presidential candidates Donald J. Trump and Hillary Rodham Clinton. Moore appears to have done this film quickly, with his "TrumpLand" being Wilmington, Ohio. His initial aim is obvious; of course, Moore is working to defeat Mr. Trump. Anyone who thinks "Michael Moore in TrumpLand" is going to support Trump doesn't know Moore. He is not going to give you a "fair and balanced" view of Clinton and Trump. Moore is an admittedly liberal (or progressive) filmmaker and presents himself honestly... What may be surprising is Moore's persuasive argument for Ms. Clinton. This is a film about her, not him. Moore's conversion includes his sometimes mixed feelings about Clinton and her long biography. Interestingly, he enlarges old photographs of Hillary Rodham as set backdrops. After all the demonic contemporary photos and older "hippie" pictures on social media, it startling to see Hillary was quite a beautiful young woman... The main point of "Michael Moore in TrumpLand" is to garner votes for Hillary Clinton and against Donald Trump. No surprise, there. Moore treats his audience with calculated respect. As aforementioned, he is honest about his personal views and how they developed. He hopes Clinton will be more liberal in office than most assume, as was the case with the present Pope Francis. However she governs, Moore prefers Clinton to Trump... Moore directly appeals to older white males who have suffered economically and must now live in a county where they are a dwindling minority. The voters who believe President Obama is a Muslim born in Africa, and Hillary Clinton is the Anti-Christ, are not going to be convinced. Moore amusingly siphons those voters off and goes for the voter he believes might vote for Clinton, after a persuasive argument. He separates the bigots with visual allegories by "building a wall" around Mexicans (Guatemalans count, too!) in the audience and separating Muslins into a section guarded by a symbolic drone. Moore appears to have researched his target voter very well and the film shows heads nodding in agreement. Those nods mean the staged and directed voters on screen were convinced. We will have to see if real voters agree on November 8, when the new President wins election. Everyone should get out and vote. ******* Michael Moore in TrumpLand (10/18/2016) Michael Moore ~ Michael Moore, Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump

Long after Michael Moore's heyday, before he was exposed as a shameless propagandist, Moore continues to use the same tricks, this time with even less success. TrumpLand ignores important context, fails to support its outlandish smears, and generally vomits back nothing more than the tired slander everyone has already heard from CNN and the NYT. This film brings literally nothing novel to the table, failing even to correct the early and often debunked complaints such as Trump's "support for the Iraq war" and the idea that he started a "racist" birther movement against Obama. This movie is essentially a sloppy recap of every scandal the DNC has issued right before each debate, with even less objectivity and without even the pretense of journalistic ethics. The poor production quality, wandering narrative, and internal inconsistencies do nothing to prop up this coughing, aged, corpse of a movie.