Controversial filmmaker Michael Moore has taken on corporations and Republican presidents, and now once again, he's taking on the Motion Picture Association of America for giving his new film, Where to Invade Next, an "R" rating for including video footage of Eric Garner's death.
Last year Garner died while being arrested in New York and quickly became one of the faces of protests against police brutality, along with Michael Brown and Freddie Gray. Moore told Variety magazine:
"It's amazing how 25 years have passed.We invented the internet, gay marriage is legal and we elected an African American President of the United States, but the MPAA is still intent on censoring footage that is available from any evening network news show."
Where to Invade Next will be released around Christmas, and although he doesn't say exactly how Garner's death ties into the plot, Moore listed to Variety what the MPAA found to be unacceptable:
The violence in the picture includes footage of law enforcement officers beating Eric Garner, a Staten Island man whose death last year helped spark a wider debate about police brutality. The drug use is related to a section in the film on Portugal's decision to decriminalize narcotics - a move that some suggest has led to a reduction in substance abuse. The language stems from the use of "f-k" by Icelandic citizens protesting the 2009 collapse of their banks. And the nudity is a fleeting image of a naked man. That's from a vignette that shows how some Europeans are able to enjoy three weeks at a spa to treat stress thanks to government-backed healthcare.
So what kind of movie exactly is Where to Invade Next? As one reviewer in the leftist Guardian newspaper described it, he's gone "gooey" at this late stage in his career:
Michael Moore takes a break from chasing powerful white men down the street for what his team are calling "`Mike's Happy Movie": a travelogue of sorts, in which the rambunctious director proclaims himself America's new armed forces, "invades" other countries and steals their best ideas.These ideas reportedly include free school lunches and more time off for workers....
It’s the work of an idealist who has let a bit of his anger subside and allowed his bite to loosen with it. The purpose, Moore said in a post-screening Q&A, was to ignore the weeds. So there’s no mention of Italy’s unemployment rate, or Finland’s problem with alcohol, or France’s shabby race relations. It’s an “in an ideal world” movie, which is fine; but it does make America look cartoonishly bad in comparison – a briar patch with not a flower in sight.
Moore believes the "R" rating is meant to detract teenagers from seeing the movie without "parental supervision," and actually advocates teenagers doing whatever they can to see the movie: "My advice to the teenagers of America is you know what to do and you know how to get in."
Michael Moore -- always breaking the rules, and now he's encouraging teenagers to do the same.
