Mark Crispin Miller Movies
- 2004
- Add Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism to QueueAdd Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism to top of Queue
While the Fox News cable network has promoted itself as a "fair and balanced" news outlet -- so much so that they've even trademarked the phrase -- not everyone believes that they're living up to their slogan, and this activist documentary by filmmaker Robert Greenwald takes a close look at the political perspective of Fox's coverage. Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism examines the right-wing slant of Fox News' reporting, as represented in stories the network chooses to cover and their shoehorning of editorial opinion into stories, revealed in interviews with former Fox employees and several noted journalists (including Walter Cronkite) who discuss the pro-conservative, anti-Democratic views of the channel's management and how they're manifested in their programming. The film also puts talk show host Bill O'Reilly under the microscope and offers potent examples of his frequently abrasive interviewing style. Production of Outfoxed was supported in part by the leftist political action network Moveon.org. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Douglas Cheek
- 2004
- NR
Did the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, allow certain Republican leaders to put policies and legislation into effect that they knew would be rejected by their colleagues and constituents at nearly any other time? That's the question posed by this documentary, which offers a detailed look at the thoughts and deeds of a number of figures close to the George W. Bush administration. During Ronald Reagan's presidency, a number of neo-conservative theorists proposed that the United States should abandon its support of certain international treaties, take a more aggressive approach in taking military action against nations deemed uncooperative with U.S. interests, enact legislation that would curtail civil liberties at home, and increase military budgets by a massive margin. In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and others were able to bring about these changes, either in whole or in part. But was all of this in the best interests of the American public, has the risk of terrorist attacks truly been curtailed, and what will the long-term effects of these actions be? Narrated by Julian Bond, Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear and the Selling of American Empire features interviews with Norman Mailer, Noam Chomsky, Scott Ritter, Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatowski, William Hartung, and Jody Williams. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Julian Bond
- 2004
- NR
Directed by Robert Kane Pappas, Orwell Rolls in His Grave questions whether the bleak, feverishly regulated world of author George Orwell's 1984 is no longer a dire fictional account of government power gone wrong but a creeping reality of recent American media trends. The film focuses on the media's least covered topic -- itself -- in an effort to trace the process by which newsworthy stories are either dismissed entirely or distorted into something more politically suitable for the heads of various media conglomerates. It also studies how influential politicos became responsible for an industry that was largely created in order to keep political abuse in check. Among the interviewees include legal scholar and former L.A. prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi, film director and author Michael Moore, and Danny Schechter, a former producer for ABC and CNN. Pappas also covers the expansion of the news media and examines whether the onset of competitive 24-hour news stations has actually led to a nationally less informed public. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
In 1999, as George W. Bush's bid for the presidency was gaining momentum, free-lance writer J.H. Hatfield contracted with St. Martin's Press to write a biography of the Texas governor and son of former U.S. President George Bush. When St. Martin's published Hatfield's book, entitled Fortunate Son: George W. Bush and the Making of an American President, it gained overnight media attention for its allegation (supported by unnamed sources later revealed to be insiders in the Bush campaign) that Bush was arrested for cocaine possession in 1972, but the Bush family exerted political pressure to have the incident wiped from the records. Alarmed by the controversy the book had generated as well as revelations about Hatfield's past which cast suspicions on his credibility (including the fact he was a convicted felon), St. Martin's buckled under pressure (some allegedly exerted by the Bush family and their legal team) and recalled the book. After Fortunate Son disappeared from shelves, Sander Hicks, a young political activist and punk rock singer, approached Hatfield with a proposal to reissue the book through his small leftist publishing company, Soft Skull Press. Horns and Halos is a documentary which examines the controversy over the book but places its main focus on two major players in this story -- Hicks, whose energetic idealism doesn't always mask his naïveté or his endless self-promotion, and Hatfield, a kind but troubled man whose ambition and desire for literary success, coupled with a desire to tell an important but controversial story, proves to be his undoing. Horns and Halos was named Best Documentary Feature at the 2002 New York Underground Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sander Hicks, J.H. Hatfield, (more)
- 2000
Behind the Screens: Hollywood Goes Hypercommercial is a documentary about the money-driven entertainment industry. In the video, four film scholars and an award-winning screenwriter discuss the hypercommercialization of Hollywood filmmaking, charting the major increase in product placements and fast-food chain product tie-ins. The interviewees suggest that Hollywood has become a factory in which all big-budget movies are fastened with commercial messages, messages which clutter story concepts and destroy artistic integrity. Hollywood, the program suggests, has never been more commercial, or less interesting. ~ Betsy Boyd, All Movie Guide
