September 12, 2009

I throw some movie-related red meat to the lefties, and then to the righties.

I've got to tell you, I laughed like mad at the trailer for the new Michael Moore movie "Capitalism: A Love Story":



I will definitely see this movie. Annoying as I've found Michael Moore at times in the past, I love the light but stinging touch. Quite charming, if the trailer is accurate.

Okay, see? Sometimes I throw out red meat for the liberals.

Now, here's red meat for you righties. In the trailer at 1:40, we hear and then see George W. Bush and — even though I was in a theater in the lefty hotbed of Madison, Wisconsin — I leaned over to my seatmate (the estimable Meade) and said (loud enough to be heard): "I miss that guy."

***

The movie we were seeing was — as the previous post hints — "Inglourious Basterds." In "Chapter 2" of that film, when Brad Pitt first appeared, Meade now says — if he hadn't needed to maintain Hoosierly etiquette — he wanted to lean over to me and whisper "George W."

And it's true. Brad Pitt is kind of doing a George Bush impersonation. (Meade points to 0:30 in this trailer, when the character says "killin' Nazis.") Now, it's an awful accent, really. And I don't think it's a Tennessee accent, which is what we're told it is. Oddly, later in the movie, there's a whole thing about speaking Italian with a bad accent, and Pitt's is the worst of the bad accents, so maybe there — and throughout the movie — Quentin Tarantino intended to treat us to layer upon layer of joking.

37 comments:

Irene said...

"I miss that guy."

Me too.

BJM said...

Althouse, that chunk of red meat stinks so bad my cat wouldn't bury it.

Anonymous said...

"In the trailer at 1:40, we hear and then see George W. Bush and — even though I was in a theater in the lefty hotbed of Madison, Wisconsin — I leaned over to my seatmate (the estimable Meade) and said (loud enough to be heard): "I miss that guy."

Gawd, how I wish you had a camera for the reaction of everyone within earshot;-)

Anonymous said...

Well at least you could argue with George Bush! He mostly said what he thought and said f--k you to the lefties and if you didn't like it you could complain about it. He gave food for discussion.

Obama tells us, for instance, that he's gonna spend money but its not going to cost anything. That's simply impossible! You have to parse the doublespeak before you can argue with it. And the worst part is that the mainstream media just accepts it and doesn't really call him on his contradictions.

Bush did this a little too-- the worst was when he said, on national television, that "we don't torture". Bullshit. It made him seem like a whiny spineless creep.

In fact, I think Bush was at his best when he was bitterly honest, even if many people didn't like what he had to say.

ricpic said...

All this hate capitalism stuff is just jealousy, plain and simple. Or envy. Or both. Class will now discuss the difference between j & e.

robinintn said...

I heard that in the trailer, and good Lord that's supposed to be a TENNESSEE accent? Nope. Not east, middle or west. One reason I probably won't see this movie is that Brad Pitt can't act.

Automatic_Wing said...

Let me guess: There's no trip to Cuba in this movie.

Shanna said...

I was forced to watch Roger and Me ten years ago and that's my lifetime quota of Michael Moore. No thanks.

The Scythian said...

"I heard that in the trailer, and good Lord that's supposed to be a TENNESSEE accent?"

No, it's not. It's quite obviously an 'Althouse Hillbilly' accent.

More seriously, I figured it was supposed to be the affected pseudo-southern accent that everybody acquires as they move up the ranks in the Army.

I checked the film out when a buddy was on leave, and we both found the accent to be both hilarious and dead on.

But this is a blog post about the Michael Moore trailer, right? I got nothin'. Oh, actually, I do!

I call a moratorium on the use of M.I.A.'s Paper Planes on the big screen. Pineapple Express, Slumdog Millionaire, and now this trailer. It's a great song and all, but people are spreading it all kinds of thin now.

Thanks.

"Some some some a-some I murder / Some a-some I let go."

blake said...

Robin, FWIW, he's not really in it much.

The biggest problem with IB, IMHO, FWIW, IYKWIMAITYD, is that it's not really about the IB.

blake said...

Christopher,

Oh! That's what that is. Yeah, I don't know why, but they beat songs to death in trailers.

Like How It Ends. I think a certain repetitiveness with the occasionally possibly appropriate lyrical phrase is the key.

The Scythian said...

"Like How It Ends."

Oh, yeah. Good catch! Of course, that one gives me the warm and fuzzies due to its association with Little Miss Sunshine, which is a big part of the reason it has gotten used in trailers ever since.

Of course, the winner and still champion is this one. Which I always find kind of jarring when I hear it in some kind of epic film trailer, because it's so singularly associated in my mind with the relentlessly depressing world of Requiem for a Dream.

chickelit said...

I think I'm skipping the movies this year.

veni vidi vici said...

Based on the trailer for Basterds, I assumed Pitt is W, the Nazi's are al Qaeda (doesn't he even call them terrorist occupiers or something like that at one point in the trailer?), and the film is the GWOT film that Hollywood could only make if they made Nazis the bad guys instead of the brown-skinned beardie-weirdies that we're actually fighting over there.

I wonder how accurate my assumptions are; haven't seen the film yet.

As for Moore, it's tempting but doesn't it look like it'll just be more of his practiced whining and posing? The trailer makes his schtick seem about as contrived as Bruno. I've got a wait 'n see attitude towards that one.

Hector Owen said...

So Baron Hill is Michael Moore's favorite congressman. Hmmm ... Baron Hill: "This Is My Town Hall Meeting. I Set the Rules." - Baron Hill went to a couple of churches to denounce their members, after losing an election. Baron Hill calls opponents "political terrorists." Classy guy.

blake said...

Yeah, and about the same time as it was used (fairly tastefully) in LMS, it was beaten to death by the (otherwise good) movie Everything Is Illuminated.

I haven't buckled down to watch RFAD yet.

You can go nuts trying to ID music in trailers, though. I miss the old days when it was just, "Oh, yeah, there's Randy Newman's theme from The Natural."

blake said...

CL,

Hasn't been a great year, but there have been some really good movies.

rhhardin said...

Why don't they let him make a citizen's arrest and then sue for false arrest.

The guy is loaded.

rhhardin said...

I don't remember what the last movie was that I saw. Probably some Woody Allen thing before Annie Hall, which I didn't see.

I can recommend Cane Toads: An Unnatural History, an amusing short that turned up as a 16mm rental once.

Hey it's on YouTube here. I knew it was a DVD.

Hector Owen said...

rhhardin, I got that Cane Toads movie from Netflix after you mentioned it here a while back. Thanks, it's a kick.

Hector Owen said...

Separated at birth: Michael Moore and a cane toad?

Unknown said...

Now that I've seen the trailer I understand why the bad reviews: it attacks Democrats as well as Repubs.

Oh, the humanity! Democrats!
I'll go see it just to see if he mentions The One!

TosaGuy said...

So why should I pay money to MM to see his movie? Shouldn't he donate it to the collective?

PoNyman said...

I liked the trailer on this one quite a bit. It attempts to expose big business and government working from the same gunnery boat. Not good news for anyone. The movie seems to try to slant towards a, "see what happens with capitalism", but I see this govt./big business camaraderie as an assault on the free markets. I think Friedman would be happy with the general direction of this movie.

PoNyman said...

Really we just need to get big business and government out of the same bed. It doesn't matter who is in control of the sheets.

victoria said...

Like with Brad Pitt in the movie, it was dialogue by Bush, not a real person. That man had no cajones. Only Cheney, and his were old and nasty.

Robert Burnham said...

Don't care how great the trailer is, I won't contibute a penny to Moore's income. The man is despicable.

Rick Lee said...

I live in Appalachia and usually I cringe when I hear an affected hillbilly accent but I thought Pitt's accent was purty dang good.

Chip Ahoy said...

Moore cracks me up. He's such an incredible amalgam of contradiction, in'nit. But you have to admit, looking past the sophistry, he does manage to strike a few excellent points.

The great thing about it is, you don't have to even watch them to be 100% versed on their content, thus nicely avoiding contributing to his personal wealth.

A friend of mine had the temerity to tell me I wasn't sufficiently informed until I saw Fahrenheit 9/11 and yet himself was unaware of the fallacy and misdirection. Of course, he would have none of it when samples were pointed out to him. It's all propelled by emotion, after all.

But speaking of red meat, every now and then I have an urge for straight up comfort carbs. Howz'about a plate of handmade semolina pasta with garden basil and tomato to distract ourselves from these carnivorous temptations?

Anonymous said...

Is there anyone out there who needs a new schtick more desperately than Michael Moore? OK, Gallagher maybe. But still: if Earth were taken over by the Vrymnids of Zorg-3, within a month there would be Moore hanging out in front of the Planetary Domination Pod with a video camera, buttonholing every passing Under-Hivemaster and demanding just five minutes with Galactic Admiral Gloogix.

Cedarford said...

MIchael Moore is a great film maker. I don't agree with with 95% of what he says - but he does what he does very well.

bagoh20 said...

Ann said: "I love the light but stinging touch. Quite charming,"

Really? Michael Moore light and charming?

Him and what he does is the problem in our country: half truth, no truth, and especially this idea that a lie told as a joke is the truth or at least harmless.

People who consider themselves sophisticated fall for this stuff big time. Stewart, Letterman, Maher, Moore. They can tell you the biggest lie and do it in a biting or even vulgar way and it effortlessly moves your understanding without analysis. Before you know it, everything you believe is based on crap that made you laugh. Get a drool cup.

blake said...

MIchael Moore is a great film maker.

Michael Moore is a great propagandist. Which is like being a great forger.

rcocean said...

Anybody who thinks giving billions to AIG, GS, and Citigroup was the "Free Market" needs to get psychiatric help.

It was Capitalism - specifically "Crony Capitalism" supported by both Obama and McCain.

This is one Moore movie I might see.

Richard Dolan said...

Lefites, rightes. Blah. Same with these movies. It's all soft sift in the hourglass.

Chip Ahoy said...

Ewww, grrrrrr, that does it!

))) slam (((

*looks up "soft sift."

Unknown said...

I probably will see his movie, but I'm concerned that Michael Moore will feel guilty about making money using a system he so obviously hates. To be sensitive to his feelings, I plan to buy a ticket to "Cloudy with a Chance for Meatballs" when I go.