Clint Eastwood: Stealth Pinko or Obama Tool?

Last night, I wondered how long it would take before some conservatives started complaining that Clint Eastwood's "Halftime in America" Super Bowl ad for Chrysler played too much like... like... well, like a thank-you shout-out to Barack Obama for the auto industry bailout.

Well, as it turned out, Michelle Malkin didn't wait until the end of The Big Game before Tweeting her disapproval. And this morning, Marketwatch reported a snippy reaction from David Limbaugh, a conservative writer who, as I understand it, is to his older brother Rush what Frank Stallone is to his brother Sylvester: “I think Clint Eastwood’s credentials as a conservative have been overrated for some time."

As Monday proceeded apace, there were reports that the ad itself had been removed from YouTube after NFL reps complained about an alleged copyright violation. No joke: The NFL bigwigs allegedly insisted that any ad using the term "Halftime in America" would be verboten simply because the NFL claims all rights to the term "Halftime." This may or not be true -- after all, we're talking about an organization that doesn't allow free use of the term "Super Bowl" in non-approved advertising -- but in any event, cooler heads prevailed, and the spot is back on view at You Tube.

And, trust me, not everybody is happy about that. As reported today on Chris Cillizza's The Fix blog, Karl Rove (a.k.a. Bush's Brain) views as the ad as nothing less than -- are you ready for this? are you sitting down -- propaganda approved by the Obama re-election campaign:

“I was, frankly, offended by it it,” said Karl Rove on Fox News Monday. "I'm a huge fan of Clint Eastwood, I thought it was an extremely well-done ad, but it is a sign of what happens when you have Chicago-style politics, and the president of the United States and his political minions are, in essence, using our tax dollars to buy corporate advertising.”

Meanwhile, left-leaning commentators could barely contain their glee. Over at the Daily Kos site, writer Laura Clawson took a tongue-in-cheeky approach to parsing Rove's comments for deeper meaning. ("It's not clear whether Rove is implying that Obama saved Chrysler in 2009 in order to get a 2012 Super Bowl ad that some would interpret as positive about him, or that Obama actually called up Chrysler and demanded the ad, but whatever.") And Michael Moore -- yes, that Michael Moore -- Tweeted a thank-you to Clint Eastwood for what Moore sees as Eastwood's ringing endorsement for President Obama's re-election: “Your sermon seemed 2 b a call 2 give O his ‘second half.’”

Eastwood has not officially responded to the controversy -- yet -- but given his history as a political maverick, I am certain he will say something that will not entirely please folks on either side of the political divide. (And good for him.) I also have no doubt that, right now, someone somewhere is planning to take a publicity shot of Clint Eastwood from some movie, and Photoshop onto the superstar an "Obama 2012" T-shirt. Might I humbly suggest a photo of Eastwood from True Crime, his under-rated 1999 drama? You know, the one with the unmistakable anti-capital punishment message?

UPDATE at 5:34 pm: According to MSNBC.com:

Eastwood, for his part, told Fox News producer Ron Mitchell, "There is no spin in that ad. On this I am certain. l am certainly not politically affiliated with Mr. Obama. It was meant to be a message about just about job growth and the spirit of America. I think all politicians will agree with it. I thought the spirit was OK."


So there! Now get all these damn political pundits off his lawn!

Michael Moore is not now, nor has he ever been, the Democrats' answer to Rush Limbaugh

At least, that's his story, and he's sticking to it: "[T]he more the Right went after me, the more people got to hear what I was saying -- and eventually the majority, for some strange reason, ended up agreeing with me -- not Rush Limbaugh -- and elected Barack Obama as president of the United States, a man who promised to end the war, bring about universal health care, close Guantanamo, stop torture, tax the rich, and rein in the abusive masters of Wall Street." So there. Eat dirt and die, Republican campaign advisor Mark McKinnon.

Michael Moore's Internet Uprising

Far be it from me to question Michael Moore's motives, or even suggest that he's trying to put lipstick on a pig. But when he says he's releasing Slacker Uprising as a free Internet download -- and not as a theatrical feature -- because he thought it would be "a nice way to celebrate" his 20th anniversary as a filmmaker... Well, maybe, just maybe, the decision also had something to do with the critical response that greeted the film last year when it was shown at the Toronto Film Festival under the title Captain Mike Across America.

It's "Sicko Night in America," and you could be a winner!

An open letter from Michael Moore:

Thursday, July 19th, 2007

Friends,

Good news! Sicko, after less than three weeks in national release, has become one of the top five grossing documentaries of all time! So, this coming weekend, the distributor is expanding the movie by opening it in nearly 500 new theaters in small cities all over the country (for a total of nearly 1,200 screens nationwide)! From Rapid City to Carson City, from Gettysburg to Pearl Harbor, from Juneau to Battle Creek -- they're all getting Sicko tomorrow (Friday). Scores of cities that never have a documentary come to their local theater will now be able to see this one. It's happening all thanks to you who live in the larger cities and have supported Sicko so strongly. It's led the studio to say, "Let's make more prints and ship them to Oshkosh (and Beaverton and Brattleboro and Sault Ste. Marie and...)."

The entire country goes Sicko in less than 48 hours! (Check here for the complete list of theaters showing Sicko in North America.)

So, friends, this is it. This is the weekend to go see Sicko if you haven't seen it. I get a lot of letters from people saying they plan to "get around" to seeing it "soon." Well, soon is here! Trying to get theaters to give us screens when we are up against huge summer blockbusters is an almost impossible task. Sicko won't be around forever. And if you're waiting for the DVD, ask anyone who's seen Sicko -- this is a movie you want to see with a crowd of people in a theater. So let's pack the movie houses this weekend! Send an email to everyone you know, call your friends and tell them, "It's Sicko Night in America!"

And, to show my thanks to all of you who'll go see Sicko this weekend, I'm going to send one of you and a guest on a free weekend to the universal health care country of your choice! That's right. You'll get to pick one of the three industrialized countries featured in the movie where, if you get sick, you get help for free, no matter who you are. All you have to do is send us your ticket stub (make sure it says Sicko on it and has the name of the theater and this weekend's date on it -- Friday, Saturday or Sunday - July 20th, 21st, 22nd). Attach the stub to a piece of paper with your name, address, phone number and email and send it to: Sicko Night in America, 888c 8th Avenue, Suite 443, New York, NY 10019. (Yes, you have to use that old 18th century device called the U.S. Postal Service, and it has to be postmarked on or by Tuesday, July 24th).

First prize is a weekend in the city of your choice: Paris, London or Toronto. This includes airfare, hotel, meals and, most exciting, a representative from their fine universal health care system who will give you a personal tour so you can see how they treat their fellow citizens. You'll meet people who pay nothing for college and citizens who are in the fourth week of their six-week paid vacation. Oh, and you'll have time to see the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben or whatever they have in Toronto that is old and tall. (If you don't have a passport, we'll pay for that, too!)

Canadians who are reading this -- you're probably thinking, "Hey, what about us? Where do we get to go?" Quit complaining! You're already there! But just to make it up to you -- and to prove we don't hold it against you for smugly walking out of a hospital with the same amount of money in your wallet that you went in with -- we'll let you participate in the drawing, too.

Thanks again to everyone who has gone to see Sicko. Take a friend or two this weekend and celebrate "Sicko Night in America."

Yours,

Michael Moore

mmflint@aol.com

http://www.michaelmoore.com/

P.S. I'll be on The Colbert Report tonight (Thursday) on Comedy Central. On a sadder note, my appearance on CNN with Wolf Blitzer has been moved to a later date. Wolf just called to say he had a death in his family and that we would have to re-schedule. Our condolences to him and his family.

More on Michael Moore

Indie movie maven John Pierson continues to attract impassioned responses to his IndieWire critique of Michael Moore. In the L.A. Times, however, Patrick Goldstein take a somewhat more respectful (albeit skeptical) approach to judging the incendiary documentarian. Speaking of Sicko, Goldstein writes: "At the center of the film, as always, is Moore. Like Bono, Spike Lee and George Clooney, he occupies that amorphous space in the pop culture given over to bold-faced names whose activism is indistinguishable from their celebrity. A walking inspiration for op-ed page pieces arguing the merits of his latest exposé, Moore has, as Clifford Odets once said of Orson Welles, 'a peculiarly American audacity.'"

Goldstein continues: "What makes Moore so compelling is that he has a cultural magnetism that seduces us while simultaneously arousing our suspicion. It's an unusually combustible equation: Infuriate + Inspire = Ambivalence. Bill Clinton's entire presidency was consumed by it. Courtney Love had it for a minute, as did Oliver Stone. Terrell Owens and Barry Bonds have brought it to the playing fields. Love 'em, hate 'em, often all at the same time."

True enough. Still, I'd be interested in seeing how the debate over Moore might be affected -- if at all -- if the documentary that has become Pierson's pet cause would get some theatrical play.

Iceskaters spotted in hell... Dogs and cats living together... And now...

A Michael Moore movie gets a rave from a Fox News contributor.

I just got back from SXSW and, boy, are my eyes tired

My apologies for not posting more -- well, actually, for not posting at all -- during my recent sojourn in Austin to cover the SXSW Film Festival. I wanted to provide daily commentary about the movies, good and bad, that I viewed there. Trouble is, as we say in Texas, you got to dance with the one that brung you. And since Variety picked up my tab for this trip, my first priority was viewing and reviewing major films (for the paper and its website) quickly enough to scoop The Hollywood Reporter.

I'm back at home base now, and likely will be posting a great deal about the festival offerings in the days and weeks ahead. In the meantime, I invite you to check out my reviews of these SXSW world premieres: Scott Frank's The Lookout, a stealthy neo-noir drama that isn't afraid to take its time developing characters on the way to the payoff of a neatly designed caper scenario; Judd Apatow's Knocked Up, which is, scene for scene, minute to minute, one of the most explosively funny movies in recent memory; Debbie Melnyk and Rick Caine's Manufacturing Dissent, an uneven yet even-handed critique of Michael Moore by two self-described "progressive liberal" filmmakers; and Mike Binder's Reign Over Me, which Jeffrey Wells has been raving about since last July, and rightly so.

And while you're at it, please also take a look at my review of Michael Tucker and Petra Epperlein's The Prisoner, or: How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair -- a documentary I strongly suspect will spark debates that will spill out of the arts and entertainment sections, and into the op-ed pages.

More Moore controversy

Once again, a Michael Moore movie is generating controversy -- and even sparking protests -- before its official premiere. The big difference here is, this time, it's not a movie by Moore, but about Moore. And, reportedly, it's not a pretty picture. Here's a link to the trailer.

Michael Moore wins another one

No, the Academy didn't give him another Oscar. Instead, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Ohio gave the firebrand filmmaker a favorable ruling in a lawsuit stemming from Bowling for Columbine.