[[quoteright:250:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Michael_Moore_2_6326.jpg]]

->'''Michael Moore:''' Students who don't have art or music classes in school are ten times more likely to fail in life and appear in one of my movies.
->'''Kent Brockman:''' Where did you get that statistic?
->'''Michael Moore:''' '''[[YourMom Your mother!]]'''
-->-- Moore's {{Crowning Moment of Funny}}, in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "The President Wore Pearls" (2003).

->"''But speaking here in my capacity as a polished, sophisticated European as well, it seems to me the laugh here is on the polished, sophisticated Europeans. They think Americans are fat, vulgar, greedy, stupid, ambitious and ignorant and so on. And they’ve taken as their own, as their representative American, someone who actually embodies all of those qualities.''"
-->-- '''Creator/ChristopherHitchens''' on Moore's popularity in Europe.

'''Michael Francis Moore''' is an American filmmaker and author known for his stridently left-wing political opinions, [[AuthorTract which he uses his documentary films to advocate]]. He is [[LoveItOrHateIt very controversial]] for this reason, and has a sizable {{hatedom}} who claim that his movies are full of [[DocumentaryOfLies dishonesty]]. Nonetheless, no fewer than ''three'' of his films have at one time or another held world records as "highest-grossing documentary not concerning music" and he has also received significant critical acclaim for them.

His films include:
* ''Roger & Me'': His breakthrough film, it documents the mass unemployment and other negative economic effects caused by General Motors closing its factories in Flint, UsefulNotes/{{Michigan}} (where Moore was born, though he was raised in neighboring Davison), as well as his more ambitious attempt to find then–General Motors chairman Roger B. Smith and convince him to see these bad side effects in person. [[spoiler:When Moore finally tracks Smith down at the company's Christmas party, he turns him down.]]
* ''Film/CanadianBacon'': Moore's only non-documentary film, this is a comedy about America starting a new ColdWar with UsefulNotes/{{Canada}} in order to revitalize the defense industry. Notable for being Creator/JohnCandy's last film, and for [[FunnyAneurysmMoment a crack about the lunacy of declaring a war on terrorism despite being made in the '90s]].
* ''Film/BowlingForColumbine'': The documentary that made the most money of any at the time (US$58 million), it looks into the causes of the 1999 UsefulNotes/{{Columbine}} High School Massacre and, by extension, [[UsefulNotes/AmericanGunPolitics gun culture in the United States in general]]. It won the 2002 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
* ''Fahrenheit 9/11'': Still the highest-grossing documentary of all time (nearly US$222.5 million), it looks into the administration of GeorgeWBush after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center as well as {{the War on Terror}}. It was made with the obvious intent of preventing Bush from getting re-elected in 2004 (not ''quite'' succeeding). It received the Palme D'Or at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival and amusingly, it is the movie for which George W. Bush won two Golden Raspberry Awards, one for "Worst Actor" and another for "Worst Screen Couple" with ''either'' Condoleezza Rice ''or'' His Pet Goat.[[note]]This was the first documentary to be nominated for or win a Razzie, as well as the first time a film not roundly judged to be of poor quality did so.[[/note]]
* ''Sicko'': An attack on the U.S. health care system, it details the effects that private health insurance has had on various citizens and contrasts the system with the universal health care systems of Canada, Great Britain, France, and even Cuba. Nominated for the Academy Award for the Best Documentary Feature, but lost.
* ''Capitalism: A Love Story'': This film studies the ongoing recession and, naturally, capitalism itself, particularly regarding the United States. Fittingly/ironically, it failed to recoup its US$20-million budget in its theatrical release.

Moore also created and hosted two satirical TV series, ''TV Nation'' (1994-95) and ''The Awful Truth'' (1999-2000). ''Please'' remember the RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment when contributing to this page.
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!!Tropes relevant to Moore and/or his work:
* AlliterativeName
* [[BannedInChina Banned in Flint]]: PlayedForLaughs (albeit very dark ones) in TheStinger to ''Roger and Me'': "This film cannot be shown within the city of Flint. [[spoiler: All the movie theaters have closed.]]"
* BoomerangBigot: The man himself. [[http://www.usnews.com/usnews/opinion/articles/040712/12barone.htm This]] pretty much speaks for itself.
-->"[Americans] are possibly the dumbest people on the planet. […] We Americans suffer from an enforced ignorance. We don't know about anything that's happening outside our country. Our stupidity is embarrassing."
** He titled one of his books "Stupid White Men".
*** Exacerbating this, as usual Moore featured himself prominently on the cover. Though this did give his critics opportunity to say that at least the ''title'' of the book was accurate, considering.
* BourgeoisBohemian: Moore makes much of his working-/middle-class upbringing; his critics make just as much of the fact that he has since become a multimillionaire. Both are correct; he focuses on the past, they on the present.
** However, Moore does consistently claim he grew up in destitute Flint, Michigan.[[note]]Of course, Flint proper ''was'' in much better shape during his childhood.[[/note]] He's actually from one of its nearby (and much more affluent) suburbs.
* TheCameo: As demonstrated in the page quote, in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "The President Wore Pearls." In the episode, he pops up in Springfield to voice his support for Lisa's student strike;[[note]]Long story short: after Lisa becomes Springfield Elementary's student president, Principal Skinner tricks her into endorsing his secret plot to [[WellIntentionedExtremist cut the school's operating budget by eliminating music, art and physical education from the curriculum]].[[/note]] more recently he appears on its DVDCommentary discussing the scene's foreshadowing of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupy_movement Occupy movement]], which he has also spoken favorably of.
** Doubles as a case of PromotedFanboy; [[http://www.upi.com/Entertainment_News/2003/11/12/Michael-Moore-to-be-on-The-Simpsons/UPI-85261068661236/ he had hoped to appear on the show]] since the episode "Bart Gets Famous"[[note]]Because the boxes made at the Springfield box factory are actually assembled in Flint.[[/note]] aired in 1994.
* CanadaEh: In ''Bowling For Columbine'', he compares UsefulNotes/{{Detroit}} to Windsor, Ontario, just across the river/border, and describes Canada as being like a paradise.
** And of course this was the entire premise of ''Canadian Bacon''.
* ClusterFBomb: When it was revealed that UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}} Mayor Rahm Emanuel allegedly said "Fuck the UAW!", Moore responded with a pro-union blog post called [[http://michaelmoore.com/words/mike-friends-blog/happy-fuckin-labor-day "Happy Fuckin' Labor Day!"]]
* CryingWolf: If he hadn't been caught using so much manipulative editing it'd be a lot easier to believe him when he's telling the truth.
* CulturalCringe: He has a very low opinion of Americans.
* DocumentaryOfLies: One of the most common accusations levelled against his films.
* GodwinsLaw: His description of Bush's "USA PATRIOT[[note]]This was the actual [[FunWithAcronyms backronym]] the administration used for it; it stands for [[LongTitle "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism"]].[[/note]] Act" (which, admittedly, was of questionable legality) in his book ''Dude, Where's My Country?'' as being "as un-American as ''Literature/MeinKampf''." Kind of ironic when you consider that ''Bowling for Columbine'' did a pretty good job dissecting the HitlerAteSugar mentality.
* GoodIsNotNice: Many agree with his views but hate his methods of editing footage and ridiculing his subjects. It's actually worked against him as many people cannot get past their dislike of his tactics to see what are usually very sincere and good points in his arguments.
* HeroWorshipper: [[FranklinDRoosevelt FDR]].
* HistoryMarchesOn: ''Capitalism: A Love Story'' presents the then-recent election of BarackObama as a great victory in the war against capitalism. This view now seems hopelessly naive. On the other hand, some of his other comments, especially towards the end of the film, now sound like they're foreshadowing the Occupy movement.
* IconicItem: His Detroit Tigers baseball cap.
* LargeHam
* LighterAndSofter: To an extent, ''Sicko'', while still angry and opinionated, toned down the abrasive self-promoting style of Moore's past few films, with him not even appearing onscreen until halfway through and only one major "stunt" towards the end of the film, and avoided the blatant factual manipulations of ''Film/BowlingForColumbine'' and ''Fahrenheit 9/11''. Also quite literal in that he did lose some weight while working on the film.
* MoneyDearBoy: It has been suggested that this is Moore's chief, if not sole, reason for backing politically left-of-center causes, and that if right-wing causes were seen as "trendy" he would happily endorse ''them''.
* MoodWhiplash: ''Roger & Me'' begins by showing Michael growing up in the Flint area and later finding work in UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco … only to move back to Flint and find it a shadow of its former self.
* ObfuscatingStupidity: Again in ''Roger & Me'', this is the attitude he adopts in the course of his search for Smith. One such attempt sees him walking into GM's head offices and ''looking astonished that Smith's private elevator won't take him to the CEO's office''.
** Arguably also applies to Michael in general -- [[http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/fighting_words/2004/06/unfairenheit_911.single.html at least one]] of his critics has openly wondered "whether [he] is as ignorant as he looks," but no one can deny that he is rather good at what he does.
* OldShame: Supporting RichardNixon as a fourteen-year-old in 1968, chiefly because [[ItSeemedLikeAGoodIdeaAtTheTime he had claimed to have a plan to cease American involvement in]] UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar. At the time, Moore promised himself he would never reveal his part in Nixon's election; forty-three years later, [[http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/must-read/milhous-three-acts he owned up to it]].
* RaisedCatholic: Moore was raised as a Catholic and still identifies as such, though he disagrees with the Church's official stance on gay and abortion rights.
* RefugeInAudacity: [[http://dogeatdog.michaelmoore.com/whydoes.html This suggestion]] that General Motors would do better to peddle crack cocaine than manufacture automobiles if, as he recounts hearing time after time from assorted [=CEOs=], profit truly were supreme.
* ShamelessSelfPromoter: Another frequent accusation levelled at him. A common point of criticism is that the various stunts and pranks he puts in his movies seem to be more about putting himself front-and-center rather than addressing the issues he's supposedly focusing on.
* SignificantMonogram: In Roman numerals, his initials (MM) indicate 2000. Perhaps coincidentally -- or perhaps not -- he has enjoyed substantially higher publicity in the 21st century than the 20th.
* StrawmanHasAPoint: [[invoked]] In making ''Bowling for Columbine'' Moore was surprised to learn that Canada has higher per capita gun ownership than the States, but lower per capita gun crime. He thus came to the conclusion that the NRA (and others) are not entirely wrong.
* [[StrawCharacter Strawman Political]]: Often used in his works, for obvious reasons.
** In addition, he's something of a living strawman for people who disagree with him (a fair few left-wingers are [[DontShootTheMessage embarrassed to have him]] [[StopHelpingMe on their side]]).
** An example of this was in the film ''Film/AnAmericanCarol'', which had an [[{{Expy}} obvious Moore parody]] being yelled at by various historical figures and eventually changing his ways and coming to love America.
** Another, more lighthearted example was in ''TeamAmericaWorldPolice'', which portrayed Michael Moore as a suicide bomber blowing up Mount Rushmore.
* TwistingTheWords[=/=]ManipulativeEditing: One of his signature tactics.
** In ''Bowling for Columbine'', he spliced [[QuoteMine select portions]] of various speeches Heston made as president of the NRA to appear like one speech that he gave during the organization's convention in UsefulNotes/{{Denver}} which makes Heston look like an insensitive prick to the UsefulNotes/{{Columbine}} Massacre (which had occurred, downright inconveniently, less than two weeks before). The fact that Heston's suit and background wasn't matching up between cuts is either really funny or really sad.
** Also in ''Columbine'', the "Calling up the stairs" sequence which occurs after the heavily edited interview with Heston near the end of the film -- if the shots are mapped out in the sequence presented, it is quickly revealed that it is ''literally impossible'' for the sequence to have occurred as presented.
** Or the stunt with the "gun in the bank" which he set up 30 days ahead of time, and yet again spliced the footage together so it appears ridiculous.
** In ''Fahrenheit 9/11'', he confronted several legislators walking around UsefulNotes/WashingtonDC and asked them if they had children in the military. One such ambush interview was Representative Mark Kennedy (Republican from Minnesota), who gives a confused look before the shot cuts away. Right before he told Moore that [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit_9/11_controversy#Children_of_members_of_Congress_serving_in_Iraq his nephew was deployed in Afghanistan.]]
* YouHaveFailedMe[=/=]NoTrueScotsman: In his first major book, ''Downsize This!'', he [[http://dogeatdogfilms.com/whyareu.html espoused the opinion]] that modern labor leaders have turned their backs on everything their predecessors stood for.
** Similarly, he spends an entire chapter in ''Stupid White Men'' expounding on a theory that the Democrats are "DOA," and refers to Bush as "[[BillClinton Clinton]]'s logical extension".

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