Comments on article about Michael Moore

Qian Zhang

Artical:Working-Class Hero: Michael Moore’s Authorial Voice and Persona (LOUISE SPENCE)

This article discusses about Michael Moore’s persona through analyzing his ideas of authorial voice and persona in his documentaries. Basically, the author is in favor of the way Moore shoot film and how it presents to audience. In this sense, Moore lets the authority and power showing to the public and criticizes the seamy sides of authority. He has a strong sense of social responsibility and he is not fear of authority. The author comments that Moore would look at the public interests and show the real aspects of the events or figure. He is smart but when watching the documentaries, he gives the audience a sense seeming like he is unschooled. He tries various methods to get valuable records and footages for bring out the real facts and achieving his purpose. The author states that his anti-intellectualism contradicts values and points in contemporary society. One is paternalistic authority and the other is rugged delinquency. He uses irony in his documentary pointing out the crux of certain events or problems. Besides, Moore establishes his screen persona to convince audience and let viewers to favor his claims in the documentaries. The author contends that on the one hand Moore usually uses his humor and irony in the films to make fun of authority and on the other hand he would arouse social concern about the issue and forces viewers to rethink authority’s role in the whole documentary. ”Moore has a self-mocking tenor to his persona.” “He may be eccentric and weird, but never as eccentric or weird as the others he encounters. He gets a lot of laughs out of nursing his distrust of people in authority and with power” In other words, challenging authority and power has been an essential part or sign of his documentary which is a miniature of the voice of the masses.