Why Sicko will tank.
That’s right, Moore hasn’t even started promoting his new film Sicko yet and the controversy is already starting. Drug companies are issuing warnings in their newesletters to be on the lookout for a"portly" fellow in a baseball cap, especially if he has a camera crew in tow. They are advising employees to keep their big mouths shut. No doubt Moore will still find his next Lila Lipscomb, and he’ll use some more footage from other sources to complete his next project, but I think the genie is out of the Michael Moore ambush style of film making bottle. People are getting wise to him, and he has nobody to blame but himself.
That being said , Moore will still finish his movie and prepare a place on his mantle for yet another undeserved film award, but this time I think he’s in for a bit if a suprise.
You see, pharmaceutical compaines and HMO’s don’t exactly have the intrigue of Fahrenheit 9/11. F9/11 looked at the worst case of terrorism on US soil in our history, a subject that everyone could relate to, since we were all part of that story. Had Moore been able to dig up some legitimate smoking guns, the film might have been actually relevant for something other than it’s historic irrelevance. I mean, c’mon! 200 million dollars at the box office, a 60 city slacker tour, and even the Palme D’whatever and he still couldn’t convince a majority of people to dump George Bush?
In Sicko, I actually think Moore will be able to dig up some smoking guns. The problem is, that the smoking guns all belong to the drug companies. Since we don’t vote for drug company presidents, the topic won’t ring and clearly with the public. One sector of people the movie will raise an eyebrow from however, is stockholders. If Moore succeeds is creating some legitimate boogeymen in the drug company business, the stock values will suffer. And just who holds stock in drug companies? Well, about 40% of Americans are stock owners either in common shares, or through mutual funds and 401K programs, and many of us own shares is pharmaceutical companies even if we don’t know it.
If Moore is successful in beating the daylights out of the pharmaceutical industry, a lot of folks stand to lose a lot of money, including their retirements accounts. Nice , huh?
The thing is, stock ownership knows no political ideology. There are barking moonbat liberals out there with very similar portifolios to the radical right-wing nuts they so despise. I doubt anyone will look at Moore with the same admiration when they start having to recalculate their retirement plans. I predict a new catch phrase from the left when describing this movie: TOO FAR.
I can see it now:
“When Michael went after the gunowners and republicans, I thought it was GREAT, but now, it’s like he’s coming after ME! I think he’s gone too far”.
It won’t take long for the sentiment surrounding Moore’s next movie as “not-as-good-as-the-last-one-for-whatever-reason” to ricochet throughout the country. Ticket sales will be of dismal proportions. I predict he may not reach 40% of the success of F911. Sure, there are folks out there that would be willing to pay ten bucks to watch Moore make a BM, but for many of us, we would argue that that’s what the last few movies were anyway. It’s just worse when that BM is aimed at you, and our liberal soon-to-be-former-Moore-fan friends will know exactly what we are talking about.
The bottom line is, for all the things that people claim made F911 successful, Sicko will have very few of those attributes, and Moore is facing an uphill battle in selling something like that to the public. My guess is Moore will probably throw together the next Fahrenheit movie first, and in his hurry to cash in, he’ll leave folks lamenting that as far as sequels go, it will fall somewhere between The Godfather part III and Weekend at Bernies II.
Update:
Moore is keeping a lid on the upcoming project. ( thanks anonymous e-mail tipster!)
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