Posted 1/25/2005 05:43:00 PM by Douglas

Michael Moore, your bluff has been called.

The reason is that Michael Moore was too arrogant to allow his movie to be considered among documentaries. Instead, he hoped his movie would have solid chances in the best picture category. Yet, with no nominations, Moore’s strategy completely backfired.

2003 for his documentary “Bowling for Columbine” and probably would have had a strong chance among documentaries again this year with his anti-Bush hit piece. Yet, Moore became too heady and was caught up in the Hollywood scene.

This is not the first time that Michael Moore believed his own press clippings. Last year, he thought his one “documentary” would change the outcome of the presidential race. By the way, a more accurate description of Fahrenheit 911 would be propaganda, instead of documentary. Nonetheless, he believed that his movie was so effective in trashing George W. Bush that millions of Americans would be persuaded to vote for John Kerry. However, Bush won with a much greater margin in this election than in 2000 and the Moore movie may have actually had the opposite effect of mobilizing Bush voters.

"Michael Moore believed his own press clippings." I love it. That's a lot nicer thing to say than "Michael Moore is a big fat idiot and attention whore." Would he have won again for best documentary? Kinda a moot point, really, since it wasn't so much a documentary as it was 90 minutes of his opinions about Bush's connection with the Saud royal family. Did it reveal some things most Americans didn't know? Probably. Ground-breaking cinema? Not really. Did it have the momentum to turn the tide of the election? Obviously not, but it'd doubtful that any film could overcome the negative inertia that was John Kerry.

I don't know how much of this story is actually true, but I can't imagine Moore is too happy today's announcement. But if his movie was omitted from the Oscars due to the hubris of his own ego, which is only slightly larger than his ass, then I can't help but laugh.