WOODY GUTHRIE LIVES

          Taken in whole, Moore's oeuvre constitutes a kind of counter-propaganda, a transmission from behind enemy lines. While most mainstream media try to inculcate a passive consumerist stupor, Moore shakes the viewer awake. It is just another of the ironies of the disinformation age that the author employs the machinery of the media industry--Fox television, Random House books--to broadcast a call for its practical destruction. "I have to travel on roads that I don't own," Moore explains, "and try to avoid being shoved off those roads... Ultimately, they'll allow me to be there as long as there are millions of Americans who want to hear what I have to say."

          Moore has almost nothing to say about the grim comedy passing for this season's presidential election--the inevitable ascension of the two-headed candidate Moore calls Billy Bob Dole Clinton. "It's very disappointing," he says, "and it will guarantee that we'll have the lowest turnout in any presidential election in recent memory. I don't think this election means much to anybody. It's kind of sad that in a country of 260 million people, these two guys are the best we can do... I honestly think people who choose not to vote at this point are committing an act of civil disobedience. It's not just apathy anymore." (Michael Tortorello) CP

          Michael Moore introducesRoger & Me at the Oak Street Cinema Friday. See A-List. p.37, for detatils.