Slacker Uprising   Narrator: Michael Moore Optimum Home Entertainment RRP: £9.99 OPTD1628 Certificate: 12 Available 17 August 2009

For more than twenty years Michael Moore has been well known for his controversial documentaries, since Roger & Me (1989), Bowling for Columbine (2002) and Fahrenheit 911 (2004). This time he has turned his campaigning style of film making towards the 2004 presidential election, with an attempt to reinvigorate America’s youth to get off their butts and vote against the Republican Party...

Slacker Uprising (2007 - 1 hr, 35 min, 12 sec) is a record of the sixty city tour and his attempt to rescue the Democrats from themselves. Moore wasn’t the only person who could see that Senator Kerry was throwing away the election, through a combination of indecision and fumbled replies and the film has appearances by R.E.M, Viggo Mortensen and Eddie Vedder.

Obviously with hindsight, he failed in this mission when George Bush was re-elected; however, the film still makes for an interesting study in voter apathy. As a non American it was fascinating to watch the supposed land of the free, portrayed as anything but this. As Moore travels across the country visiting various universities he is met with a tsunami of vitriol from many conservative commentators who try to have his freedom of speech withdrawn and to have him physically banned from campuses.

The idea that an electorate should be an informed body is the central theme of the film and it seems obvious that Moore is as committed as ever to agitating for the things which he sees as right.

The disc contains no extras. The film is presented with an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 with audio options for either Dolby Digital 5.1 or 2.0 stereo. To be honest either of the audio tracks works well, with the 5.1 track having the edge in rally scenes. Both audio and video quality is variable, which is not unexpected in a documentary.

The film is pretty cheap, at less than a tenner, mind you; if you live in America or Canada you can download the film for free from slackeruprising.com.

I have always enjoyed Moore’s style of documentary film making, though his left wing stance will not be to everybody’s taste. Coming out now, with Obama in the White House the issues presented here are pretty superfluous. Add to this, that this is not Moore’s best work; the film becomes a curiosity for Moore fans and less of an essential buy for the general public.

5

Charles Packer