Replaying the late 60's and early 70's

With Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 911 trucking along to box office success, the hue and cry over it’s responsibility and credibility would make one believe that this is the first time that a film maker has targeted the government of the day. In fact America has a long history of socially conscious activists who over the years have used their standing in the community to express their opinions, becoming the beacon that many other like minded citizens would gather around. The Smother’s Brothers, Lenny Bruce, Jane Fonda all were universally celebrated and scorned in equal amounts for their beliefs and the espousal of them, somehow the Republic survived, much as I’m sure it will once again.

For Moore, his Fahrenheit 911 seems to be the lightning rod of the day for those looking for the Un American aspect of the debate on Iraq, at least Un American from the view of supporters of the Republicans. Yet Moore is not trailblazing a new path here, back in 1971 a New York film maker named Emile de Antonio released a movie called Millhouse: A White Comedy, a film that garnered attention from the likes of H. R. Haldeman, John Dean and the folks in the Dirty Ops section of CREEP, the folks who gave us Watergate. The internet journal Slate magazine, has put together a delightful remembrance of de Antonio’s films and activist career. Interesting to note is the concern of Dean, that the film might hurt Nixon’s chances with the youth vote, which is laughable when taken in historical context! Let’s see the era of Nixon had a universal draft sending 18-24 year olds off to a far off land to fight a war nobody could really explain, there really shouldn’t have been much of a youth vote for Nixon. Except maybe for all those accepting their deferments of the day and even they would be questionable Nixon supporters.

Millhouse, which never got the wide distribution that Moore’s film has, none the less did attract quite a bit of official attention. It is disclosed in the Slate article that the some of the President’s men had prepared a dossier to release about the major figures behind the movie should it begin to garner much interest. Perhaps a cautionary tale for Mr. Moore, expect the IRS to be checking box office receipts and bank account deposits to make sure Mike’s not stuffing bucks in the mattress for a rainy day, or an emergency relocation to Canada.

The current climate in the USA seems positively late 60’s early 70’s, we’ve got an unpopular war dragging on with no end seemingly in sight. An election coming up featuring a very polarized electorate and low polling results for the incumbent president. We have rhetoric on both sides of the debate showing us that the middle ground is a so far in the distance, as to be non existent.

Add to the mix the confusion of the average American, the intransigence of the government and its supporters as well as the coalition of the artistic community and you’d swear we’ve been time warped back to Chicago 68 just before the Democratic Convention. Except this time around it will be New York as the focal point and the Republicans playing the part of LBJ’s government of the day. One wonders how New York Mayor Bloomberg will like the role of Richard Daley!

We’ve been watching the broadsides against President Bush and the backlash against those that speak their minds. For the Smother’s Brothers we introduce Whoopi Goldberg, Moore is taking de Antonio’s place and while no Baghdad Babs, one is just waiting for the comparison of Barbara Streisand to Jane Fonda’s taking to the streets of the late 60’s, though in Bab’s case we suspect it would be in a chauffeured limousine, surrounded by personal bodyguards.

Whoopi just got fired by Slim Fast for her X rated Bush comments at a Kerry/Edwards rally in New York City last week, Moore of course is frequently eviscerated by the right wing for his stance on the Bush regime and Streisand frequently finds her personal details featured on the Drudge Report every time she makes an announcement regarding the Kerry campaign.

As I said, it’s all so everything old is new again. While there are newcomers taking the stage to express their opinions Hello Dixie Chicks, Susan Sarandon, Jon Bon Jovi, John Mellencamp and Mary J Blige to name a few, the atmosphere seems positively retro.

As if to bring us full circle I find that 60’s anti war icon Country Joe is still kicking it around. And if you doubt that everything old is new again, check out his website! His latest song is called Cakewalk to Baghdad. While not as infectious as the Fixin to die rag, Country Joe is still a biting wit, his latest effort reads like the Richard Perle playbook. The world waits to see if his satirical look is more prescient than parodical!