Michael Moore’s Free Movie Download Bound to Set Trends

It’s election season, and Michael “Mr. Farenheit 911, Sicko” Moore has been quite quiet lately, only to startle us out of nowhere with Slacker Uprising a documentary Moore has made available online gratis to viewers via an arrangement with interactive hosting firm Hypernia.

The film’s cost rounds to about $2 million dollars, and most likely Moore will not recoup a dime from the free dowloading delivery. Many critics are hailing this move (free web release) as unprecedented. More is hoping for some guerilla-style viewing too; CityNews reports that Moore’s

“hoping the file will be shared via email, online and in homes, and will be shown in schools, colleges, church halls and community centres, insisting he’s fine with having it freely distributed everywhere, something that would turn the stomach of most movie executives in Hollywood.”

The unanswered question now is, will other filmmakers follow suit? Will they produce million-dollar movies and distribute them for free over the internet? Some observers have actually been panning the film, in particular Ben Walters of The Guardian who (while praising Moore’s millenial movie distribution strategy) waved off Slacker Uprising as a “disappointment that will give ammunition to those who see Moore as a self-aggrandising propagandist while contributing little of substance to the present campaign”. The same sentiment was reiterated by film critic John Serba whose evaluation of the documentary was pretty much summed up in the headline: you get what you paid for.

Maybe Moore ought to try this freebie strategy with his next movie. Then we won’t assume its quackery.