I recently watched Michael Moore’s Sicko and was very impressed by the effort put into the documentary. I wasn’t a fan of Moore’s previous work in Fahrenheit 9/11 or Bowling for Columbine, but Sicko does a great job of presenting the case for change in the US health care industry. Moore uses his skill very effectively to showcase the hardships caused by the current system on normal, everyday Americans, and in the end one is left almost with a feeling of shame at what has been donein the name of the almighty dollar. The film accomplishes its goal of making people aware of the need for change.

While the movie presents a strong message, and is accompanied by Moore’s humorous wit as comedic relief. This is almost a necessary counterpoint to the gravity of the situations he discusses - many of them are simply heartbreaking. Moore’s skill in using these, and his effective segues between scenes are key to making this documentary, which is almost two hours long, an engaging experience.

As a Canadian, I can tell say that the typical Canadian’s viewpoint is well-represented in the movie, and there is no hyperbole here. We truly do take pride in our system, and for us, it would be not only weird but unheard of to have to decide which finger to re-attach after a devastating injury, based on the cost of the operation. As Moore points out, this is reality of quite a few people in the US, who simply have no recourse for these sorts of non-life threatening injuries.

I was most impressed, however, with Moore’s vociferous defense of his movie on CNN, after they aired a piece somewhat critical of it, in order to present an opposing view. (They aired the piece just before they interviewed him) Moore quickly posted a rebuttal of the piece, and stood by his facts. The next day, he appeared on Larry King Live to debate these points with Dr. Sanjay Gupta, a neurosurgeon and journalist for CNN. The exchanges were heated, and neither side backed down. Moore appeared to declare war on CNN, perhaps prompting CNN to backdown somewhat.

Whatever you think of Moore, you have to give credit to someone who stands by their position and spends so much time to elaborate their position. He certainly commands respect from CNN, if they’re willing to response to each of his points in a rebuttal of Moore’s rebuttal. Keep an open mind, but definitely go and see this movie, if only to become more aware of the situation.

However, what I think is more important is how the hype and buzz about this movie came about - all of it happened through entirely untraditional channels, and SoaP may be the first movie that was heavily promoted and spread through viral marketing on the Internet, actively encouraged by New Line Cinema. This sets a precendent that other marketers are sure to notice

The viral spread

Viral marketing is nothing new. Basically, the concept of viral marketing is not to advertise by traditional methods, but rather by encouraging people and fans to spread the news of a product by word-of-mouth, to their friends, family and so-forth. This can be done by creating fun little web games that promote a particular product, and thus it is hoped that the game will be forwarded to friends. It’s called “viral” because the hype and buzz spreads from person-to-person, rather than from a particular media campaign (TV, billboard, etc.) directly to the person.

The rise of hugely popular social networks, such as MySpace, has made viral marketing more effective. Witness companies Unilever, using MySpace users to promote Axe deodourant. This method of advertising is extremely cheap compared to traditional methods, and can be very effective. It’s thus a low-risk option that’s just waiting to be exploited by more companies. Perhaps even more astonishing is the rise of companies like PayPerPost, which offers payment to bloggers who agree to write posts about certain products. In a way, these companies are just like regular ad agencies, except they’re operating in a new medium - the online viral market.

These techniques can be related to, or called “astroturfing”. The term itself is a play-on-words of the term “grassroots”, which basically means huge amounts of regular people voicing their support for a particular idea or policy. Astroturf, being fake grass, is thus the same to “grass” as “astroturfing” is to “grassroots” - apparent wide-spread user buzz about a particular product, when in fact the buzz or hype has been ochestrated.

Snakes on a Plane goes viral

The lead up to Snakes on a Plane and its move to viral marketing may have been accidental and unpredicated by the people behind the movie. When someone got wind of the absolutely outrageous title and concept, it apparently quickly spread throughout the web, becoming nothing short of an Internet meme.

This lead to many user-generated videos or art mocking or otherwise speculating on what might happen in the movie. A blog dedicated to it was even launched. And, of course, the many requests of a proper Samuel L. Jackson one-liner eventually lead New Line Cinema to re-open shooting of the movie in early 2006 for the explicit reason of adding this dialogue that users had so rampantly requested. In effect, New Line Cinmea was getting free advertising of their movie because of all the online buzz it was generating because of the outlandish concept. And, perhaps most importantly, they themselves decided to jump on the bandwagon, and further encourage more hype by actually yielding to users’ requests to make the move even more outrageous!

One could argue that the movie wouldn’t have generated so much buzz had it not been so outrageous, but one thing is for sure: There is no way this movie would have generated so much hype before its release if it were not for the web. I guarantee you that almost everyone in the theatre last night had read up on SoaP on the web before going to view it - heck, that’s the only way they would’ve known about it!

I won’t bother to cover the conspiracy theories here, instead sticking to the “official version” because I believe that’s more than enough - I’ve always been interested in the events surrounding September 11th, mainly because the coverage seemed so surreal because the actual events were so astonishing - perhaps the most important geopolitical event of our time, and if not, the most sensational. Here are some other documentaries about the event that you might find interesting.

The first one I saw was the 9/11 Chronology Video, which is a fairly-well done amalgamation of various news videos of that day, put together in a timeline that covers the events from 8:44 AM to about 10:30 AM, approximately in real time. I say “approximately”, because there are some gaps here and there. What’s interesting about this is that the chronology is shown with four separate panes of video, so after you see the second collision in one pane, you wait in anticipation for the President to be notified as he sits in a morning classroom with the kids.

I liked this chronology because it stays faithful to the facts, that is, though it has a commentary, the notes are directly drawn and referenced from the 9/11 Commission Report. It’s also fairly non-partisan, though some would argue it’s hard not to criticize President Bush as you see him sit in the classroom for almost 10 minutes after he is told the country is under attack. I don’t like to judge (I’m not sure how I would have responded so such a grave and high-stress situation), so I can only say this: If it were President Palmer (of the TV series 24), he would have had Jack Bauer on the line within 30 seconds!

But, on a more serious note, the chronology does a good job of conveying the confusion and destruction of that day, though some of the dialogue you here is much more ominous and foreboding; for example, one of the first Fire Chiefs to radio in the report of the first plane crash says something to the effect of, “… we have a number of floors on fire… it looks like the plane was aiming towards the building…”

Another good documentary I found was one that aired on the BBC that dealt with the causes behind the collapse of WTC1 and WTC2. It’s called The Fall of the World Trade Center, and was done by a group called Horizon. (You should be able to find it online) It showed a lot of good 3D animations along with expert opinion to back up the accepted explanations of why the Twin Towers fell - the main reasons being fire proofing that was blown off from the intial impact, leading to exposed metal that weakend from the ensuing fires. It was made back in 2002, so I don’t know why the people who a preaching the “controlled demolition theory” haven’t seen it - it offers a good explanation of the “exploding” or “detonation” sounds that many survivors heard - as the building collapsed, the floors “pancaked” down on top one another, which may explain the chain of loud noises heard.

I’m looking forward to seeing World Trade Center (the movie), sometime soon, despite it seeming like a big Hollywood-esque film. I saw United 93 back a few months ago, and was very moved by it. It was both well done, not-over the top, and at the same time had a lasting impression. I recommend that you see it when it comes on DVD if you haven’t already.

The documentary doesn’t give too much time to talking about the events leading up to his death; there’s plenty of material out there for those who are interested. It instead focuses on how Bruce Lee developed his personality, his being, and how he defined himself. A progression is shown as we see the young Lee advocating Kung-Fu techniques during an interview, only to fully renounce all styles a few years later.

In this respect, the documentary does a good job showing you how Lee’s thinking changed over the years, and it walks you through the personal experiences he had which caused them. Particularly interesting was his philosophy on martial arts and life, which seem to be one and the same for Lee. His ability to overcome many obstacles in life show his determination and resolve, and his belief that “the only help is self-help.” At the end, you can only hope what more he would have accomplished had he lived longer.

The documentary is generally well done, and draws from the personal experiences of those close to him, including his wife, and those who trained and acted with him. However, the last third or so of the film consists of footage they found for the Game of Death, Lee’s last film, and this feels less in-depth and more like just a bunch of fight-scenes. Also, there are no interviews with Brandon Lee, his late son, since the documentary was made after his death.

After watching this, you’ll have much more respect for Lee, especially if you’ve only thought of him previously as an actor/fighter. Lee was a very deep-thinker, and was always evaluating himself and looking to self-improvement.

Recommended for viewing.