Moore unveils 'Big One' tonight

Michael Moore returns to Ann Arbor to premiere his new documentary, "The Big One," tonight at the Michigan Theater.

Who is that masked man? Defending the common man, saving the damsel in distress, willing to stand up to any bully, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound ... all right, maybe not. But extremely cool, nonetheless.

If you've guessed Michael Moore, you're correct. TV star, author, director extraordinaire, Moore will come to Ann Arbor tonight for the premiere of "The Big One," the documentary based on his 1996 "Downsize This!" book tour.

Moore will appear at the Michigan Theater to answer questions and sign copies of "Downsize This!" after the screening of his film.

"Downsize This!", recently released in paperback, attacks corporate America with full force, and Moore used the same biting humor to prove his point while on tour.

The book is full of jarring sarcasm, with chapters such as "So You Want to Kill the President!" and "Why Doesn't GM Sell Crack?" Hey, it's a good question.

PREVIEW
	The Big One Tonight at 6:30 Michigan Theater Free

It seems fitting that Moore is a Michigan native; only a man from this land of militias and major automobile manufacturers could see the humor in America today. Moore recently spoke with The Michigan Daily about his work and his views.

The composition of "Downsize This!" took on a highly personal and political tone for Moore.

"It was last year," Moore recounts, "an election year, and I had the sense that the majority of people were not going to vote. They had pretty much had it with the candidates and with these two groups that were trying to pose as two separate parties, when in fact they were really just one party. Two different parties - the Republicans and the Democrats - but they're both the party of the wealthy people and wealthy interests, and the majority of the people don't really have a party that supports their interests, and so they don't vote.

"I thought that I should write a book to encourage people to think about some of these issues, not let this happen again, and maybe have a good laugh along the way."

"The Big One," Moore hopes, will make people, namely college students, laugh and perhaps instill a seed of political interest, if one isn't there already.

"I think (college students) need to get involved politically, on campus and in their communities, and get the government back in the hands of the people and out of the hands of corporate America. It's only going to happen with your generation; the baby boomers have really lost it."

Moore temporarily lost it himself, almost becoming part of the government he so eagerly hopes to change while running for office when he was 18. His fan base in America wants to know, would this beloved uncoverer of truths run with a pack of liars again?

"No, but I think of other 18-year-olds running, or 19- or 20-year-olds. People at that age should think about running for office, to give it a breath of fresh air."

In Moore's opinion, America definitely needs a breath of fresh air to remedy the stale ideal of the "American dream."

"I think that the 'American Dream' has gone up in smoke for a lot of people. And if you're able to get a job, you're working longer hours and for less pay and benefits, no job security, and that's not the way it was supposed to be. It was supposed to be that if you worked hard and your company prospered, you would prosper. Now you work hard, your company prospers, you lose your job."

That disillusionment with the American dream is precisely where "Downsize This," and its cinematic counterpart "The Big One, " stems from; magnifying further as Moore toured the United States in support of the book.

"As I started traveling across the country, I was beginning to see this level of despair, and also how much other cities were starting to resemble my hometown of Flint, and so I decided to make a movie about that. I called together a crew and put it together really quick and shot it over a 3-week period."

Hopefully, for him and his audience, Moore will remain an active spontaneous author and filmmaker for quite some time; instead of just being a question on Jeopardy - though he already has been.

"Who made the 1989 documentary on General Motors?" Moore remembers, laughing. "A good question, though, would have been 'Who's that guy that only shops at KMart?' But I'll tell you, when Vanna turned my letters on Wheel of Fortune, that was a better experience."

09-19-97