[ron3d]

One of my biggest pet peeves is when people create videos on a real crisis, or war deaths or a serious news story, and they fuck it up with movie-like/entertaining/popular background music and flashy graphics. WTF?!?! Maybe I'm just one of those old school guys who feels there should be a separation between reality and entertainment, especially if that reality relates to serious topics.

That's why I pretty much hate all Michael Moore films. If you watch Bowling for Columbine, there's a section where he's showing real scenes of violence, killings, terrorists, overthrown leaders, and the 9/11 attack on America, all to the tune of Louie Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World" song (which has been used in tons of Hollywood films and productions).

What these idiots don't seem to get (or maybe they do) is how much that dilutes the impact and significance of the very footage they're presenting. It just becomes entertainment (and 9/11 was not entertainment). The same is true for too many flashy graphics.

One film I must say that was done very well is "No end in sight", by Charles Ferguson. And even that nudged towards Hollywoodishness a little, in the way they tried to convince you of their message rather than simply lay out the facts.

The BBC is pretty good in this area. They seem to strive to uphold more professional standards when it comes to serious topics, from what I've seen.

Ok, rant over.

[Bill Posters]

The BBC is pretty good in this area. They seem to strive to uphold a more professional standards when it comes to serious topics, from what I've seen.

They're bound by charter to a high level of impartiality due to it being a publically funded organisation. They don't always maintain it, but they don't get away with op-ed/partisan 'campaigning' for long due to internal system of checks and balances overseeing their programming.

Moore understands that the US audience doesn't generally have the stomach for a straight, 2 hour documentary. The US audience, at that time, needed a little bit of jazz-hands to sweeten the pill.
A worthy, but dryly delivered documentary that no-one will watch is a documentary that's going to find it difficult to get green-lit.
Also, bear in mind that BfC, much as with Moore's other films, was an op-ed piece and not subject to the same levels of impartiality as we expect (though rarely get) from genuine news and current affairs outlets.

(Fwiw, even though I'm non-US, I'm in general agreement with Moore's position in BfC.)