In October of 2004, filmmaker Michael Moore was invited to speak at Utah Valley State College in Orem, as part of his "Slacker Uprising" tour aimed at encouraging students to register to vote. This visit sparked a huge uproar by the predominantly conservative community of Utah County. This division between liberals and conservatives is chronicled in director Steven Greenstreet's important new documentary, This Divided State.
The film opens with a quote from the founder of the Mormon faith, Joseph Smith:
"Political views and party distinctions should never disturb the harmony of society."
I think the man was spinning in his grave during the whole Michael Moore event. Why were so many people opposed to the views and opinion of a single individual? In Orem, Michael Moore represented the opposite of the "traditional" conservative values of the city: a liberal with a capital "L." Greenstreet introduces us at the beginning of the film to a man named Kay Anderson, a local Republican leader and businessman who so despises Moore that he offers to buy up all the tickets sold by Utah Valley State College, to stop Moore's visit. Anderson lays out his hatred of Moore in the first few minutes of the film:
"He hates Republicans, he hates who we are...and he's anti Mor..." and Anderson stops himself, but he obviously was going to say "Mormon." Anderson continues: "he's anti-American, he's anti-Republican, he's anti what Utah County is." Which, apparently, is hard-core Republican.
As a college student myself (albeit a bit older than your average freshman) it's really hard to imagine an environment such as Utah Valley State College where even the idea of Michael Moore is enough to spur heated arguments, or discussions between students, signing petitions against Moore (said petitions also wanting to remove from student government those involved in the decision to bring Moore to the campus), talking about how Moore is "anti-American" even though, in all probability, those students have never heard Moore speak, seen any of his films, or read any of his books. All is not lost for the distraught students of UVSC: Sean Hannity, conservative radio star and host of Fox's Hannity and Colmes, is also coming to town, a few days before Moore is scheduled to arrive.
Article comments
1 - El Bicho
Scott,
This film sounds very intriguing. I was on the fence about seeing it, but you have convinced me that should. Where did you get it?
Also, you have a sentence that reads, "I think the man was spinning was spinning in his grave" Feel free to have the editors remove this paragraph when the error gets corrected.
2 - Scott C. Smith
You can order the film via Amazon.com or directly from the link I provided in the review. And thanks for pointing out my typo! That's what happens when you write something in the wee hours of the morning.
3 - Ken W.
If you belong to Netflix, you can get the film there. It is one of my favorite documentary films.