Word: agitational
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...AGIT-DOCS...
...Together, the year?s fistful of contentious new political films formed a burgeoning non-fiction genre: the agit-doc. They ranged from specifically anti-Dubya tracts like ?Bush?s Brain? (about Presidential Advisor Karl Rove) and ?Uncovered: The Whole Truth About the Iraq War? (military and intelligence nabobs deconstructing the Bush war rationale) to ?The Hunting of the President? (detailing the Right?s long campaign to destroy Bill Clinton). They covered the media?s coverage of Iraq in ?Control Room? (a sympathetic look at the Arab news channel Al Jazeera during Operation Iraqi Freedom) and ?Outfoxed? (a searing attack...
...Moore?s Oscar-winning ?Bowling for Columbine? established the agit-doc tone, which mixes sober condemnation with japish wit. The approach was part ?Democracy Now? (Amy Goodman?s low-rent, high-IQ newscast on radio and TV), part ?The Daily Show,? which since 9/11 has become the Left?s CNN. Jon Stewart has made the President is an easy figure of fun. But the agit-docs aimed to nail Dubya for crimes graver than speaking English as a second language. They viewed Bush and his closest advisors as Pirates of the Constitution, exploiting the national trauma over 9/11 to pursue...
Alexander, dead more than two millenniums, may appear a remote subject for this agit-historian, whose docudramas have ventured no further into the past than the last mid-century. But the new movie has plenty of contemporary reverberations. This Alexander is a clear model for George W. Bush, pursuing destiny or delusion from the civilized West into Babylon-Baghdad, completing the quest George H.W. Bush left unfinished. Warned that this "was not your father's mission," the young king replies, "And I am not my father...
...movies typically breed clones. And in this election year, with stakes and tempers high, a potent nonfiction genre is emerging: the agit-doc, dealing with high-octane political issues, often in a confrontational tone. Trailing Moore's box-office clout, agit-docs are surging into the mainstream. One of them, The Hunting of the President, co-directed by Clinton pal Harry Thomason, was originally to go to 30 theaters; now its distributor has revved that number to 125 and has put the film's trailer on many screens showing Fahrenheit 9/11...