Michael Moore scrutinized in book

The new book "Citizen Moore: The Life and Times of an American Iconoclast" by investigative journalist Roger Rapoport is an in-depth, richly nuanced look at the career of the multifaceted author/filmmaker Michael Moore. Like all attempts at great biography, it strives to recount an individual life and, by extension, serve as a template for how each of us, through trial and error, make our way in the world. It succeeds admirably well.

Rapoport interviewed more than 200 of Moore's friends, editors, employees and even talked to the Catholic nuns who taught Moore in elementary school. Growing up in an Irish Catholic neighborhood in Davison, Michigan, Moore's family watched Bishop Fulton J. Sheen proselytize on the television. The exposure to this ecumenical media star in addition to the nuns' Catholic indoctrination inspired Moore to enter St. Paul's seminary in nearby Saginaw to study for the priesthood. Rapoport recounts the resulting meltdown:

"Although he was inspired by the Berrigan brothers' anti-war activism and the many sacrifices of United Farm Workers organizer Cesar Chavez in California's Central Valley, Moore quickly realized that there were limits to liberation theology."

The feeling was mutual: when he brought his concerns about continuing with studies for the priesthood, he was told "You ask too many questions," and that ended his quest toward ordination.

Moore's first venture into journalism was as editor and publisher of the Flint Voice newspaper. His inspiration for muckraking came from reading Mother Jones magazine (where, years later, he would become editor). Moore's initial target was General Motors, the bane of Michigan's diminishing labor force. This eventually led to his film "Roger & Me" (1989), which focused on his attempt to confront GM Chairman Roger Smith.

"Roger & Me" was the film that introduced mainstream moviegoers to Moore's satirical assault film style. His follow-up film "Bowling For Columbine" (2002) focused on the murderous events at Columbine High School in Colorado. I interviewed Moore at, of all places, the swanky Ritz-Carlton Hotel in San Francisco the day "Columbine" premiered. Lounging in the lobby was a platoon of Armani-clad execs and Moore walked in wearing his signature baseball cap. He proceeded to demolish a huge plate of chocolate chip cookies while answering a lot more questions than I had posed.

"Columbine," of course, went on to win the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and it triggered Moore's subsequent controversial acceptance speech. Rapoport sums up that historic speech succinctly:

"The filmmaker's 45-second attack on George W. Bush at the 2003 Academy Awards was only a trailer for Moore's next project, "Fahrenheit 9/11." Returning to the format of "Roger & Me," it offered Moore's fans a predictable mix of social history, class warfare, militarism, management mistakes and, most of all, victims who told their personal histories with irrefutable honesty."

"Fahrenheit 9/11" (2004) became the first documentary to gross over $100 million in domestic box offices (it did $228 million business worldwide plus $30 million in DVD sales) and it opened the doors for other film attacks on the power elite. Films such as "Super Size Me" (2005), a critical look at the McDonald's fast food empire, can be considered a direct descendant of "Fahrenheit 9/11."

Rapoport's summation of Moore's controversial career contains some of the strongest writing in this superb biography:

"In what has become the media's longest coming of age story, Michael Moore has blended his reportorial gifts with a wacky sense of humor that has astonished and delighted audiences from Davison, Michigan, to the White House. Like Lance Armstrong and Woody Allen, he is a celebrity in Europe. And from Cannes to Telluride, his movie making remains an inspiration to a generation of young directors...He is hard to ignore and even harder to explain.

"Driving past his imposing home on Michigan's Torch Lake at the end of a Labor Day holiday, I thought about what Michael Moore has done for and to America. Secure in an uncertain economy, living in one of the nation's finest resorts areas, he was no doubt working hard on his film about the American health care industry. Like every other story he has worked on, it will doubtless be rich with villains and victims.

Finding someone to blame for your difficulties remains his unique artistic achievement."