Michael & Me (documentary)
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Michael & Me is an independent, self-financed 2005 DVD documentary created by Los Angeles-based radio and television talk show host Larry Elder, a staunch supporter of the right to keep and bear arms. His documentary targets filmmaker Michael Moore about his stance on guns in America. While it mirrors Moore's landmark 1989 documentary, Roger & Me, in tone and feel, Elder's intent is to repudiate Moore's assertions in his 2002 documentary Bowling for Columbine.
Michael Moore insists that there are too many guns in America. Larry Elder asks: "If there's too many guns in America, why is it that where guns are more available to people and gun laws are less restrictive, violent crime is usually lower?" Elder further asserts that gunowners are among America's most responsible, law-abiding citizens.
In Michael & Me, Larry Elder presents people who have used guns to prevent crime, or swear that if they'd been armed, they wouldn't have been victims, and presents evidence showing that an armed society is a safer society. Included is an interview with a woman identified as "Jane Doe," a real estate agent who was savagely raped by a client.
Larry Elder also uses Moore's "ambush style" of journalism against him by trying to track Moore down for an interview, which spans about eighteen months. During this time Moore claims to have spoken on these issues numerous times.
The DVD includes a humorous animation of a fictional Elder/Moore interview, a response to the controversial "A Brief History of the United States of America" segment in Bowling for Columbine, which, among other things, implies that the Ku Klux Klan members and founders of the National Rifle Association were allies, and that the latter, established in 1871, was created in response to the former being outlawed by the federal government in 1871. In the cartoon, Larry Elder's direct probing proves too much for Michael Moore, who literally sweats off the pounds and eventually goes insane.
To finance the documentary's estimated $350,000 budget, Larry Elder took out an equity loan on his home (Hannity & Colmes, Fox News Channel, August 26, 2005.)
