Product Details

• Actors: Michael Moore, Bob Barr, James Carville, Christopher Donahue, Greg Donaldson
• Directors: Michael Moore, Linda Mendoza, Tom Gianas
• Writers: Michael Moore, Jay Martel, Annie Cohen, Francis Gasparini, Henriette Mantel
• Format: Box set, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Language: English (Unknown)
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 4
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Docurama
• DVD Release Date: April 29, 2003
• Run Time: 600 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (53 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00008K76O
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #20,944 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #7 in

  Movies & TV > Documentary > Series & Studios > Docurama > Politics

• For more information about "The Awful Truth - The Complete DVD Set (Seasons 1 & 2)" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Can you handle the truth? If you're Mickey Mouse, George Will, a Philip Morris executive, or any one of the corporate no-good-doers who pollute the environment, abandon their customers, or cheat their workers, best be on your guard: Michael Moore has got your number, or at the very least, your home address! Moore, muckraking journalist, guerilla filmmaker (Roger & Me), and all-around nonpartisan offender, follows up his Emmy-winning, albeit short-lived, TV series TV Nation with this even more confrontational series that can be seen on Bravo ("Between the Playboy Channel and Cartoon Network"). This set contains all the episodes from the show's premiere season. It is perhaps the most outrageous television you have never seen. The series is much more than Moore "going in someplace to bug somebody." There is method to Moore's madness. His outrage is palpable as he shames an insurance company into paying for a customer's life-or-death pancreas transplant by staging the man's mock funeral outside corporate headquarters. At the height of Monica-gate, Moore shows Washington, D.C., what a real witch-hunt looks like, complete with shrieking costumed Pilgrims. Other season 1 highlights include the return of Crackers, the plucky Corporate Crime-Fighting Chicken, who visits Disneyland to advise Mickey Mouse about Disney's alleged unfair labor practices. Moore also spreads holiday jeer inside Philip Morris by leading a choir of cigarette-ravaged carolers, each of whom must use a voice box. The Awful Truth is not for the faint of heart (or conservatives, for that matter). As Moore remarks after a segment in which his "Gay Team" cruises America in a pink Sodommobile, "We'll never be back on NBC now." You go, Mike!

In the sophomore season, Moore rails against politics as usual and exposes what he calls your "basic, everyday, run of the mill evil corporations." The Awful Truth was anything but comfort television, as witness the episode "Compassionate Conservative Night," in which "Team Dow" and "Team Nasdaq" engage in such contests as "Dunk the Homeless" and "Pie the Poor." In another segment, Moore launches an orange day-glow wallet exchange program after a spate of shootings in which police mistook African American victims' wallets for firearms. Moore makes hay with the 2000 presidential election. In one audacious segment, he offers his support to any candidate who will jump into the Awful Truth's portable mosh pit. George W. Bush's response, "Go find real work," made its way into Fahrenheit 9/11. Only Alan Keyes is game, incurring attacks by the other candidates during a televised debate. In this series' version of a Very Special Episode, Moore presents a short film he directed, "The Choice," in which Moore runs a Ficus plant against an unopposed candidate for the New Jersey House of Representatives. Throughout the season, Moore plants the seeds that will pollinate in his two controversial cross-over theatrical documentaries. Anticipating Bowling for Columbine, one segment takes aim at the NRA with the introduction of a new gun mascot, Pistol Pete, a costumed weapon, who is summarily tossed out of a Las Vegas gun show, NRA headquarters, and our nation's capitol. Moore also turns up the temperature on then-Texas Governor George W. Bush in a segment that pits the man who would be president against his brother Jeb to see which of their respective states, Texas or Florida, will prevail in the number of executions. For a brief and shining moment, the revolution was televised. At 30 minutes an episode, The Awful Truth remains swift (or Swiftian) satire. For fans, this set will complete the Moore manifesto, and give more ammunition to his critics. --Donald Liebenson

Product Description

From acclaimed filmmaker and author Michael Moore comes THE AWFUL TRUTH, the most daring documentary show to hit the American public since Moore’s own TV Nation. Now, for the first time, this Emmy nominated series is available in one complete DVD set.

I

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

139 of 163 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sherwood Forest in Times Square, September 24, 2003

By	"mobby_uk" (London United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

Michael Moore is a very unique individual,film-maker,and writer. Not because of what he believes in, as I am sure there are millions out there who share these beliefs(his chart topping books and films attest to that),it is rather because of his more than a decade long unrelenting dedication to get his message through to as many viewers and readers as he possibly can,with a rare sense purpose,irony,and poignant sarcasm.
He is concerned about many issues that he finds are wrong with American society, from guns, corrupt politicians, greedy corporations and unfounded or distorted myths about minorities be it African Americans or gays.
The Awful Truth is his successful TV series, produced for UK's channel 4, and in which not only he addresses yet again the issues he feels so strongly about,but most importantly and this is vital, he CONFRONTS them as well in any way he feels possible,of course all dressed up nicely in his unwavering humour.
I see Michael Moore as a sort of modern day Robin Hood, for although he does not steal from the rich to give to the poor,he rather exposes, embarasses the priviledged few and present it to the ordinary man and woman.For example the episode where he tries to help the illegal Mexicans who were about to be deported because the hotel they worked for informed the INS on them after they formed a union (and not before!) and succeeding in not only keeping the illegals in the country after petitions, but getting his own back at the hotel for violation of health and building codes, this was a triumph for the underdog against the double standards and exploitation they faced.
Or the episode where he stages a fake funeral for a dying man who needs a life saving transplant his insurance company refuses to pay for, while exposing the huge profits that company made. When the comapny finally agrees to cover the operation and the patient in the audience greets Moore with tears in his eyes, this too is a huge triumph.
In this sense I see him as a modern Robin Hood.
Awful is the last word to describe this wonderful series..It will make you laugh your head off, while opening your eyes and thinking..hard..

51 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Read this Review! I Actually Watched the Episodes!, July 29, 2004

By	K. Palmer (Illinois) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

First, I just want to say that I tend to be politically conservative, but I usually enjoy Michael Moore's work for what it is - entertainment engineered with a political slant. It's nothing more and nothing less than that.

That said, these reviews should be for Michael Moore's show "The Awful Truth". I have watched almost all of these episodes for the show's two year run. The first year's shows were shot before a live audience and you can hear the audience laughing at Moore's clips. The second year of shows were filmed in Times Square with no audience. The episodes for the first year were more humorous, with the majority of the clips focused on corporate issues and crooks. Highlights include a group of people who had lost their voice boxes to cancer from smoking singing Christmas carols to tabacco companies and their lobbyists, Moore's trek to many Manpower temporary offices to see how the employees would react to his visit (since Moore got his hands on an internal memo from Manpower instructing employees how to deal with Moore if he showed up to their offices) and the adventures of Crackers the Crime Fighting Chicken at Disney World. There were many enjoyable moments in the first season of shows.

The second season, maybe because there is no audience, seems much, much darker than the first. Not a lot of laughs in the second year. As an example, a story is done about a healthcare facility that had been fined for poor care of the elderly. One of Moore's reporters gets a group of elderly folks together and takes them to a martial arts instructor for lessons. The newly trained elderly martial arts masters are then taken to the offices of said healthcare provider to show them what they can expect if they ever try to mistreat older people in the future. And we are treated to a display of 75+ year old people trying to do punches and leg kicks. It was actually so ridiculous that it was painful to watch. There's many more misses than hits in year two, which probably explains why there was no year three.

I would recommend the first year of shows for anybody who enjoys a little over-the-top political and corporate humor. The second year is a little harder to recommend. It just isn't that funny, in general.

28 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Oblivioulsy on he sails, July 4, 2004

By A Customer

i've watched many of these episodes and found them at times funny at other times heartwrenching but most improtantly informative. a lot of people complain that michael moore is biased or that he spends all of his time conserative bashing etc, etc. but i think that they miss the fundamental points that he is making. take bowling for columbine i found it less of an anti-gun movie and more of an anti-fear movie. his message was that when you allow yourself to get caught up in the hype, you sign away your rights and your freedoms. when you get in a panic and you start to believe that the sky is falling or the russians are coming then you let your fear control you and you ignore the real problems. American healthcare and schools systems and city infrastucture and crime and poverty all these things are huge huge issues that have more of an impact on your day to day life than terrorism will ever have, but they get swept under the rug. the military gets more money than anything else yet there are little children starving in AMERICA. People dying becasue they can't afford to be healthy in AMERICA. That is Michael Moore's message, and you don't have to have a college education, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure it out. Corperations running the counrty and ruining lives and the enviroment raking in record profits, but the little everyday working man starving on the street becasue he's just been downsized/rightsized. yes, it is indeed very scary that such a large scale terrorist attack happened so close to home but the very minute you let fear control your life you forfeit your freedom, you forfeit what your forefathers worked so hard and died to achieve, America is a country built on ideals - Peace, Equality, Freedom, and they should never be forgotten, pushed aside etc. That's what michael moore's message is.