The Awful Truth Box Set (complete
series)
Picture: B- Sound: C Extras: B Film: A
There are certain times
when the truth hurts. Not only that,
but when something is so truthful that even when presented in a cynical or
sarcastic way can be devastating when you take in with full awareness what is
actually going on. The Awful Truth
for two complete seasons (or 24 episodes) did just that! With host Michael Moore, known for his
brilliant documentary Roger and Me and his more recent Bowling for
Columbine, he takes no prisoners as he attempts to find out what is wrong
with America by looking deep at some of the lies in order to find the awful
truths.
Moore has an amazing
ability to cover both sides of every story and attempt to stand back a little
with his own beliefs and try to figure out what position to take based on what
he uncovers. For example in the film Bowling
for Columbine many assume that Moore is anti-gun, when in fact Moore is a
NRA member. Moore is not against guns,
but against our rights being taken away by those individuals who must use guns
for all the wrong reasons. Moore is
never afraid to be too daring or too risky.
In fact there are moments when he is near the edge and at times over the
edge as almost every episode involves the law enforcement or security coming to
the rescue.
Season One operates
slightly different from Season Two. In
Season One, Moore acts more like a stand-up comedian in front of an audience
and then there are clips that are shown during the segment, which are then
discussed either before or afterwards.
In season two Moore hosts the show from Times Square in New York and
there is little involvement from him live, but most of it is shot material that
is then presented. Season Two also has
more money involved and this is clearly seen in some of the graphics as well as
some of the subjects that are covered.
It would seem that more money was used in order to accomplish some of
what was done during Season Two. Season
One ran during the 1998/1999 season on Bravo, while Season Two ran in the
1999/2000 period. Each episode runs
approximately 25 minutes as they are without commercials, which would run them
30 minutes.
This box set contains all
24 episodes on four DVD’s. Each season
is split over two DVD’s with six episodes on each disc.
Season One
Episode One
A Cheaper Way to Conduct a Witch hunt
Funeral at an HMO
Episode Two
Beat the Rich
The Sodomobile
Episode Three
Crackers vs. Mickey Mouse
The Voice-box Choir
Episode Four
Sal, the Bill Collector
Duck and Cover
Episode Five
The Awful Truth Man of the Year
TV Pundits
150 Feet from NBC
Episode Six
Work Care!
LucyCam
Air-Drop TV’s on Afghanistan
Episode Seven
Cohen in a Wimp
LucyCam #2
Manpower, Inc
Episode Eight
Montana Shacks
Joe Camel Needs a Job
LucyCam #3
Episode Nine
Hail Turdonia
Teen Sniper School
Hitler Makes a Withdraw
Episode Ten
Crackers vs. the Egg Farm
The Michael Moore Playset
American Apartheid
Bill Gates’ Housewarming
Episode Eleven
Weapon Inspectors
The
“Make a Wish Foundation”
We Find Hilary a Date
Episode Twelve
NAFTA Mike
Strikebearers
The Merger
Season Two
Episode One
Advertiser Appreciation Night
Episode Two
Compassionate Conservative Night
Episode Three
Help the Dead Guy
Episode Four
German Vacation Night
Episode Five
Ficus for Congress
Episode Six
Taxi Driver
Episode Seven
Dixie Flag Night
Episode Eight
Stop and Frisk Night
Episode Nine
Replacement Mike
Episode Ten
Store the Homeless
Episode Eleven
Gulf War
Episode Twelve
Find Clinton a Job
Just by looking at the
breakdown from each season it is clear that during the second season that there
was a sharper focus on one theme throughout the episode rather than in season
one when two or three were covered.
Season Two seems to not only have a sharper focus, but also manages to
pull everything together a little tighter, where in season one things were a
toss up, which worked fine since it had a different approach.
Even if you do not agree
with everything that Moore has to offer or you think that his show goes ‘too
far’ there is no argument that at least he is motivated to take action towards
something. He does not sit around and
just complain about it like the majority of us do, but rather he takes action
in some way, shape, or form. With his
camera by his side and his microphone in hand there is no telling where Moore
will show up. In fact in one of his
episodes there was a ‘Michael Moore Memo’ sent out to all the offices of the
temp agency Manpower Inc. The memo
stated what you were to do in case Moore would show up. Upon hearing about this Moore decided to
visit a few Manpower Inc. locations just to make sure that the employees were
reading up on all the memos. Even when
you try to stop Moore he will use your attack against him and come back even
harder.
There are a lot of
highlights from each season. Some of
the episodes actually end slightly different than expected. One episode involved Moore going to the
streets of New York City and telling all African American men to trade in their
black wallets in exchange for a bright orange wallet so that the cops will know
that the wallet is not a gun. This was
done shortly after N.Y.P.D. shot an African American male when he pulled out
his wallet. Moore did not expect to get
the turnout that he did and the people on the street played right into his
hands taking part in his demonstration.
Other episodes are just
crazy and the point of them is not necessarily to accomplish anything like when
he was able to get a U.P.S. worker his job back. For example the episode where he dresses a man up as Adolf Hitler
and sends him into Swiss Banks in order to get money back from WWII. Obviously there is no way that the bank will
give out that money, but that is not the point.
Each episode is admirably
presented in its original broadcast format of 1.33:1, which looks good
considering the source material is all over the place. The live material is basic broadcast, which
is an analog transfer and looks ok.
Some of the stock footage that is used ranged from fair to average. The audio is Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo and is
recorded very low. Audio is compromised
in certain situations as most of this is shot in ‘guerrilla’ fashion where they
are just concerned with getting something into the camera rather than worry
about technical qualities. The
two-channel presentation does a fine job and remixing this for 5.1 would be
rather pointless. The volume tends to
range back and forth between Moore talking and the video clips, but nothing too
dramatic.
There are a few extras in
this box as well. Season One contains
some of the ‘Awful Truths” that were not used in the episode. Season Two contains four commentaries on
from Michael Moore on his favorite episodes.
His commentary is hilarious, but also provides the type of insight into
how this whole production came about.
Moore fills in mentioning some of what the camera did not catch, which
is always good to know in order to know what was cut together for each
episode.
The Awful Truth unfortunately only ran these two seasons and once
you see it you will quickly understand just how bold and brilliant this show
is. Not only that, but the risks that
were taken paid off in most cases, if nothing else it brought about awareness,
which is the biggest plague on America.
This is by far the best way to view this series, as all the episodes are
present without interruption by commercial.
Some of the episodes bear repeating as they are either that funny or
that radical that you do not believe it happened that you need to see it again,
such as the pimp going to Washington wondering if he can use congress as his
ho’s! This is not Moore’s first series
like this, he did a similar show a few years back in 1994 called ‘TV Nation’,
which some of that material reappears here and there during The Awful Truth,
as do some of the same correspondents.
Docurama is responsible for bringing this great box set to the consumer
and that is truth, nothing awful about it!
- Nate Goss
