Great Film overall

Good start, but then it gets ruined

Boring, over-political, tech fuzed mess

Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

I was one of the few non-liberals who showed up to see Steve's video. It was quite an experience... in propaganda film-making and boredom.I was hoping the film might be an actual documentary of Michael Moore's visit to my local school, UVSC, but it turned out to be another liberal, slash-and-burn effort to slam conservatives and the local religious community. It sure seems self-serving for a filmmaker to make a documentary that only reflects his preconceptions on issues.What's more surprising is to see all the '10' votes his homeys have posted here. Did they even see the video? Golly gee Batman, this must rank with All The President's Men! Their ratings are as obvious as the bias in this film. Yeah, like stacking the votes at IMDb will help a lame movie. Maybe my vote will help balance this out.

If you want an introduction to the positions and stakes at issue between various factions over free speech in the United States, this documentary would not be a bad place to start. Director Steven Greenstreet, previously a production assistant on several television shows and films, combines press footage and first-person interviews with those in favor of, and opposing, the visit of Michael Moore to Utah Valley State College (UVSC), in one of, if not the, most conservative state in the union. In the run-up to the 2004 Presidential election, a hotly contested one given US involvement in Iraq and strong opinions about the direction in which George W. Bush was leading the country, student body President Jim Bassi and Social Vice President Kenneth Brown embarked on a plan to attract important opinionmakers, including Michael Moore and Sean Hannity to speak at their campus in order to excite students about the upcoming election and motivate them to take an interest in national issues. However, Utah is a very conservative state and the site of UVSC is perhaps even more conservative- indeed some city leaders dubbed it "Family City USA". The filmmaker also displays some billboards featured there, including missionarymall.com (for clothing and accessories for Mormons who want to dress appropriately during their mission service) and also UtahWeddings.com. Again, this is not notable in and of itself, but serves to illustrate the emphasis that the city leaders place on its pristine family image. Therefore, it's not terribly surprising when various people protest when it comes to light that Michael Moore has been invited to speak on campus not two months before the election. However, the claims made by the two most prominent protesters to Moore's visit are unusual for the grounds on which they claim his visit is inappropriate. Local resident Kay Anderson, a man who appears during most of the film to be extremely intense but who is not even a student at UVSC, at one point during a hearing about the appropriateness of Moore's visit, offers to pay the Student Association $25,000 if they will rescind his invitation. That he makes this offer during a busy hearing about the appropriateness of his visit is shocking, given that one would expect some respect for the right of free speech, however, even more shocking is when he suggests that students who want Michael Moore to visit might be better off attending school somewhere else. Many students, to their credit defend vigorously the right to at least hear Moore, even if they disagree with his points of view. One cites Utah's foundation as a haven for those wishing to practice Mormonism as disturbing irony given the intent of some to attempt now to deny others free speech. One immigrant from Togo cites his country's admiration of the principles for which the United States stands as a significant reason why the country, and UVSC, need not be scared of controversial ideas. Another student, Chris Vreeland, so strongly dislikes Moore (and/or Moore's message (it's not clear if it's one or the other, or both) that he creates a petition calling for the recall of Brown and Bassi, claiming that they have defaulted on their obligations to serve UVSC students. Vreeland stands in public places on campus promoting his petition and attempts to pre-empt opposition by telling students, if you agree, sign the petition. He doesn't seem interested in debating the appropriateness or grounds of his petition. He works energetically and it would seem he has some help in collecting support for his petition, and finally, although Moore visits and Vreeland's petition does not succeed in recalling Bassi and Brown, the toll that protests about Moore's visit took on Brown and Bassi drive a wedge between the two and an addendum to the end of the film notes that they have not spoken since one resigned. Ultimately, Moore attends and gives a rousing speech, extolling the virtues of free speech and his hope that the Iraq War will soon be brought to an end-at which time, he poignantly notes, the sons and daughters of those who dislike him, will be brought home just as will the sons and daughters of his supporters. Interestingly, Sean Hannity is invited to speak on campus, perhaps as a bone thrown to those who opposed Moore's visit. Hannity waives his speaking fee, perhaps in an attempt to one- up Moore, but then even if this was successful undercut his claims of concern for student affordability by billing the college $40,000 for the use of his private jet. In a dramatic moment in the film, when Greenstreet attempts to ask Hannity about this, he is held aside by security guards.Ultimately, Greenstreet has made a very interesting film because, while the individual speakers may not be of importance, the issue, free speech is critical. How free speech is protected is central to the film and is captured in a fascinating confrontation of those who wish to allow it and those trying to restrict it.

Not only does the film's author, Steven Greenstreet, obviously idolize Michael Moore, but he also follows in his footsteps by using several of Moore's Propaganda film-making tactics. Moore has expertise in distracting the viewer from this focus though, while Greenstreet is obviously less skilled here.Having been privy to all of the issues surrounding Moore's speech at UVSC, I was disappointed to see that the major complaints of the community -- that Moore was being paid $40,000 of the State of Utah 's educational funds to basically promote John Kerry's campaign and to advertise his own liberal movie -- were pushed to the background by Greenstreet while lesser issues were sensationalized.The marketing methods for this video have been equally biased and objectionable... promoting the film by claiming that "Mormon's tried to kill Moore". Not only is this preposterous, but it defames a major religion that Greenstreet obviously has some personal issues with. I followed Moore's visit very closely, and all of the major news agencies noted that Moore's visit came and went without any credible security problems or incidents in Utah.Greenstreet has banked on this film to jump-start his film-making career to the point that he has even dropped out of film school to help accelerate this. This seems to have been a severe miscalculation though, since Moore's visits to roughly 60 other colleges and Universities across the country in 2004 diluted interest for this rather common event. Greenstreet's assumption that American audiences would be interested in this film due to the promoted religious and conservative angles doesn't seem to be well founded.Even the name of the film, This Divided State, is somewhat of a misnomer since Utah voted overwhelmingly for Bush's re-election and thus appears to be more politically unified than any other State. The division in the movie title seems more indicative of the gulf that exists in Greenstreet's ideological differences with his religion and State. If anything, I find a humorous correlation between the religious angle of this supposed documentary and Woody Allen's hilarious contention in Sleeper (1973) that, "I was beaten up by Quakers".

I saw this film and it's amazing. It's about the failure of civil discourse in America and it shows the current divisive nature of politics. Whether you agree with Michael Moore or not, you'll agree that the crazy people who tried to stop him from speaking overreacted immensely and made Utah look like some foreign country. Additionally, I think the film was unbiased and showed an honest portrayal or the events without skewing the facts or taking things out of context.I don't understand why some people gave this film a "1" rating. They either must hate films about positive messages, have never seen the film, or are just jealous that it's so bloody good. I give it a "10" across the board. See this film! You'll learn something!