Michael Moore burst onto the American cultural scene in the 1980s, a chubby, extroverted rabble-rouser who hitched his political message to the medium of satirical comedy in a crusade to rouse the national conscience against corporate injustice. A genuine subversive, he made his impact with his debut film, Roger & Me (1989), a satirical documentary feature that chronicled his attempts to interview the CEO of General Motors, Roger Smith. Moore wrote, directed and starred in the film, which became the highest-grossing American documentary of all time.

Critical opinion was high but divided. The Washington Post described Roger & Me as a "hilariously cranky bit of propaganda" and critics such as Roger Ebert gave it rave reviews, but others, including the doyenne of the New Yorker, Pauline Kael, attacked Moore for re-arranging the narrative events of the movie. He responded in an interview in Film Comment that "the...