The oughties - the decade that spanned from the year two thousand to the year two thousand and nine - has been called many things. It's been called "The Deade from Hell." It's been called "The Third Awakening." It's been called a period of American history best left forgotten.
But I'm calling it something else entirely. I'm calling it the decade of documentary movies.
You see, I'm a bit of a film buff. From the very first movies filmed by Thomas Edison 120 years ago to whatever the great silent films of Griffith, Murnau and the like, to Citizen Kane to Lawrence of Arabia to modern hits like The Departed and No Country for Old Men... if it's been on celluloid, I've probably seen it. And if I've seen it, I very, very likely have an opinion on it.
So it goes for this decade as well. The 1950s may have been the decade of film musicals. The 1990s were the decade of indipendent films, while the 1970s were the era of either high-flung science fiction (Tarkovsky's "Solaris", Lucas's "Star Wars", Scott's "Alien") or gritty realism (Coppola's "The Godfather" both I and II, Scorsese's "Mean Streets" and "Taxi Driver", and anything from Cassavettes or Peckinpah come to mind). This past decade, however, saw more quality documentary movies made than any other decade, and any other genre.
The biggest, in terms of budget, fanfare and impact, was Michael Moore's anti-Bush screed "Fahrenheit 9-11." Moore, whatever you think of his politics, is an immensely gifted filmmaker who is able to construct his stories in a way that delivers the maximum possible effect for time spent.
Other documentary movies of the decade that deserve the highest of high praise are Stacy Peralta's surfing doc, "Riding Giants," and a little-known film by director Seth Gordon about two men vying to set the high score in Donkey Kong called "The King of Kong: A fistful of Quarters."
While those may have set the artistic standard for documentary movies over the past ten years, it's worth noting that the financial standard was set by Moore. "Fahrenheit 9-11" made nearly one hundred twenty million dollars at the box office - completely mind-blowing for a documentary and more than fifty percent higher than its nearest competition. In additon to 2004's Fahrenheit 9-11, he also made "Sicko" in 2007. This documentary movies about the united states health insurance industry made 24.5 million dollars and is the seventeenth highest grossing documentary of all time in its own right.