US director Michael Moore reacts as he holds the Palme d'Or for his winning film entry "Fahrenheit 9/11" during the awards ceremony at the 57th Cannes Film Festival , May 22, 2004. The film, by Michael Moore, is a documentary that criticizes US President and the war in Iraq. [Reuters]

A US national guardsman filed an US$85 million lawsuit against film director Michael Moore in Suffolk Superior Court last week, according to the Eonline.

The filmmaker was accused of distorting a TV interview to portray the soldier as anti-war in his scathing 2004 documentary about the Bush administration post-Sept. 11, 2001, the report said.

Sgt. Peter Damon, 33, stated that Moore didn't have his permission to use pieces of the on-camera interview he gave in 2003 to an NBC Nightly News correspondent at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington DC.

Damon's appearance in Fahrenheit 9/11 resulted in a "loss of reputation, emotional distress, embarrassment, and personal humiliation" for him, court documents was quoted as saying by the Eonline.

Damon is suing for US$75 million and his wife is seeking another US$10 million for the "mental distress and anguish suffered by her spouse," said the reporte.

The lawsuit states that "(Fahrenheit 9/11) creates a substantially fictionalized and falsified implication of a wounded serviceman who was left behind when Plaintiff was not left behind but supported, financially and emotionally, by the active assistance of the president, the United States and his family, friends, acquaintances and community."

Damon, a double amputee, lost both of his arms while stationed in Iraq when a tire on a Black Hawk Helicopter he was servicing exploded. 

In Moore's film Damon is shown lying on a gurney, covered in bandages. He says he feels as if he's "being crushed in a vise."

The scene prior to Damon's features US Rep. Jim McDermott, a Democrat from Washington state, saying, "You know, (those in the Bush administration) say they're not leaving any veterans behind, but they're leaving all kinds of veterans behind."

Miramax Films, NBC, and Lions Gate Entertainment are also named in the suit, said the report.

The controversial Fahrenheit 9/11 won the Palme d'Or at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival and grossing more than US$222 million worldwide.