by Ethan Johnson
July 10, 2004
I saw Fahrenheit 9/11 on opening night, and have been sorting out my thoughts and feelings about the movie ever since. Therefore, I'm pretty much cemented into the Parthenon of "people who aren't on the bleeding edge of internet news and opinion", and that's fine with me. I'd rather take my time to sort things out than post a bunch of blather in an attempt to be a "premier" content provider.
After all, this is a personal website; we just leave our curtains open.
And now, the review:
The Positive:
We went to our first local political meeting since we moved to Texas after seeing this movie, as did several other people.
The movie did a good job of showing the human cost of the Iraq war, including clips of US soldiers expressing their dissatisfaction with everything the war represents, graphic footage of the insurgency, and graphic footage of civilians being killed or wounded. The US media has been nearly unanimous in their refusal to portray the Iraq war in human terms. This film peels back the curtain just enough to outrage and sicken the viewers, and lead them to ask why none of this is being covered in the mainstream news media.
The movie also did a good job of showing Bush as a guy that really was roped into the role as President, but comes off as a guy who wakes up every morning wondering how he got there. Not that this comes as any surprise to anyone who has paid the slightest attention to the man, but again, on the big screen, everything becomes more painfully obvious.
Even more outrageous was the footage of the Congressional Black Caucus being turned away from the Senate when they tried to object to the certification of the 2000 election results. Not one Senator, and one was all that was needed, would help. Not even Barbara Boxer, so there goes any belief in her being "ultra-liberal". Air America radio reported that the reason why no Senators got involved was because Gore didn't want them to, for fear of being labelled "illegitimate". Cough.
Finally, the two most powerful moments in the movie were a) the black screen while the audio of the 2nd plane striking the World Trade Center played, and b) the "7 minutes" of Bush sitting all befuddled in the Florida kindergarten after being told America was under attack.
Unfortunately, the "7 minutes" were not played in full, and Moore felt the need to narrarate all over it (more on this later). Ideally, the 7 minutes would have been played "raw". Just the same, not unlike the Rodney King video, we all know what we saw, and we didn't see leadership at its finest.
In the case of the WTC audio, it was brutally effective. I found myself mourning the victims all over again, and reliving the deep depression that I went into for months the first time around. Moore kept his mouth shut. If nothing else, Americans will unite over this single piece of film, in that it belongs to no-one, and belongs to everyone.
The "Eh":
(For a lack of a better term)
The Lila Lipscomb parts were moving, however anyone with a pulse should have seen it coming that she was not included in the movie for the sole reason that she had a son in Iraq. So when the punchline comes, it's still tragic, and yet somehow anticlimactic. Not saying that people's deaths need to be entertaining, I just mean that in the context of this movie, that detail does come off as manipulative, even if Lipscomb says it wasn't.
The part about the "coalition of the willing" was a) pure propoganda, as only selected countries were depicted (Canada, Britain, Japan, and Australia were all included as well, but were not mentioned), and b) the depiction was pretty lowbrow, using stock footage of tribal warriors for Palau and some guy smoking dope for the Netherlands. I guess substituting Jack Black for Canada and Benny Hill for Britain weren't options.
The Afghan pipleline angle was mentioned, then dropped.
Not a word about the Project for the New American Century (PNAC).
The Saudi/Bush connection was not explored very deeply. I suspect that's because of time constraints and the hopes that you will be inspired to read House of Bush, House of Saud for the rest of the story.
The Negative:
Moore has a tendency to be like Bob Saget on America's Funniest Home Videos and narrarate the [marbles] out of footage that frankly, would be more powerful left on its own. Face it, if babies falling on their butts abruptly is funny, then it's funny without a hackneyed voiceover saying "ooh, I'm a baby! I'm standing up! (comic "boing" sound) Oops! I fell down!"
Same goes for the infamous "7 minutes". That footage is damning beyond words, yet Moore can't put the mic down, and feels the need to inquire into what kinds of things are going through his mind. If the eyes are the window to the soul, we can see exactly what's going through his mind. Give the audience some credit, willya?
Because of Moore's tendency to mug all over his movies, be it physically on-screen or on the audio track, his movies become inexorably linked to Moore, the man, instead of standing on their own merit. Thus, many people will refuse to see this movie because of their opinions regarding Michael Moore, not necessarily because of any sworn allegiance to any political party, or disinterest in the material.
Moore also has an uncomfortable inclination toward hyperbole. "Everyone owns a gun in Michigan" was one such statement in his previous film, Bowling for Columbine. "We've got the whole 7 minutes of Bush in the Florida kindergarten" was another, regarding this movie. This may be true, but only 30 seconds of them are displayed.
Conclusion:
Yes, we'll buy the DVD. I am very interested to know what people who weren't predisposed against Bush think about this movie. Did it teach them anything? Did it spur them to take some sort of action? Did they sit there with their arms tightly crossed across their chest and rebel against the whole thing?
As this movie suffered from time constraints versus a wealth of material, so too is the case with this review. I will be writing follow-up articles throughout the month to further flesh out my thoughts on this movie, as well as highlight certain issues that did not get explored deeply enough.
My advice in the meantime: See the movie for yourself, and make your own decision about it. <EM>
