“Fahrenheit
9/11”
Lions Gate Films
Written and directed by Michael Moore
Produced by Jim Czarnecki, Kathleen Glynn and Michael
Moore
Featuring Michael Moore and George W. Bush
Rated R
(out of four)
For
all of the skillful editing and informed interviews
in “Fahrenheit 9/11,” Michael Moore’s
true genius lies in his observation of ordinary people.
Moore realizes that it’s better to visit the
one part-time officer guarding Oregon’s coast
than simply show someone saying that the border
is under-protected, or talk to the mother of a soldier
stationed in Iraq in one of the most poignant moments
instead of simply saying we should look out for the
safety of the troops. If the documentary accomplishes
anything in its assault on George W. Bush, it’s
showing that his administration’s policies
aren’t good for the average Americans that
Bush likes to pretend he resembles.
Moore’s angry attack against Bush marks the
first time that a major documentary has been released
during an election year with the goal of unseating
the president. And in what looks to be a close election,
Moore just might make an impact (although some could
argue that his support of Ralph Nader last election
had the impact of putting Bush in the White House).
There’s nothing wrong with having a point of
view if you make your opinion clear, and Moore’s
documentary is clearly meant as an opinion piece
in which he argues for the points he feels have been
overlooked or underemphasized by other news outlets.
It begins with a skillfully edited summary of many
of the news items that have called the Bush White
House’s conflicts of interest and legitimacy
into question. He wonders if it was all a dream and
Al Gore is really president. We see Bush and his
family’s ties to Saudi oil, his golfing and
ignoring of terrorist threats before Sept. 11, 2001.
The truly effective part of the first half, however,
examines the fear that Bush took advantage of after
the tragic events in September. Moore visits a peace
group full of smiling middle-aged cookie eaters who
discovered one of their members was an undercover
sheriff’s deputy, watching them thanks to the
Patriot Act.
Looking at the way fear has manipulated the country’s
citizens, he visits a small town that a report claimed
could be a target of terrorist attack—a townsman
reckons that the Walmart would be a likely target.
People in other small towns consider themselves in
danger because they’re in the vicinity of relatively
larger cities.
Moore follows military recruiters in his hometown
of Flint, Mich., where, some high school students
observe, parts of town resemble those destroyed by
war. A mother who describes her family as part of
the “backbone of America” has a son in
the war, and her daughter served in the last Iraq
war. The military is one of the few options these
kids have to get a job and a college education, and
Moore’s best case against Bush is that he sent
them into harm’s way when it wasn’t necessary.
Moore’s embedded cameramen in Iraq talk to
troops who are confused as to why they’re in
Iraq and don’t know how to handle the country’s
citizens. A Christmas Eve raid in which the soldiers
try to take a young college student into custody
while his family members—whom most of the troops
can’t understand—shout that he’s
innocent, recalls the confusion of the boat interrogation
scene in “Apocalypse Now.”
While Moore is still a prominent part of the film,
with his tongue-in-cheek voiceover, he has taken
himself out of the frame much of the time, focusing
the film more on its serious subject matter than
himself. There are a few brief stunts, featuring
Moore driving around the capital in an ice cream
truck to read members of congress the Patriot Act
and harassing congress to sign their children up
to go to Iraq if they support the war.
While stunts like this aren’t as convincing
as simply spending time with the troops, Moore’s
facts seem to be in order and well-documented in
the news or public records. After some sloppy parts
of Moore’s last film, “Bowling for Columbine,” discredited
him, he has apparently employed several more fact
checkers. This is good to know, as it would be a
shame if Moore’s talent as a filmmaker was
wasted because he didn’t have his facts straight.
The only footage that seems to be a bit out of context
is the material showing kids and other jolly people
running around in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. The
case that Hussein’s dictatorship is no worse
than many others could have been made, but everyone
knows that the country wasn’t exactly a barrel
of laughs for everyone in it.
But the most persuasive tools Moore uses are the
human lives that the war has affected. And the confusion
of soldiers and tragedies of ordinary American families
are more poignant and convincing than the most alarming
oil ties.
jeremy@red-mag.com