Fahrenheit 9/11
Written and Directed by: Michael Moore
Starring: George W. Bush

Politics and art have a long history of not only causing controversy together, but also occasionallyspearheading actual movement and change. It’s pretty safe to say that with the kind of success that Fahrenheit 9/11is having, it’s going to have an impact on the world we live in, and not just politically either.Michael Moore is opening doors for all kinds of documentary filmmakers, making the genreaccessible to the mainstream public (even if he has to sacrifice some of hiscredibility to do it).

In case you’ve been living under a rock, Fahrenheit 9/11 is the latest film from Michael Moore (director ofRoger & Me/The Big One/Bowling For Columbine, and author of Stupid White Men/Dude Where’s My Country?, etc) in which he strives toshow the truth about George W. Bush’s motivations in going to war with Iraq, and his handling ofthe country both before and after the September 11th attacks. In this movie we learn about everythingfrom the Florida election scandal to the Bush family connections to the Al Qaeda and Saudi Arabia,from George W. Bush’s background as a rich oil tycoon to the reality of what went on during OperationIraqi Freedom.

Moore has often been accused of being inaccurate or misleading with his information, and pushy oroverbearing with his opinions. In some ways, whether or not he has all his facts straightis beside the point. It is an amazing thing that a movie like this was able to be released,seeing as it is so critical of the so-called leader of the free world.Moore has found the perfect combination of humour and information that will keep people in their seatslong enough to teach them something.

While all of his movies are pretty self-centred, this one is probably the least egotistical.He isn’t actually on screen that much, and he only has a couple guerilla style stunts that he tries to pulloff. One involves asking senators to sign up their children for military service in Iraq; anotherhas him driving around Washington in an ice cream truck reading off the Patriot Act.He does, however, manage to bring the movie back to focus on his impoverished hometown of Flint,Michigan yet again. At first this bothered me and felt very shallow and self-serving,but when he investigated the army recruitment process andtheir tendency to prey on poor, unemployed folk it actually turned out to be one of the most interestingand important parts of the film.

Fahrenheit 9/11 is definitely not as hilarious as Bowling For Columbine was. There are some partswhere Moore really gets rolling with a stream of connections and statistics, and even in condensed formit is a lot to digest at once. This may turn some people off (I think it even forced a few people towalk out of the theatre I was in).If you just want to laugh at stupid things Bush has said, well, you’ll find a few little tidbitsbut you may be bored for the majority of the film.There are also some pretty heavy emotional moments. Bowling For Columbine showed footagefrom the actual Columbine shooting, but Fahrenheit 9/11 ups the disturbing imagery even further byshowing gruesome deaths and injuries in Iraq (both American and Iraqi casualties), the infamousbeheading video, and focusing on the pain and anguish of a mom who lost her son in the war.It will be unsettling for some, while others will feel Moore is being extremely manipulative here.

However, there is still a fair amount of Moore’s typical humour, such as funny and ironic music,juxtaposing conflicting evidence, and his trademark sarcastic narration.Since this wasn’t such a personal movie, the narration feels a little forced at times — however,it just wouldn’t be a Michael Moore movie without it.

Perhaps the most impressive thing about this whole movie is all the dirt he managed to dig up.Moore must have had a great team of researchers working with him on this, because not only did hefind some extremely damning evidence that is difficult to refute, but he also found lots of weird andfunny little clips and photos, even from Bush way before he was president. It certainly makes it alot harder to dispute much of what he is saying in this movie.

The movie jumps around a lot, and feels like it may have been rushed to theatres in some sense.There are a lot of different areas you wish he could have spent more time on, but these diversionsderail the flow and are peripheral to the main “thesis” as it were.Still, the bottom line is a simple one: George W. Bush is a greedy and deceptive man who has pulledone over on the American public at the expense of many innocent lives.This singular focus may weaken the movie a bit, especially since Moore takes some cheap shotsthat are too easy and below him. On the one hand, it’s understandable because this is a movie designedto spur action, but on the other, it makes the movie less timeless, and glosses over some of thebigger issues at hand. For example,even if Bush gets voted out, it’s not unreasonable to think another crooked politician mightget elected in the near future. And who is to say Gore wouldn’t have done some of the same things in Bush’splace?

Similar to the recent documentary Super Size Me, Moore presents a lot of information that is alreadyreadily available, but by packaging it and making it “fun” he opens up a lot of people to knowledgethey wouldn’t have gone out of their way to obtain.As a viewer it’s your responsibility to take what you see with a grain of salt. This is not theabsolute truth, however, it’s refreshing because it’s a different truth from what we’ve been forcefed by the news media for the past couple of years.

In a way Fahrenheit 9/11 is like making a documentary about O.J. being guilty — when you stop andthink about the reason for the war on Iraq it should be obvious, but because of the overwhelmingmass media hypnosis, we all question it.This is precisely why Fahrenheit 9/11 is so valuable: it is essentially fighting fire with fire, byturning the same media manipulation that the U.S. government use against them.You may not agree with everything Moore has to say, but you have to admit he’s good at what he does.This is a must-see for anyone who lives on Planet Earth, at least for the purposes of debate and discussion.As a movie Fahrenheit 9/11 has its flaws, but in terms of cultural, social and political influence I don’tthink the significance of this movie can be overstated.– Sean