Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)
"They that can give up essential
liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve
neither liberty nor safety" - Ben Franklin
I just got out of a screening of
Michael Moore's new documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11."
Waiting in the theater lobby for me is a friend, a
fairly liberal Republican, and also nearby is the
theater's security guard, an off duty TX DPS officer
in full uniform. My friend says to me, "You hate Bush
even more now don't you?" To which I reply, in booming
voice, "Hell, yes. That motherfucker needs to be killed."
That's right, in front of an officer of the law, I
suggest we kill the president of the United States.
"Fahrenheit 9/11" is that incendiary.
I don't know what someone who likes
Bush will think of the film, but if you already hate
him, after you see the film, you will understand exactly
why it is you hate him. All your nagging suspicions
about him, the ideas of impropriety that emanate from
his aura, all come into fine focus here. Moore's film
paints a pretty obvious and fairly easy to comprehend
picture of how the Bush family, and those in his political
circle, have ties to Saudi oil and to big businesses
that can make lots of money off of our being in Iraq.
It will turn your stomach how this motherfucker and
his father and his cronies have not even tried to
disguise this very well. They are terrorists against
the American people and they are hiding in plain sight,
laughing at their ability to operate in the open and
not be questioned at all about their activities or
motivating greed. It is sickening.
Moore, his usual "I'm just a poor
schlub" manner toned down only a notch here, offers
us a working man's take on W. and the war in Iraq.
At times he veers into the tangents that we fully
expect him to, like discussing how military recruiters
pray on poor teenagers, but in the end he ties this
quite wonderfully to his theme. Basically, this is
an anti-war film and one that reminds us that it is
always the poorest and the most needy who sacrifice
their sons and daughter to the military, to war.
But the real anger here comes from
that fact that we Americans are fighting a war that
is for absolutely nothing but big business and millionaire
corporations. Our sons and daughters, aunts and uncles,
cousins, lovers, husbands and wives, boyfriends and
girlfriends, are all over there in the desert so that
Bush and his fat cat friends can make more money.
It makes you want to puke.
Moore, with "Fahrenheit 9/11," proves
that film is indeed the most powerful medium in the
world. Given time to make his point, and using his
finely honed documentarian skills, with just the right
amount of tangential ideas woven into the program
to keep us interested, coupled with his ability to
narrative expertly crafted dialogue to prove his point,
Moore becomes nothing less than the greatest orator
on the nature of freedom since Thomas Payne, and the
greatest writer on the subject of war since George
Orwell (whom Moore quotes here).
Moore is an artistic terrorist,
a cunning and brilliant dissident who attempts to
use film to topple the highest ranking official in
our American government. (We can only hope he succeeds.)
In doing so, he not only proves that film and video
are the most important medium in our lives today but
also that freedom of speech is perhaps the greatest
freedom we could ever hope to celebrate and continue.
This is a massively important documentary that proves
that film has the power to empower, to entice, to
direct and to enrage.
Walking out of this film you will
want that motherfucker Bush to pay dearly for the
freedom he has trounced on in the supposed very name
of Freedom.
Our president is a liar.
Our president is a puppet.
Our president is an oil baron.
Our president is a murder.
Our president is a terrorist.
Our president must be stopped. By
any means necessary.
Election day is November 2nd.
Notes:
Ben Affleck, Robert Deniro, Stevie
Wonder and Britney Spears appear briefly in footage
Moore uses here.
The awesome score is by Jeff Gibbs,
who is also a producer.
Songs by Eric Clapton ("Cocaine"),
The Go-go's ("Vacation") R.E.M. ("Shiny Happy People"),
The Bloodhound Gang ("The Roof is on Fire") and Joey
Scarbury ("The Greatest American Hero") are used in
the film. Neil Young's "Rocking in the Free World"
plays over the end credits.
The film was dropped by Mirimax
after the Disney Company, which owns it and financed
the film, decided not to release it. Bob and Harvey
Weinstein, who own Mirimax, bought the film from Disney
and released it with the help of Lion's Gate and IFC
films.
The film has graphic images of war
brutality and injured and dead bodies. It also contains
some brief rough language. Due to this, it received
an R rating from the MPAA. Moore and the producers
tried to overturn this rating, even trying to have
former Governor Mario Cuomo to be allowed to speak
on behalf of getting a PG-13 rating, but the MPAA
refused to hear him and, eventually refused to change
the rating. Moore felt that 14, 15 and 16 year olds
who were going to be asked to fight for their country
in the next few years should be permitted to see the
film.
The title is a take-off on the Ray
Bradbury story "Fahrenheit 451" which was made into
a movie by Francois Truffaut in the 1966. (There's
been talks of a remake for years). Bradbury was mad
that Moore used this title without asking him.
The film premiered at Cannes in
May of 2004 and won the Golden Palm (Palme D'Or).
Quentin Tarantino was the head judge during the festival.
The film is only the second documentary to win the
prize, the first from America. The film received what
many believe to be the longest standing ovation ever
in the festival's history after its running there.
The film grossed over 23 million
dollars on its opening weekend becoming the highest
grossing documentary ever (excluding concert and IMAX
films) and making more in 3 days than Moore's previous
film, 2002's "Bowling for Columbine" made in its entire
domestic run. "Columbine" had previously held the
record for highest grossing documentary of all time.
Viewed in Austin in June 2004.
