Category: politics/law

According to an AP review of “Fahrenheit 9/11”, the movie “will reinforce whatever opinions people had when they walked into the theater — about President Bush, its subject, and Moore.” I went to see it tonight at the Midtown Cinema with no fully formed thoughts about its subject — general dislike for both Bush & Moore aside — and left feeling much the same way.

I’d never seen a Michael Moore film before and mostly thought of him as arrogant and obnoxious. Admittedly, I’d done what I could to avoid hearing and reading about him because I knew I disagreed with his agenda, but from what I had picked up, my gut took over and I instinctively hated him. My image of him shifted slightly as a result of “Fahrenheit,” but is not much more favorable than it was. He’s a master propangandist with a talent for pushing buttons and moving audiences, but I don’t feel any more educated than I did at the beginning of the evening.

Let me say right now that I want Bush out of office. I am extremely disappointed in him and his administration and am terrified at the prospect of four more years of the same.

On the other hand, I am not convinced of the conspiracy theories I hear from all corners of the political arena, and “Fahrenheit” did nothing to bring me any closer to a conclusion. While it succeeded in raising quite a few “what ifs?”, it did nothing to fill in the holes. And because Moore’s agenda is so blatant it’s impossible to believe him without seeing all of the documents he referenced and probably more — just as Bush’s agenda is so blatant that it’s impossible to believe him.

I was also skeptical about Moore’s portrayal of Bush. In one sequence Bush was a bumbling idiot, then a pawn of his father and his cohorts, then a scheming and greedy businessman masterfully engineering an elaborate plot. It’s possible that he really is all three but I find it more likely that he’s being represented this way so that any anti-Bushite watching the movie will an image with which they can identify.

Most of the movie, in fact, appealed to base emotions rather than reason, just as it condemned the administration for resorting to fear to control the population. Images of young soldiers talking about their fears and the violent music they listened to while bombing Baghdad were interesting and moving but would remain the same in any military conflict and are not the product of an unjust war. Lila Lipscomb’s loss is heartbreaking, but the images of her visiting the White House were cloying and over the top.

This is a great campaign piece for the Democratic party, or, really, for anyone who opposes Bush. It will help them feel righteous about their beliefs and perhaps even persuade some who are still on the fence about the fall election. But it doesn’t deserve the genre title ‘documentary’, even if Moore is correct in all of his assertions.

Completely unrelated to the movie itself, it was heartening to see so many people flocking to the Midtown. I tried to go yesterday evening but even arriving before tickets went on sale wasn’t early enough to make it in. We arrived at the theater around 6:20 tonight, for a 7:00 showing, and judged that the crowd out front was even larger than yesterday’s, so came back at 8:15 for a 9:30 showing. The Midtown doesn’t sell tickets in advance because they “don’t have a computer”, so there was no way to know whether or not we were going to make it in then either, until a theater employee with a manual counter came through the line asking everyone how many tickets they were planning to purchase. When he reached the end of the line he said, “As long as no one’s lying to me, we have 93 people.” There were 138 seats, all of which were full by the time the movie started.

The Midtown is the only theater in the area playing “Fahrenheit”, but it’s exciting to see that there are that many people interested enough to stand in line for over an hour and sit in uncomfortable seats watching a tiny screen. The audience was diverse, both racially and chronologically, though skewed toward young and white. I didn’t know there were that many young people in the area, let alone that many young people who cared enough to see a movie like “Fahrenheit.” I hope it encourages them to continue thinking.