Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 -a scathing attack on the Bush administration conducted with Moore's typical flair for the creative -is unquestionably his finest work. Filled with his trademark humor interspersed with moments of gut-wrenching reality, the film satisfies the hype.
Fahrenheit has the clear purpose of building a case against President Bush and the whole idea of a war on terror. Thematically, the idea of a culture of fear is borrowed from his previous film, Bowling for Columbine
to form the message of the film: the rhetoric of the war on terror has created an Orwellian state where the military-industrial complex stifles debate and fuels an unending state of war.
Moore's case against Bush attempts to illustrate two points. The first is that he lacks the intellectual prowess to do his job; the second is that because of a series of business gaffes, his agenda is controlled to a large extent by powerful Saudi business interests. A scene where Bush is shown sitting in a classroom after being informed of the first and second planes crashing into the World Trade Center is disturbing if only for the reason that, as Moore theorizes, without his advisors at his ear, Bush simply did not know he had to leave.
Accusing Moore of being one-sided in his condemnation of Bush is certainly justifiable if taken in a bubble, but in reality he is only a liberal answer to Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity and others. Certainly their vitriolic attacks on the left have no less venom than Moore's. With political dialogue essentially a preachy and one-sided affair, Moore is simply providing a different perspective.
Fahrenheit 9/11 becomes most poignant when Moore backs off his interesting yet conspiracy-driven voiceovers to show individual people struggling with the giant chessboard actions of those in charge. Young black men in Moore's hometown, poverty-ridden Flint, Mich., compare their town to the devastation in Iraq. A mother tells of her dead son only to hear a terse reply from a woman that she is not the only one to lose someone, but we know that the speaker cannot or will not comprehend the mother's loss. The little guy is Moore's constituency.
The film is an extremely entertaining work that not only challenges the establishment, but has generated an immense amount of debate in a pivotal election year. Love him or hate him, Moore refuses to go away, and with this, his most well-constructed and focused film, he has reached a pinnacle in his career.
EBOX
FAHRENHEIT 9/11
Director: Michael Moore
Running time: 116 minutes
Rated R for language and violent and disturbing images
5 stars out of 5 17
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Kyle Kondik
