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Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004): 9/10

Poster (c) Lions Gate Films

It's been about an hour since I left the theater where I saw Fahrenheit 9/11, and the Green Day song "Walking Contradiction" is going through my head, because that's what the Bush administration is. I'm going to try to stick to the movie in this review, although I didn't do a good job of that in my Bowling for Columbine review. I'm not a huge Michael Moore fan. He's often too extreme and close-minded, but that doesn't mean I wasn't up and cheering (philosophically speaking) during his controversial Oscar acceptance speech at the 2003 Oscars. I see his point more times than not, and often agree with him. If he makes up facts, so what? He conveys them in a persuasive manner and gets his point across. And, come on-even though the GOP lies day in and day out, Moore can't make up a few facts without being publicly scrutinized? Fair and balanced my ass.

Fahrenheit 9/11, a play on Ray Bradbury's novel Fahrenheit 451, is about an hour and twenty minutes of bashing George W. Bush, half an hour of why the "war" in Iraq sucks, and then something to tie it all together. I never liked Bush and never will, and Moore does a good job of running his face in the mud where it belongs. Moore thinks that he's bringing up some long-hidden facts about Bush, when they aren't, but like everyone, Bush has skeletons in the closet, and they're gleeful put out here. There's a few omittances of facts here and there-such as the real reason why Bush waited seven minutes to take action after the 9/11 attacks, but still, his face is priceless! I don't mean to sound hateful towards 9/11, but it shows how much of a limp fish Bush actually is. I find it hard to believe that people can defend this clown-well, besides big business. Moore's first few minutes are about Gore losing the election, and it made me very angry-none of the political events that occurred from January 20, 2001 until now would not have occurred if Bush hadn't meddled around in other people's business.

Moore loves drawing up connections, and he does that left and right here. Some are quite farfetched (it's like he's playing six degrees of the bin Ladens). He also seems to demonize most Middle-Easterns and the entire bin Laden family. While they're not perfect (hell, they appear to be pretty evil in the movie), they're not as bad as black sheep Osama. But that doesn't nullify the movie in general (see, I'm trying to stay on topic). The movie is jaw-dropping. Fahrenheit 9/11's a powerful piece of celluloid. Call it a documentary, call it leftist propaganda, call it what you will, you cannot deny the absurdity of the American government. It all stems from Moore's seemingly smaller ego. He pushed his (not all that attractive) mug in every frame of Bowling, but here he shows restraint and more maturity. You see his face a scarce few times, and his so-called outrageous stunts are kept to a necessary minimum. This new type of Moore appears to show more maturity and is more appealing to the people.

I must admit that when the movie switched over to Iraq and the soldiers, it became a little less interesting. The point was proven, but some of it just seemed like it was padding for a 2 hour runtime. There is no pleasure greater than seeing Bush knocked down a peg (he's like a square peg in a round hole, actually), and Fahrenheit 9/11 fulfilled that need. The whole movie in general is amazing and a departure from what some people didn't like in Bowling. This is a dead-on attack of Bush, and if you're voting for him, you won't like the movie, because you think it's all lies. Hopefully you'll come around and just realizing you're lying to yourself.

Rated R for violent and disturbing images and for language.

Review Date: June 27, 2004