You're illustrious "President" Bush is TOAST.
Fahrenheit 9/11
In assailing the president's war, Michael Moore stokes the facts to make his point
BY JOHN ANDERSON
STAFF WRITER
June 23, 2004
(R). The unmaking of the president: Scathing examination of George W. Bush's ties to the bin Laden family, the agenda behind the Iraq war, the dubious handling of 9/11 and, subtextually, November's election. Somewhat unfocused and inclined to cheap laughs, but important, no matter which side you're on. Written and directed by Michael Moore. 1:52 (vulgarity, war). Opening at Loew's Village VII, Third Avenue at 11th Street and Lincoln Plaza, Broadway and 63rd Street, Manhattan. Opening wide on Friday.
The first step to becoming a successful American populist, as the word is commonly understood, is purging your repertoire of subtlety and ambivalence and stooping enthusiastically to the masses. The second, history has told us, is hiding that instinct for demagoguery that lurks within the populist soul.
What do George W. Bush and Michael Moore have in common? More than one might think, given the furor that has erupted over Moore's new film, "Fahrenheit 9/11" - which is, in many ways, a passionate, clearly articulated, if sloppily structured indictment of the president, his ties to the bin Laden family, his relentless push for war in Iraq and, as portrayed by Moore, an ineptitude bordering on the criminal.
Few would deny that Moore is a populist entertainer, not only because of the ill-fitting clothes tenting the unfit body, but because of the chummy, aw- shucks way he reduces complex questions to what seem like common-sensical conclusions.
What seems abundantly clear in "Fahrenheit 9/11" is that these qualities also make him, at best, a flawed filmmaker, at worst a despotic one: One senses that Moore's seemingly fearless need to expose injustice might - were he an elected leader - just as easily become a remorseless march toward personal power. Which is relevant only because it illustrates the weakness of "Fahrenheit 9/11."
Ruthlessness - that's what one gets from Moore, who amid the humor and folksy sentiment and exposure of the suffering caused by the Iraq war, can't stop himself from making Bush and company look as foolish as possible. This is, as often as not, abetted by Bush himself, but Moore exposes a mean spirit in the manipulated editing and directing choices: Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz wetting his comb in his mouth while prepping for a TV interview is memorably disgusting, but ultimately the kind of thing included for derision, not substance.
And there's plenty of substance here, if not much news. Anyone who has followed the Bush exploits knows about his busted oil companies; that 42 percent of his first six months in office was spent on vacation; that his National Guard duty may have gone unfulfilled; that Halliburton has behaved scandalously in Iraq and that there was a seemingly compulsive need to invade that country despite multiple arguments against it (former terrorism adviser Richard Clarke appears prominently).
But there is the occasional revelation, too. The name of James R. Bath, a Texas Guard pal turned money man for the bin Laden family, was deleted from Bush's service record when it was released by the White House. (Moore displays an earlier copy with the name uncensored.) Moore makes a good case that the Saudis provided the bailout money for the younger Bush's failed business ventures in order to gain access to his father. And Moore lets us know, as the networks have not, that there are plenty of U.S. servicemen in Iraq (some shown sans limbs) who think the war they're fighting is a colossal hoax.
Much of what Moore includes in his unabashedly polemical film - for instance, footage of the four burnt bodies of the U.S. contractors strung up on that Iraqi bridge - is material that's hard to find for cable-viewing Americans. But while Moore is propagandizing, regarding Iraq he's hardly alone.
Although "Fahrenheit 9/11" carries the unmistakable fingerprints of Michael Moore, he doesn't appear here as much as he has in his other films (notably the Oscar-winning "Bowling for Columbine"). This is an improvement, but sometimes an odd one: A sequence in which two Marines are followed around a mall checking out potential recruits (invariably minorities) virtually screams out for Moore's on- camera commentary.
Elsewhere, he shifts into classic Moore mode: Asking various congressmen in Washington for help with a bill that would send their kids to Iraq, Moore shows the totally uninhibited style that has made him the left's last best hope. He has a killer instinct, yes. But in "Fahrenheit 9/11," it's used to its best advantage. |
