Sub-par propaganda
Glenn Lovell
Mercury News
Published: Friday, June 25, 2004
Obviously all that lovely ``Bowling for Columbine'' green has gone to Michael Moore's head. How else to explain ``Fahrenheit 9/11,'' a film so sloppy, illogical and formulaic that it begs the questions: Can a hatchet job actually elicit sympathy for its sitting-duck target? Can it cause, if not a change of heart, at least feelings of regret over missed opportunities to inflict real damage?
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Though a huge fan of ``Bowling,'' Moore's powerful plea for gun control, I found this all-out assault on Bush and his response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 to be so smug in its position, so cavalier in its documentation, that I left feeling more hoodwinked than enlightened.
Moore's charge that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and British Prime Minister Tony Blair -- whose faces are superimposed over the hard-riding Cartwrights of ``Bonanza'' -- used the attacks as a justification to invade Iraq is incendiary but it's hardly revelatory. Nor are Moore's charges of conflict of interest and shameful exploitation of the poor to fight a war that's really about oil, arms contracts and personal revenge.
What is new is the fervor with which Moore launches his preemptive counterattack. In his rush to portray Bush as both con artist and boob, he leaves no conspiracy theory unaired, no cheap shot untaken. The cumulative picture is that of a menace to peace and democracy who can't think on his feet.
Moore opens with the ``stolen election'' of 2000, once again connecting the dots between the contested Florida vote, brother/Gov. Jeb Bush and Republican appointees to the Supreme Court.
He segues to Bush's first days in office. The new president is depicted as bone lazy, unprepared for and finally paralyzed by the events of Sept. 11. During a visit to a Florida classroom, he is told about one plane, then another. He purses and nibbles his lips as a digital clock in the corner of the screen ticks off the seconds, then minutes between when he is alerted and when he reacts.
Cheap shot? Regardless of whether you voted against the man, it certainly feels that way. Might Bush simply have delayed running from the room to keep from panicking the kids?
It'll make you squirm
There's a lot more here that's guaranteed to make you squirm, as much over what it says about Moore as for what it says about Bush. From the president seemingly frozen in fear, Moore moves on to possible collusion as he recounts how Saudis and members of Osama bin Laden's family -- some of whom had business dealings with George Senior -- were flown out of the country.
To pound home what he sees as outrageously lax police work, Moore throws in a lengthy insert from TV's ``Dragnet,'' with Jack Webb (a right-wing propagandist if ever there was one) gathering ``Just the facts, ma'am.''
To come is a slew of accusations about illegal-sounding arms contracts, George Senior's ``private'' trips to Saudi Arabia and the civil-liberties-busting Patriot Act. Again, the material comes at us so fast and is so hastily ``substantiated'' that the first term that leaps to mind isn't ``exposé'' but ``necktie party.''
How will ``Fahrenheit 9/11'' (which takes its title from the Ray Bradbury classic about book-burning) fare at the box office? Given all the advance hype, it should do better than ``Bowling,'' which took in $21 million (or $10 million less than ``DodgeBall'' got just on its opening weekend).
But will it attract many who are not predisposed to its message? Unlikely. Bush lovers won't want to line their sworn enemy's pockets. Meanwhile, Bush-bashers will just swap chummy punches in the arm and ``I told you so'' winks.
What of those discerning students of great (read: more balanced) documentaries, from ``Harlan County, USA'' to ``Fog of War''? This group should be as offended by this crock-doc as they are shocked. They'll praise Moore's discreet handling of the terrorist attacks (screams against a blank screen) but grimace as he resorts to the ambush tactics that served him so much better in ``Columbine.''
Absurd gambit
Here, playing recruiter, he approaches members of Congress with pamphlets and asks them to volunteer their own children to serve in Iraq. The politicians run from the camera -- at least, those politicians who made the final cut. Any who may have seen through the absurdity of Moore's gambit and responded, ``Sure, I'll share this with my kids. They're old enough to make up their own minds about these things,'' is nowhere to be found.
Moore's parting shot is of a hopelessly flummoxed Bush trying to recall an adage that begins ``Fool me once, shame on you. . . .'' The footage is meant as further proof of what a buffoon our current president is. It boomerangs, and makes America's most famous documentarian look facile and petty, and unworthy of a most worthy opponent.
Fahrenheit 9/11 **
RatedR (language, graphic footage of wartime casualties)
Writer-directorMichael Moore
Running time 1 hour, 52 minutes
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