Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11: A Mockumentary Disguised As Truth
By Lisa Sarrach
June 30, 2004
This past weekend, Flint, Michigan native Michael Moore's latest "documentary" film, "Fahrenheit 9/11," made close to $24 million its opening weekend of release. The numbers have set records for a documentary film and far surpass the take for his 2002 Oscar winning "documentary," "Bowling for Columbine."
"Fahrenheit 9/11" won the highest prize at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, the Palme d'Or, and was to be distributed by Miramax, a division of Disney. Disney executives pulled out of their deal to distribute the film, sold it to Miramax executives, which is turn cut a deal with Lion Gates Films, which is in charge of the film now and is showing it on over 900 screens, huge numbers for a "documentary."
Herein lies the rub. Moore doesn't make documentaries, which as defined by the American Heritage Dictionary are supposed to: "Present facts objectively without editorializing or inserting fictional matter, as in a book or film." He makes "mockumentaries" which are defined as: "comedic, often periodic fiction presented as documentary films."
At the time of "Bowling for Columbine's" release, many an expose was written, most notably by the Wall Street Journal that debunked the myth of its documentary status. Many inaccuracies in the film were easily documented by these writers. Movements were launched by some to take Mr. Moore's Oscar away from him due to the belief that it in no way qualified as a documentary. The movement went nowhere, the Wall Street Journal expose went nowhere, and even his Bush bashing acceptance speech at the Oscars was soon forgotten.
So here we are again, Michael Moore the hero of the anti-war left, has produced another "documentary" which should be his most successful "mockumentary" yet. Just as with "Bowling for Columbine," Mr. Moore's American hating rhetoric disguised as truth continues to go on unchallenged by the Liberal Elite media with his current release, Fahrenheit 9/11.
Mr. Moore himself has acknowledged his propensity for propaganda, proclaiming at different times that he's a propagandist, satirist, and humorist, just never in connection with his films when they are up for "documentary" awards.
He wants everyone in America to go see his film, even teenagers who are precluded from going without their parents (the film is rated R), by advocating sneaking into the theater, he says he'll even aid and abet any teenager he happens to run across to get in to see it.
In Fahrenheit 9/11, Mr. Moore mocks our military, President Bush, Attorney General John Ashcroft, and a host of others, while exploiting the pain of the mother of a slain soldier from Flint for his own political purposes. He has no shame, but that really shouldn't surprise anyone as he also mocks and denigrates the same American public he expects to contribute to the success of this film.
This is what Mr. Moore has to say about Americans when overseas, as documented by David Brooks in the New York Times this past weekend:
• British Paper-The Mirror - "They are possibly the dumbest people on the planet . . . in thrall to conniving, thieving smug [pieces of the human anatomy]," Moore intoned. "We Americans suffer from an enforced ignorance. We don't know about anything that's happening outside our country. Our stupidity is embarrassing."
• In Munich - "That's why we're smiling all the time," he told a rapturous throng in Munich. "You can see us coming down the street. You know, `Hey! Hi! How's it going?' We've got that big [expletive] grin on our face all the time because our brains aren't loaded down."
• In England - "You're stuck with being connected to this country of mine, which is known for bringing sadness and misery to places around the globe." In Liverpool, he paused to contemplate the epicenters of evil in the modern world: "It's all part of the same ball of wax, right? The oil companies, Israel, Halliburton."
• In Open Letter to the German people in Die Zeit, Moore asked, "Should such an ignorant people lead the world?" Then he began to reflect on things economic. His central insight here is that the American economy, like its people, is pretty crappy, too: "Don't go the American way when it comes to economics, jobs and services for the poor and immigrants. It is the wrong way."
• Interview with Japanese newspaper - "The motivation for war is simple. The U.S. government started the war with Iraq in order to make it easy for U.S. corporations to do business in other countries. They intend to use cheap labor in those countries, which will make Americans rich."
The most egregious comments from Mr. Moore have come days after 9-11 when he said: "We, the United States of America, are culpable in committing so many acts of terror and bloodshed that we had better get a clue about the culture of violence in which we have been active participants," and after we removed Saddam from power in Iraq and the insurgents started launching attacks against Americans and our allies: "The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not `insurgents' or `terrorists' or `The Enemy.' They are the REVOLUTION, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow -- and they will win."
Wow. There's a lot to be said regarding those comments and critics of Mr. Moore have made them. But people don't hear them when Mr. Moore makes them or when critics criticize them.
The average American who is not a political junkie, goes to work, gets the kids off to school, comes home, does any number of errands, cooks dinner, helps with homework and falls into a dead stupor at 10:00, just to turn around and do it all over again the next day. Busy Americans barely have time to listen to about 10 minutes of news a day and perhaps glance at the headline of their local paper.
The average American doesn't have time for nuance, fact checking, and the energy to discern whether the 6:00 news is lying to them, or that a filmmaker whom the media exults as a award winning "documentary" film maker, does in fact, mess with the facts quite regularly.
And Mr. Moore, our friends in the elite media, editors on newspapers across the country, and the political friends of Mr. Moore in the Democrat Party, count on it. They count on the fact that if you repeat something often enough it becomes fact and therefore advances their agenda and their political goals. Truth and journalistic integrity has been replaced with propaganda with nary a fight.
The worst thing that can be said about some in our country is that they can be like sheep. They follow the herd, wherever the noise is the loudest. We live in a celebrity culture, wherein, if I recognize your face and you're famous or infamous, I want to hear what you have to say, hear all about your love life, your beliefs and your activism, whether such adoration is warranted or not.
What such adulation for the likes of Brittany Spears does to the young teenagers in this country and the cost to our young girls is disturbing and a discussion for another day. What the likes of Michael Moore contribute to our political process, however, is insidious and not just in America but on a global scale, that warms our enemies' hearts.
The world's a dangerous place today as we're fighting a global war on terrorism on many fronts. The war at home in many ways has been replaced by an agenda of blame America first, reminiscent of the Sixties and Vietnam that the Left seeks to use to oust the current president. Americans need to see this farce for what it is and become better informed. We need to look past the smokescreens so easily laid at our feet and demand more truth than we've been getting from the media we pay for with our tax dollars on television and we enable with our consumer dollars in film and in our nation's newspapers.
Rather than call for boycotts, which has done nothing but propel the box office numbers for Mr. Moore's film, people should see it and see it for what it is, another "mockumentary" by Michael Moore - fiction disguised as a political tool. A tool whose goal is not just to affect the presidential election, although that's high on his list, but even more sadly, a tool to further denigrate America and Americans, the country and the people who have made him rich.
Here's a man truly laughing all the way to the bank and at our expense, in more ways than one. |
