Fahrenheit 9/11 DVD > Reviews > This man is trying my patience

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Liked it
Story	Very weak

Advantages:	Nice to see Bush and Co under attack
Disadvantages:	Michael Moore is a left wing Ann Coulter

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Michael Moore is the man responsible for me taking an interest in global politics. There, I said it. I thought Stupid White Men was a cool title, bought it, became shocked at all the facts and accusations, and made myself a communist.

Thankfully, since then I've grown up a little. It is impossible to review this film without exploring the context, which means yet another dive into the seedy world of post 9/11, American paranoia and the rise of the hysterical Right Wing.

Despite constant claims from the left that Bush and co used the September 11th terrorist attacks in order to justify countless atrocities and wars, you have to realise that the left wing lined their pockets from it as well. Frankly, I believe both ends of the political spectrum ought to be ashamed of the way they have used the death of thousands of people to fuel an explicitly bipartisan political agenda.

Sorry, what was that? You're a Michael Moore fan? He was doing this to help families recovering from the loss of loved ones, homes and businesses? Then riddle me this. What portion of the film and DVD profits went towards a relief effort? How does showing pictures of dead mothers, fathers, sons and daughters help ease the pain exactly? Michael Moore is a rich man. I like to consider myself a regular person. I'd also like to think that when a regular person loses a loved one, they would like to mourn appropriately, and then try as best they can to move on with their lives. But each dead body found in the wreckage is now simply a grotesque form of ammunition.

The same holds true with the Iraqi war. Every decision made in world politics is instantly made a watershed. You have to fall on one side or the other. Forget the innocent Iraqi people who died, forget the troops who died fighting a war for cheaper petrol, this is just another excuse to promote your candidate and to demonise your opponent.

Now that's out of the way, on with the film.

I consider myself left wing, at a push (I'm visciously opposed to the war, but believe that repeat young offenders should be made to do national service. Ho hum). For those of you who don't know Ann Coulter, she is a Right Wing nutcase who has claimed, amongst other things, that we should go into Afghanistan, "kill their leaders, and convert them to Christianity". She also claimed in an interview in early December 2005 that liberals fantasised about raping her. What a nice lady. The reason I mention her is because Michael Moore is her reflection. Use large, unsubstantiated claims to shock people. As one reads through or watches his material, a certain formulaic approach becomes apparent. Everything the Bush administration does is a big corporate conspiracy. Wealthy black people do not exist. Throw in a few interviews with poor people, a couple of gun fanatics, and a 20 minute section of Mr Moore waiting around in the lobby of a corporate building heckling people, and there we have a film. Farenheit 9/11 is just more of the same.

Had Michael Moore been able to keep the narrative focused on the causes of and fall out from 9/11, I perhaps would have found the film (and his intentions) more credible. I would have thought that he was putting in a well-meaning effort into finding some kind of resolution to all the problems that arose from that horrible day. But oh no. Midway through, we have presented to us a story purported by Fox news that a rinky dink little village in the middle of nowhere was being targeted by Al-Qaeda. The point of this? Moore would have you believe that it is an example of how the right wing media wants to keep everyone frightened. Frankly, in truth it would appear a reason for Mr Moore to go out into the styx and interview people who he knows full well are too insular to challenge him in any way.

From this, he segues into a rant about how government money going towards bombs could help hire more policemen. Remember, this is supposedly about finding closure and answers for 9/11. No political agenda here, no sir-e-bob.

Moore's big moment (akin to the Wal Mart banning bullets piece in "Bowling for Columbine) comes when he takes the mother of a soldier who was killed in Iraq to Washington. Whilst there they get heckled by some woman who claims her son isn't really dead and it's all a set up to make Mr President look bad (and don't tell me I spoiled the end, you wanna go see what I'm on about now). I fully believe that the US can produce the best crazy people in the universe. But this scene just looks so fake and hackneyed it makes me nauseous. If it wasn't staged, my apologies, but this left vs. right argument on the steps of capitol hill scene is a little too hollywood for my liking.

Despite the fact I think Michael Moore is an opportunistic, dishonest conman, I think you should watch this film. I'd like to think, 50 years from now when the world has come to its senses, that films like this can be used to demonstrate the kind of biased garbage that was being passed off as academic journalism. There is this belief that you can be entertaining and rouse political interests. You can. But to do it on the backs of tens of thousands of dead Iraqis and Americans is just gruesome. If you really wish to learn about 9/11, just go to the library and read the biggest books with the smallest print. Honest journalism and quantifiability go hand in hand I'm afraid. This is just amateurish storytelling.