First impressions of Fahrenheit 9/11
Saw F9/11 at the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor tonight. The Michigan is a beautiful old silent film era movie palace, seating 1700 with not a bad seat in the house (well maybe way up in the make-out rows in the balcony but who cares?). All red plush on the walls and ornate gold-painted trim and an old organ on pistons that rises out of the pit with the organist before the show. They announced that this was the largest crowd ever at the Michigan (its a community-owned art house so its usually almost empty) and the largest crowd yet to see F9/11 in a single commercial theater. The line to tickets was 5 abreast and 3 1/2 blocks long.
This being Ann Arbor it was a very enthusiastic and partisan crowd. It wasn't quite like going to Rocky Horror Picture Show but people were very responsive, hissing (Condi Rice got the biggest hiss for some reason), booing, laughing and in one or two cases, crying. And grossing out when Wolfie did his amazing hair care tricks with his saliva.
Bush was certainly the star. His fixed, blind stare like a stuffed dear as one reviewer put it, after he was informed of the second plane striking was truly humorous and yet deeply frightening. It made me think of They Live. And he then continued to fixatedly read "My Pet Goat" for another seven minutes. My God someone give that man a brain!
It isn't really touched on in the film, but what exactly did Bush do next? Why was he next seen briefly at an airforce base in Louisiana? That's not part of COG (Continuity of Government). WTF was he doing and why? And when the shoot down orders were finally given, why did they come from Cheney? Was the President declared to be dead or legally incapacitated in accordance with the 25th amendment?
Anyway. the film falls into three parts. before 9/11, 9/11 to Iraq, and Iraq. The film starts by questioning the 2000 election and noting how the media was stampeded to calling the election for Bush by a decision made at Fox by a Bush cousin.
The rest of the before 9/11 section brings up some new facts, but I think alot of it comes from books like Favorite Son and House of Bush, House of Saud. Mostly it contrasted the laissez-faire attitude toward terrorism before 9/11, the President's feckless initial response, and the subsequent attempt to recoup in the media by looking tough and masculine.
The coverage of Afghanistan, I thought, was the weakest. The connections between the Northern Alliance and the druglords (really that's too mild: they are the drug lords), the two mysterious deaths labeled as homocides by the US military pathologist Maj. Elizabeth Rouse, the atrocities commited by the CIA-recruited warlords in the initial phases of the invasion, all not mentioned or barely touched on. Karzai's CIA history (Saddam's for that matter) not mentioned. UBL's only alluded to. The Saudi's, and by implication, the Royal House, are the bad guys here. No real analysis of how the money got to the "freedom fighters" through US--->Saudi--->Pakistani ISI--->UBL--->various drug lords and muj groups. No mention of the day of celebration to honor the freedom fighters which Reagan declared in 1982, "Afghanistan Day". (March 21, 1982). "Afghanistan Day," said Reagan's proclaimation, "will serve to recall not only these events, but also the principles involved when a people struggles for the freedom to determine its own future, the right to be free of foreign interference and the right to practice religion according to the dictates of conscience". Proclamation 4908 -- Afghanistan Day
MM missed a lot of points there. His argument is simple: they didn't really try to catch UBL, and when they did, it was really all about the pipeline and Enron and SoCal profits. Good as far as it goes but not digging deep enough. But Moore tends still to go for the cheap shots and simplistic populist sounding explanations.
The strongest part of the film is the last part about Iraq. Good footage from the field and nice human interest story of a mother from Flint whose son was killed when his Blackhawk went down in Iraq. When she reads his last letter home where he talks about what he will do when he gets back to the states and says how stupid the war is and how he hopes Bush won't be re-elected, her grief is palpable, and many in the audience myself included were in tears. And the same when an Iraqi woman whose uncle's house has just been bombed and obliterated calls out for the dead and calls on God to avenge them, says she is alone, that God alone will avenge them then she keeps calling out "Alahu Akhbar" but then turns to heaven and cries out "Where are you? Where were you!" and just breaks down weeping and wailing it really was like someone tearing fishooks out of my heart.
How many more, dear God. How many more?
See this film!
Saw F9/11 at the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor tonight. The Michigan is a beautiful old silent film era movie palace, seating 1700 with not a bad seat in the house (well maybe way up in the make-out rows in the balcony but who cares?). All red plush on the walls and ornate gold-painted trim and an old organ on pistons that rises out of the pit with the organist before the show. They announced that this was the largest crowd ever at the Michigan (its a community-owned art house so its usually almost empty) and the largest crowd yet to see F9/11 in a single commercial theater. The line to tickets was 5 abreast and 3 1/2 blocks long.
This being Ann Arbor it was a very enthusiastic and partisan crowd. It wasn't quite like going to Rocky Horror Picture Show but people were very responsive, hissing (Condi Rice got the biggest hiss for some reason), booing, laughing and in one or two cases, crying. And grossing out when Wolfie did his amazing hair care tricks with his saliva.
Bush was certainly the star. His fixed, blind stare like a stuffed dear as one reviewer put it, after he was informed of the second plane striking was truly humorous and yet deeply frightening. It made me think of They Live. And he then continued to fixatedly read "My Pet Goat" for another seven minutes. My God someone give that man a brain!
It isn't really touched on in the film, but what exactly did Bush do next? Why was he next seen briefly at an airforce base in Louisiana? That's not part of COG (Continuity of Government). WTF was he doing and why? And when the shoot down orders were finally given, why did they come from Cheney? Was the President declared to be dead or legally incapacitated in accordance with the 25th amendment?
Anyway. the film falls into three parts. before 9/11, 9/11 to Iraq, and Iraq. The film starts by questioning the 2000 election and noting how the media was stampeded to calling the election for Bush by a decision made at Fox by a Bush cousin.
The rest of the before 9/11 section brings up some new facts, but I think alot of it comes from books like Favorite Son and House of Bush, House of Saud. Mostly it contrasted the laissez-faire attitude toward terrorism before 9/11, the President's feckless initial response, and the subsequent attempt to recoup in the media by looking tough and masculine.
The coverage of Afghanistan, I thought, was the weakest. The connections between the Northern Alliance and the druglords (really that's too mild: they are the drug lords), the two mysterious deaths labeled as homocides by the US military pathologist Maj. Elizabeth Rouse, the atrocities commited by the CIA-recruited warlords in the initial phases of the invasion, all not mentioned or barely touched on. Karzai's CIA history (Saddam's for that matter) not mentioned. UBL's only alluded to. The Saudi's, and by implication, the Royal House, are the bad guys here. No real analysis of how the money got to the "freedom fighters" through US--->Saudi--->Pakistani ISI--->UBL--->various drug lords and muj groups. No mention of the day of celebration to honor the freedom fighters which Reagan declared in 1982, "Afghanistan Day". (March 21, 1982). "Afghanistan Day," said Reagan's proclaimation, "will serve to recall not only these events, but also the principles involved when a people struggles for the freedom to determine its own future, the right to be free of foreign interference and the right to practice religion according to the dictates of conscience". Proclamation 4908 -- Afghanistan Day
MM missed a lot of points there. His argument is simple: they didn't really try to catch UBL, and when they did, it was really all about the pipeline and Enron and SoCal profits. Good as far as it goes but not digging deep enough. But Moore tends still to go for the cheap shots and simplistic populist sounding explanations.
The strongest part of the film is the last part about Iraq. Good footage from the field and nice human interest story of a mother from Flint whose son was killed when his Blackhawk went down in Iraq. When she reads his last letter home where he talks about what he will do when he gets back to the states and says how stupid the war is and how he hopes Bush won't be re-elected, her grief is palpable, and many in the audience myself included were in tears. And the same when an Iraqi woman whose uncle's house has just been bombed and obliterated calls out for the dead and calls on God to avenge them, says she is alone, that God alone will avenge them then she keeps calling out "Alahu Akhbar" but then turns to heaven and cries out "Where are you? Where were you!" and just breaks down weeping and wailing it really was like someone tearing fishooks out of my heart.
How many more, dear God. How many more?
See this film!
VIEW 20 of 20 COMMENTS
[Edited on Jun 30, 2004 5:36PM]
Aren't we supposed to be trying to change things? How can we get a majority of people to see it our way if they run from the theatre screaming within the first ten minutes?