Fahrenheit 9/11 a Perfect 10
My wife and I spent our late-Saturday evening seeing Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, an unapologetically partisan documentary on the events and relationships leading to the 2001 terrorist attacks, and subsequent rally toward storming Iraq, deposing of Hussein, and the instilling of variable terror alerts nationwide in the name of homeland security.
Unlike more common newsfare, Moore's in-your-face style and dogged investigations provide the audience with an array of behind-the-scenes footage from the white house administration, the heart-wrenching loss of a son in Iraq by a middle-class Flint, Michigan family, and a seeming "ride-along" with US soldiers on Christmas Eve as they storm a family's home in Baghdad and pluck a college-age man from the home as his mother and family look on, screaming and wailing in terror.
Moore's movie is intended to display that Bush and his administration did not without question obtain the presidency, that they were slow to pick up on the growing terror threat, and even slower to respond to it when news broke of the World Trade Center casualties. It further displays family and business relationships with the Saudi royal family and the Bin Laden family itself, which may have led to a less thorough investigation and fact-finding after the attacks.
While it is clear where Moore's political leanings fit, he is an equal-opportunity assassin, lambasting Democratic leaders for supporting the Patriot Act without having read it, for supporting the war on Iraq, and for not finding a single Senator willing to back up minority-led questions surrounding irregularities in the 2000 Florida election results - and also being unable to find a single congressman willing to send their son or daughter to Iraq to serve in the military.
This movie is not a comedy - while there are some very amusing situations showing a bumbling president and his cohorts, the emotions that run through you are those of absolute despair for the families impacted by war, and a growing feeling of frustration and anger, as the amassed atrocities keep coming.
Fahrenheit 9/11 is a must-see, regardless of your political leanings. You will learn new things, and leave with plenty of new questions. The film, sold out yesterday for all showings, including our 10:30 p.m. slot, is setting documentary records this weekend - and has reached #1 on the box office, despite appearing in 1/4 the theaters as more-common fare.
