-Well, I Hate You Too: The Art of Elementary Revisionism
By: Toby Vest
"Fahrenheit 9/11 begins in typical Moore style, dripping with sarcasm
and disgust at a political system that allowed the son of a former president
to steal an election from the people of the United States. One particularly
shocking scene documents several African-American members of the House
on the verge of begging for just one (!!!) U.S. Senator to stand with them
and oppose the election results because of the disenfranchisement of thousands
of their Florida constituents based on their race and other false pretenses."
All neo-conservatives are the devious, manipulative, demonic minions of
a higher power bent on world domination. Every fiber of their beings is
dedicated to the sole purpose of greed, power, and control.
Now that I have your attention, allow me to shift the focus to Fahrenheit
9/11, the newest documentary from “extreme liberal” Michael Moore, which
by the way is his crowning achievement as a documentarian. Moore has always
been a whipping boy of sorts for conservative talk show hosts and politicians
and really what else would /should be expected. Moore’s movies, books,
and television shows have always attacked policies and ideals that most
conservatives hold close to their hearts (pro guns, pro business, and pro
wealth). That said, I think Moore purposefully showed some self control
and allowed facts and human emotion to tell the story and show the cost
of President Bush’s effect on the lives of average Americans.
Fahrenheit 9/11 begins in typical Moore style, dripping
with sarcasm and disgust at a political system that allowed the son of a former
president to steal an election from the people of the United States. One
particularly shocking scene documents several African-American members of the
House on the verge of begging for just one (!!!) U.S. Senator to stand with
them and oppose the election results because of the disenfranchisement of
thousands of their Florida constituents based on their race and other false
pretenses.
Sadly, not one Senator says a word. Not John Kerry. Not
Tom Daschle. Regardless of where they stand now, not one Democratic Senator had
any objection, which really is a cruel injustice to every one who cast a vote
and saw it evaporate into nothingness. Another sad irony of this scene is soon
to be ex-vice president Al Gore preceding over the entire debacle like a
whipped prison bitch consigned to his role as the stoic loser. Poor Al Gore…
screw that. Poor USA.
Suddenly the theater is dark and all that is heard are
the sounds of jets crashing, people screaming, and metal twisting and in an
instant its obvious these sounds are from the WTC scenes we’ve all seen a
million times. It’s amazing how the sounds without the images were just as
effective in conveying the brutality of the situation. It might be so because
those images are permanently seared into the retinas of the American public but
nevertheless, a tasteful move by Moore and it deflected any possible criticism
of using the images of the WTC for his own motives, like President Bush did in
one of his early campaign ads. Yeah that’s right I said it. Michael Moore is
more tasteful that President Bush.
Moore also examines the numerous connections between the
Saudi Government, the Bush Family and their business ventures, and the Bin
Laden Family, which are well documented. One example shows the secrecy of the
Bush administration after 9/11 by examining a document Moore obtained before
9/11 with the same document obtained after. On the first document a name
appears that is blacked out on the second document. It is the name of a man
Bush was “in the National Guard with” (isn’t that funny) who eventually became
his business partner in an oil company invested in by the Bin Ladin Family.
Just makes one wonder, why black the name out if there is nothing to hide?
After he’s covered the Secrecy, Moore gets to the
Manipulation by chronicling the Bush Administrations banging of the war drum
and their lust to get into Iraq. Then the movie reaches one of its high points
when Moore shows the effects the war effort in Iraq has had on the American
people, more specifically the people in his hometown of Flint, MI.
Moore shows the armed services recruiting methods
targeted at kids from the low income families of Flint. Recruiters relentlessly
pursue minority and poor youth trying to enlist them while some students of the
high school make astute observations about their city. One student says that
Flint looks a lot like a bombarded Baghdad, only there’s been no actual war,
only an economic one.
In a truly genius moment Moore turns the table on the politicians who support
this type of recruitment by going to Washington with a former soldier to
ask members of congress to enlist their children in military service. Of
course, the ill-prepared politicians run for cover when they see Moore
coming but this only better helps to serve his point. Wealth, power and
influence shield you from so called “patriotic duty.”
The absolute clincher of the movie is the story of the mother
whose son was killed in action during Operation Iraqi Freedom. There are some
heart wrenching scenes during this section which help to grasp the gravity of
the situation. It’s easy to dismiss words printed on paper but it is harder to
ignore the loss felt by this woman standing on a sidewalk in Washington, D.C.
sobbing her eyes to a desperate blurred shade of red. I dare anyone of the
suited clowns on Fox News to call this a lie. Such disregard is undeserved for
a young man who gave his life for a war which history might render a failed
mistake, and for the family he left behind.
That’s mainly the crux of the movie. Moore’s sense of
humor and acerbic wit shine through even
in the dark parts of the movie but no point is ever lost in a failed reach for
the next clever one liner. This in part is what makes this documentary a step
beyond Moore’s other films. In Bowling for Columbine and Roger and Me, Moore is
a central character spending time on camera; always ready to give the people
he’s helping a hug, a show of encouragement or camaraderie. But in Fahrenheit,
he remains almost exclusively behind the camera, allowing his images and
narrative voice to guide you along. This is another move of Moore’s that is
precisely on track. He removes himself visually from the movie, just like the
WTC images; in order make the movie about the message not a persona.
This is one reason I can not understand the criticisms of conservatives
and their media pundits. On numerous occasions, I’ve heard the movie described
as “a work of fiction,” “utterly preposterous,” and “full of lies and inaccuracies,”
among any number of words that essentially mean lies. Fortunately for me,
I’ve had the time to research many of Moore’s points before I ever saw
his movie or even knew his movie existed. Attached to this website for
the last few months was the address to an online 9/11 timeline that dates
as far back as 1978 detailing the events that preceded the events of 9/11.
The Bush-Saudi-Bin Laden connections, the Carlyle Group, and minute by
minute details of that day are all documented and cited to the original
source, in some instances by several different publications (most frequently
the New York Times, USA Today, and the Washington Post) with varying accounts
of the events. Basically anything that is called a lie can be cross referenced
with this website.
Another chief criticism is that Moore is too biased, too
partisan, too much and conservatives hate him for it. But again, this criticism
is unwarranted because while Moore definitely has an agenda to achieve how is
that different from a White House official telling us about Saddam Hussein’s
plan to annihilate us with his stockpile of nuclear weapons. There is no
difference. Moore wants to get Bush out and make money and has tailored his
message to fit those ends. Bush wanted to go to war and make money so he
tailored his message (numerous times) to achieve his goal. Only time will tell
if Moore will achieve his.
Still criticisms fly at Moore like bullets in Baghdad. On
a segment of Scarborough Country on MSNBC, they posed the idea that Moore’s
movie is a terrorist aid. I mean come on, can we reach any further into the
sewage hoping to discredit this man. Give it a rest.
For all the conservative bellowing over this movie, Moore
never really says this is absolute truth and I demand that you believe it. He
simply presents facts and poses questions to the audience. Of course the movie
is slanted to convey his specific points about the Bush Administration but like
I said before, the right does the same thing every day except they want your
blind acceptance of their world view. In the end, this is the saving grace of
this movie and one that will make it relevant for years to come. I suggest, if
you haven’t already, going to see Moore’s movie and then come back and read the
opening sentences of this article and tell me if Moore is overly opinionated.
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