Fahrenheit 9/11
So this afternoon I headed on out to catch a 2:45 showing of this here flick. I picked up wasabis and a bottle of water and got there a solid halfhour early cause I knew there would be a line. And there was. I had one of those nice experiences when a long line formed behind me after I got on line. I usually find myself getting at the end of a long line and then like one or two people get on line behind me. And then it sucks. But this time around I was a good half way in the line which was cool! Although I got annoyed by the line getting fatter and fatter near the front as cutters started cutting. One person holding a spot for 5 others like some designated line holder driver person or something. Dicks.
Anyway, Fahrenheit 9/11. It's a solid documentary. Entertaining. Thorough. Good pacing. It made me laugh and it brought me to tears a bunch of times. More than I'd expected. I think it should be seen regardless of where you're at politically.
Some of the criticism of this film is that Michael Moore takes things too far. He spins the facts, edits creatively, and stretches the truth to paint a picture of George W being out of it and the whole government system being corrupted. But the Moore painting (fortunately or unfortunately) does have a real paint-by-numbers feel. Like all Moore did was add the color and hang it on the wall. Is it the whole picture? I'm sure it's not. But if it is even if half of the picture. It's still a way ugly portrait about the decision to have this war. Way.
The thing that felt really good about this film is how American it felt. Here it was on the big screen. A film that smacks kicks and whap whap attacks a sitting President! Cool! It portrays W to be a lazy dunce asshole. It makes the people around the President look like evil crooks who are willing to put our troops in harms way just to add another zero (or two) to their already bursting bank accounts. Yes it's propaganda-ish I guess- but it's also a great display of American freedom regardless of your take.
Also F9/11 showed the war up close and personal, finally. We get to see our awesome awesome troops and the war itself in a more human light. Their frustrations. And their efforts and fears. I'm tired of being treated like a child through the media. No coffins. No blood. All that. We are in this together. This wasn't about distant bombs or troops firing from behind a wall. It was about an Iraqi kid with his arm ripped totally open where you can see tendons and bone. It was about military hospitals with dudes who got limbs blown off. It was about dirt poor Iraqis who have no house no more and absolutely no friggin idea why. It's about confusion. And it screamed, 'Why are we there? For what? For why? For why!' After WMDs were never found, it kept circling back to the same thing- that from a business standpoint this war did make sense. For certain businesses. The businesses that are closest to our government and to our President and Vice-President. The accusation was alot of people wanted to invest in war and this administration used 9/11 as an opening to pass thru an nutty agenda, keep us afraid, and cash out.
All in all Michael Moore does a very thorough job of grabbing this administration in a full nelson, tying a rope around it and stringing it up from a free speech tree. Then he wacks the hell out of it like a pinata over and over again. Non-stop. Yeah maybe it doesn't seem fair because the pinata just has to hang there and take it. No defense. Slightly cringing on every hit. You might even feel bad for the pinata. But once stuff starts falling out of it and you get a good look at what's inside the pinata you can't help but to think there was a damn good reason for him to hit it like hell. Because whether it's suspicious documents, scary 'coincidences', fear control, big business, paranoid theories, grand pie in the sky plans, military spending, religion, shady partnerships, power, bin Laden, or whatever--- the one thing that's pretty undeniable...
...every single piece that falls out is absolutely soaked in
oil.
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Three Good Things About This Movie
- It's really pissing off the people who believe the Bush Administration
hasn't done one thing wrong.
- The Ashcroft singing thing was so creepily good. Here's the full version.
F.
- There's a focus on one woman who lost her son that has more impact than
everything else covered.
Three Bad Things About This Movie
- It told me that Saudi Arabia owns 7-8% of America.
- It made me realize how easily I can be manipulated if something is presented
in an entertaining way.
- It so strongly one sided it might defeat it's own ultimate purpose
because the persuasion wasn't subtle enough.
All in all this is a good movie to see. It's probably a greater movie in theory than in execution but I don't have any real issues with it. It is what it was intended to be. For anyone who is seriously anti-Bush it's probably like political porno. You'll sit there with a politica-boner and stare at this ground breaking hatchet job.. And if you're seriously pro-Bush it'll get you in a fighting mood like Rocky after Clubber pushed Mick. So at its least it'll be a different sort of entertaining movie experience. And at its most, it could possibly change the whole world... so ya might as well check it out...