Reel Advice from the Video Guy

Fahrenheit 451

**1/2

DVD

Directed by

Michael Moore

Written by

Michael Moore

Cast

George W. Bush

John Ashcroft

Michael Moore

Colin Powell

Dick Cheney

and a cast of thousands of Saudis, Bush cronies, assorted community groups, and other people.

I was asked to write a Reel Advice column on Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, and thus, here I am. Moore's work has been widely acclaimed more for its sheer brazenness and storytelling capacity than its presentation of useful, factual data, and it shows.

Fahrenheit 9/11 may as well have been stamped 'Sponsored By The People Who Really Want Bush Out of the White House.' It is a propaganda piece in its purest form, and yet at the same time, it raises too much truth, and far too many telling blows against its obvious target to be dismissed out of hand.

So what we have here is the story of a whole patookusload of events that happened, possibly happened, or happened in a totally different way from the way described by Michael Moore on or around September 11, 2001.

If you don't know what happened on September 11, 2001, I recommend that you go find out RIGHT NOW, because that is the day on which, for better or for worse (most generally for worse) America changed.

To call Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 a documentary is like calling The Texas Chainsaw Massacre a documentary. It's akin to calling Tanner '88 a biography. Of course there are true parts to it. Of course there are accuracies and many cogent points.

For instance, there are the cogent questions of why the Bin Ladens were allowed to leave on the only plane allowed to fly across the whole of the United States on September 11th itself. Not to mention issues like the vanishing weapons of mass destruction flap, the numerous Bin Laden / Bush family business connections and scores of others.

But there is significant difference.
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Remember, even Michael Moore himself admits that some of his information was dodgy. Some of his shots were chosen to make biases appear. Information exists, public record, that Moore's films are not a hundred percent accurate. That difference separates the wheat from the chaff in documentary work.

Lila Lipscomb, prominently featured throughout the last half hour or so of Fahrenheit 9/11, takes issue with more than a little of her presentation.

Not to mention the segment at the fifty two minute mark, with the low-altitude parachutes...I live a mere fifteen miles from where that shot took place. That was indeed a fix. It's plain to see that he picked his shots to make a couple solid business people from Three Rivers, Michigan, look like idiots. That girl putting on the chute, Jaime, was a secretary called to put that chute on for the first time ever. Of COURSE she doesn't know how to put it on! She's never SEEN one of these things before! There isn't a building high enough to actually use one of those things within fifty miles of the Three Rivers office. I know--I LIVE fifteen miles away!

Bias and content aside, Moore is a gifted showman. His talent for selecting background music, for using camera work and shooting techniques (the thirteen minute mark's all-black shot with the voiceovers from September 11th footage is eerie and awe-inspiring), and his particular talent for finding just the right sound bite to slip into the right shot make Moore a formidable writer, director, and cinematographer. He knows just how to string together a series of shots--stills of Bush officials shaking hands with various Saudis to the tune of Shiny Happy People is an excellent example.

He also knows just how to pick his shots, using text crawls and crying relatives to maximum emotional effectiveness. His finishing stunt, petitioning US Congresspersons to enlist their children in the war in Iraq and being very plainly shot down is a stunt selected for maximum effect.

And yet, at the same time, we can tell that Moore hates Bush like Godzilla hates the Tokyo military. The commentary is acerbic at best, and downright venomous at worst. Moore's bias is plain as day, and anyone claiming that Moore subscribes to any form of "fair and balanced" dogma deserves to be laughed at.

It's good that someone, in this age of the Patriot Act and "enemy combatants," can actually show the Bush Administration for the group of monstrous opportunists and cronyists it's shown itself to be over the last several years. The missteps and unethical behavior, along with the purely questionable material, of the last four years are presented right here. Check out the incredible footage around the one hour thirteen minute mark.

The ending is standard Michael Moore, designed to spark emotion above all.

The special features include, set up in a menu designed to look like a color-coded Homeland Security terror alert system, extra footage, deleted scenes, and trailers for Fahrenheit 9/11, Super Size Me, The Fog of War, Dr. Strangelove, Spellbound, Silver City, and Soundtrack to War.

All in all, Fahrenheit 9/11 is a telling piece that raises more questions than answers, and the answers it does provide are more than occasionally suspect. Stiil, Moore's overwhelming sense of humor helps to soften the many blows he launches.

Oh, and by the way--dislike the intelligence that went into the Iraqi war?

Try this number: 202-225-2536. This is the private office line of Republican Congressman Porter Goss, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

Courtesy of Michael Moore.

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