Fahrenheit 9/11

BACK COVER SYNOPSIS: Generating controversy and political debate like no other film in memory, Fahrenheit 9/11 is by turns a determinedly truthful, thought-provoking and thoroughly entertaining movie from Academy Award-winner Michael Moore. Following the huge critical and popular success of his film Bowling For Columbine and books Stupid White Men and Dude, Where's My Country? Moore uses his characteristically deft humour and uniquely persistent style to launch an unflinching inquiry into the Bush government's foreign policy. Combining rare footage, expert testimony and his one-of-a-kind dogged hunt for answers to tough questions, Moore takes on the burning issues facing America today. His camera turns a skeptical lens on President George W. Bush and his inner circle that ignored the Saudi connection to 9/11 and instead rushed headlong towards war on Iraq. A second disc, with over 90 minutes of extra features, gives fascinating insight in to the making of the film.

FILM REVIEW: Whenever Michael Moore gets up on his soap-box and starts beaming his opinions to the world on a given topic, you know it will be biting, highly-opinionated and controversial. When tackling the sensitive subject of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the US and the causes behind it, Moore does what he does best, but surprisingly, he also injects a bit of humour in to the piece which is largely aimed at none other than George W. Bush and his cohorts. Although this film has been placed in the category of documentary, don't be fooled; it's not about facts or analysis, this is a very liberal opinionated piece and works brilliantly as an alternative voice to the established media and the US Government which has been banging the drum for some time that the direction the US took after 9/11 is all above board. Moore does manage to take a few very well calculated shots at Bush and the US government's action since 9/11, although he does fudge the facts in certain instances when they don't suit his point. If you're willing to look past this, "Fahrenheit 9/11" is a good alternative commentary on Bush and his government, while doing it within sometimes amusing, satirical and other times moving themes and ideas. If might not get all the facts right and it is very opinionated, but it will make you think.
The film opens with images of Al Gore and his party in the run-up to the 2000 elections; Moore is nostalgic and philosophical in his commentary as he tries to imagine the idea of Gore winning the election as a dream, but of course, that's not what happened. The opening credits then contain images of Bush getting made up just before his 9/11 speech; these images are very funny (and I guess disturbing as well), and they are entirely aimed at making "W" look like a complete idiot. Following that the first hour of the film concentrates largely on allegations that Moore makes about Bush's connection to Saudi oil money and how that had an impact on 9/11, as well as potential cover-ups and botched attempts to catch Bin Laden, all in the aim to further their combined oil interests which culminated with the invasion of Iraq in 2003. The second half of the film, and probably the most powerful part of it, focuses on a family who have been personally affected by the Iraq war with a mother's sons having been killed in action for a war that doesn't really have any just cause. Moore makes his best points here where quite often the most noble and least well off people in society are the ones who volunteer to serve for their country but ultimately end up doing the dirty work of those in power and suffer the consequences because of it. If nothing else, "Fahrenheit 9/11" deserves to be taken seriously on this point alone.
The first half of "Fahrenheit 9/11" contains some very biting satire, and some quite thought-provoking ideas as Moore draws your attention towards links between Bush, the Saudis, the oil industry and how they all seem to be running a big "boy's club" who are all looking out for their best interests and not the people they are supposed to represent. One case in point is where Moore says that as President Bush gets $400,000 a year for his work. The Saudis pay Bush, his family and associates tens of billions a year to further their business interests so who do you think they're going to look after more? Then there's some great use of music; case in point being when Moore is exploring the details around the Bin Laden family's immediate departure from the US by air despite all air traffic being grounded the day after 9/11. The song "We gotta get out of this place" is used to brilliant effect over this sequence. There's some amusing "Bush look like an idiot" sequences, especially when he's seen laughing his head off after Moore suggests he had the 2000 election rigged in his favour. Moore explores a lot of territory pertaining to the 'botched' nature of how the 9/11 investigations were handled; a well edited part of one of Bush's speeches says it best: "to be honest, I don't really spend a lot of time thinking about it..." There's a bit of conspiracy theory as well with the idea that the US government used 9/11 to bring in new laws to sweep away certain civil liberties without anyone questioning it, and also to press the fear button; the more people are afraid, the less they'll question the government and its actions.
Where "Fahrenheit 9/11" falls down is the use of facts, or to be more precise, Moore's fudging of facts to serve his arguments. This is the place where critics invalidate the whole film but I think it's a little unfair to put this film down on this point because it's not really meant to be a factual, documentary piece. One example is when Moore is talking about the "Coalition of the Willing". His argument is that the US signed up a bunch of countries which had no armies and were paper-weights in the world scheme as an attempt to demonstrate how feeble that coalition was. He neglects to mention the UK and Australia which are not really paperweights by any stretch of the imagination, but when you see Tony Blair in a Bonanza-style credit sequence alongside Bush and Rumsfeld, I guess it makes up for it!
The second half of "Fahrenheit 9/11" becomes more serious, and is actually the side of the film even its critics will find hard to deride. Here, Moore follows the story of a mother whose sons were sent to Iraq and subsequently killed in action. This is the human side to the tragedy that has been unfolding every day since 9/11 thanks to US foreign policy as put in place by George W. Bush. One of the main themes to arise here is why? What is the point of all this war and killing? For oil profits? To better secure US economic interests in the Middle East? Why should young people who are willing to serve their country for noble reasons be put in the line of fire for what is in essence on a whim? Amongst these scenes, there's also some of the most powerful statements made by Moore. One in particular focuses on Bush's victory speech where he pronounces that "America, and her allies, have prevailed in the war of Iraq", and then cut to the next shot, an explosion on an Iraq street which kills a number of US soldiers and civilians. The ludicrous nature of Bush's statement, even now so many years later with the war still very much on and the US looking less and less likely to prevail is rammed home quite effectively by Moore in his blunt, and uncompromising direction. A sequence where Moore confronts congressman on Capital Hill to try and convince them to get their sons enlisted to serve in Iraq is very telling, with most Senators brushing him off; one in particular looks horrified at the thought, but as Moore points out, you don't seem to have a problem sending other people's sons to fight do you? But perhaps what is worst of all is that the people who are the most likely to sign up first for duty are the ones that have no choice; the ones who are victims of economic disadvantage, thanks to a Government who won't support them, and whose only alternative is to live in the slums or to sign up for the army and potentially get killed. What kind of a democracy is that? All of these ideas are really what make Moore's messages so potent and strong, and will stay with you for quite some time after you've finished watching "Fahrenheit 9/11".
"Fahrenheit 9/11" is an entertaining, moving, and thought-provoking piece of work that, although fudges some of the facts to suit its points, works brilliantly as an alternative voice to established government and media rhetoric.

TECHNICAL REVIEW: The transfer of this film is by and large very good, although you have to remember that the footage on display is a combination of news, archive and press footage combined with Moore's own footage so any qualities of the images that are not up to par are more likely because they were inherent in the footage themselves rather than a fault of the transfer. The audio track is surprisingly good, particularly in a number of sequences where Moore uses music to underscore the effect of his messages. Overall, a decent transfer.

EXTRAS REVIEW: The extras on this disc are atypical - rather than focusing directly on the making of the film we get a number of featurettes which extend and enhance Moore's commentary from the main feature. All of the featurettes are eye-opening, particularly Bush's Rose Garden press briefing, Condoleeza Rice's evasive 9/11 testimony, eyewitness accounts from the eve of the invasion of Iraq, extended interviews with some of the participants involved in the film, and a look inside Homeland Security in Miami. All of these featurettes are quite powerful if only in of themselves they say a lot about the American Goverment as it stood under the 'leadership' of George W. Bush. A nice complement of extras.

BOTTOM LINE: Worth having in the collection.

FILM RATING: 8.5/10 -- EXTRAS RATING: 7.5/10 -- OVERALL DVD RATING: 8/10 

Todd Murphy <br />
http://www.allaboutmovies.net