The (soon-to-be) wife and I went to see Fahrenheit 9/11 tonight. It was a 10:30 showing on a Friday night in Seattle on a holiday weekend. The movie was running in two theaters. The 10:00 showing had been sold out, and our theatre of about 200 seats was full, mostly of 20-somethings. Now, we were at a theatre in downtown Seattle, a city which I would suspect tends to be a little more politically aware than some others, but I was still heartily encouraged to see a full house of young folks attending a movie like this.

The movie is very effective, and raises more than a few compelling issues. Perhaps the most impactful images of the film were of wounded, dead, and dying American soldiers, and of the grief experienced by the mother of a soldier killed in action. It seems to me that we have seen very few images of soldiers in Iraq at all, much less images like these. The realization of just what kind of media manipulation and media complicity has been involved in hypnotizing Americans into thinking we’re not even really fighting a war hit me like an RPG. I am sick to my gut with the cynical way this war has been prosecuted by the administration.

The film has its flaws. Spinsanity lists some errors, though I take issue with the tone of the piece and disagree with some of their interpretations. The important thing is that , flaws aside, Moore is finally giving us an alternative lens through which to view the last two years. If he sometimes uses innuendo and insinuation to get his point across, I, for one, can forgive him. Moore is a filmmaker and the language of film often eschews the verbal and explicit in favor of drawing connections in the viewer’s mind. Innuendo and insinuation are Moore’s province and right as an artist, as long as he shows us the essential truth. (Digby makes my point here.) Innuendo and insinuation are not the right of the politician, though, and Fahrenheit 9/11 shows us exactly why we must never again allow our country’s public servants to use these weapons against us. We must demand truth and accountability.

Lots of folks have weighed in on the film. This post from The Talent Show sums it up as well as any – “In the end, regardless of which side of the aisle you sit on, this movie should provide something to piss you off and make you cry. Considering how crucial this upcoming election is, that’s exactly what moviegoers need right now. If you haven’t seen it yet, you’re missing out on one of the most rewarding moviegoing experiences that’s come along in a long while.” Fahrenheit 9/11 does its job by puncturing the antiseptic bubble of rhetoric that we have been sealed in for the last couple of years. Guess what? An alternate viewpoint isn’t going to kill us. It might just make us stronger.

Michael Moore’s website addresses some of the criticisms of the film, and publishes some of the reactions from around the world, like that of Canadian writer Bill Doskoch of CTV.ca, who ends his column with the following

I’ll leave you with a snippet of an interview of Morgan Spurlock, director and star of the fast food documentary Super Size Me, with Salon.com:

Salon: With the success of Michael Moore’s films and others, it seems like there is a growing trend of left-leaning, progressive, anti-corporate documentaries. Why is that?

Spurlock: I think that documentary is your last bastion for any truth today. It’s the one place where you have no media conglomerate telling you what to say, the one place where people aren’t going to put a vice on opinion and on fact. You can put something out that takes a stand and says, ‘Listen, you need to know this.’

Right on. Keep talking, Brother Michael

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Saturday, July 3rd, 2004 @ 11:51 am Free Expression Matters, Movie Matters, Truth Matters
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