You need to see this movie. There are scenes that will grip you, not because of anything said, written, or done by Michael Moore, but because of the unadulterated and undeniable reality of what you are seeing. In one scene an older Iraqi woman walks amidst the rubble of her uncle’s home pleading with God to save them from the Americans, and asking where is He in their moment of need? When she cries out in anguish that “God is great” “Allahu Ackbar!” because she is scared and powerless to do anything else to protect her family and herself, you understand in an instant what the Iraqi people are going through. Exhorting God is the only way to keep your head up and your spirit from collapsing. It is powerful stuff and that’s just one small taste of it. Much of the rest of the film is the typical Moore ambush clueless politicians with a camera stuff, or talking to the average joe. Undeniably, Fahrenheit 9-11 will have a considerable impact on the election, especially if just half the people who see this movie vote in Novemeber.
At the AMC in Barton Creek Mall here in Austin, they were running it on four screens with hundreds of people in attendance. (Is it legal to distribute voter registration cards on private property?) Aware of the potential danger, the Bush faction is working to keep people away:
A draft opinion by the Federal Election Commission’s general counsel states that the Moore movie ads should come under the campaign law provision blocking companies and unions from advertising for or against political candidates 30 days before a primary election. July 31 would mark 30 days before the Republican National Convention, when the GOP will formally choose President Bush as its nominee.
Of course, no Bush supporter will try to argue the substance of the film. That’s a losing game. Instead they will attack the messenger or try to downplay any significance the film may have. My best advice is see it for yourself. I thought this was funny:
The White House called Moore “outside the mainstream.”
“I can speak for myself and I can speak for the President, and I can assure you that neither of us have seen [‘Fahrenheit’],” said White House Communications Director Dan Bartlett. “We don’t have a lot of free time these days and when we do have free time to see a good fiction movie, we’ll pick ‘Shrek’ or some other enjoy[able] feature like that.
I’ve not seen this movie yet.. but god bless superior fire power!! It is a great thing to be able to spread your ideals and love around the globe be it on green flyers or painted on the barrel of an Abrams tank. Here we see the woman yell out “Allahu Ackbar!”. Did she not see Return of the Jedi? he was only a Admril..
My name should read “Spada” damn these no spell checking no second checking website!
Just a suggestion, I saw Control Room the night before I saw Farenheight and Farenheight paled in comparison. Control Room reveals a lot of the reality of the war on the ground as seen by Iraqis, including many poignant scenes like that with the woman crying over the destruction of her house in F9/11. It also reveals the way the US tried to manipulate perceptions of the war and that Aljazeera was condemned for actually being fair and balanced. For example, when the statue of Saddam came down in Baghdad the streets were empty around the square except for the tanks of the coalition. There was a group of teenage Arab men with them. They were all the same age, all in a group when most everyone would leave their houses. There were no women, no children, no elderly, and one of the men just happened to pull out a pre-1991 Iraqi flag. He just happened to have that with him? Further, apparently this group of men didn’t even have Iraqi accents. So it’s obvious that the whole thing was staged. Incidents where there were protests against Bush that the US media reported as praising Bush, just many incidents of misunderstandings of what the Iraqi people were really saying. You get the picture. The evidence is overwhelming, of the atrocity of what happened over there; it’s difficult to watch, but worth it. I found F9/11’s arguement blurred by Moore’s self-rightiousness, the slow pace and humor which was occasionally unwarranted. My opinion, however you may enjoy Control Room as well.
I should go see that. You point out a lot of good reasons.