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FAHRENHEIT 9/11
Directed & Written by: Michael Moore.
Produced by: Michael Moore, Jim Czarnecki & Kathleen Glynn.
Director of Photography: Mike Desjarlais.
Edited by: Kurt Engfehr, Christopher Seward & T. Woody Richman.
Music by: Jeff Gibbs.
Released by: Columbia Tristar.
Country of Origin: USA. 122 min. Rated: R.
DVD Features: "The Release of Fahrenheit 9/11" featurette. Montage: The People of Iraq on the Eve of Invasion. New scenes: Homeland Security, Miami Style; Outside Abu Ghraib Prison; Eyewitness Account from Samara, Iraq; Lila Lipscomb at the Washington D.C. Premiere; Arab-American Comedians. Extended interview of Abdul Henderson. Condoleezza Rice's 9/11 Commission testimony. Rose Garden press briefing.

Michael Moore takes scattershot aim at the presidency of George W. Bush, hitting some targets and missing others. Thanks to the humor, Fahrenheit 9/11 is less of a hysterical screed than one might expect. Incisively provocative, there's enough information to raise an eyebrow: the convoluted (and perhaps tenuous) connections between Saudi Arabian business interests and the Bush family; Afghani President Harmid Karzai's connection to the oil company Unocal; or a Taliban official's state visit to Texas in the late 1990s, and Washington in March, 2001. (And who knew reggae singer Shaggy is a former marine?)

The film veers toward a not-entirely convincing editorial piece when it questions whether the terror alert system is a way of keeping the public on edge. (But this theme should be familiar to anyone who has seen Moore's previous film, Bowling for Columbine). Perhaps Fahrenheit 9/11's weakest point is its assertion that Bush's motivation for war in Afghanistan was to secure an oil pipeline through the country at the expense of capturing Osama bin Laden. Surprisingly, Moore doesn't bring up the criticism - raised by others, like editorialist Thomas Friedman - that there have never been enough troops in Afghanistan or in Iraq because the administration has arrogantly insisted that a two-front war could be fought on the cheap.

Much more successful is Moore's contention that the military recruits underprivileged and working-class youth for fodder. His cameras follow two traveling-salesman-like Marine recruiters in action at a working-class strip mall in Moore's hometown, Flint, MI. (One wonders how the recruiters ever became part of Moore's film. Expect them now to be shuffling papers behind a desk.)

No matter how resistant you are to Moore's arguments, you'd have to have a heart of stone not to be moved by the transformation of Lila Lipscomb, a former welfare mother whose two children went into the military to earn a higher education. A self-described conservative Democratic who raises the flag in her front yard everyday, her impending betrayal is the heart of the film. Not coincidentally, Lipscomb is the prototype of the Reagan Democrat/Midwestern swing voter.

As journalism, Moore's film raises questions the mainstream media has failed to examine - why did the president remain in the Florida classroom reading My Pet Goat after being told the country was under attack? (Clearly speculating, Moore offers his version of Bush’s internal monologue). Or, why did the administration flip-flop, first declaring in July 2001 that Saddam Hussein was not rebuilding his arsenal, then branding him an imminent threat in 2002? Yes, footage is taken out of context: Bush's seeming flippancy on a golf course was in response to a terrorist bombing in Israel. (The clip is included in the section dealing with his response to terrorism.) Moore also fails to follow through on an argument, not mentioning that Unocal had abandoned the aforementioned Afghani pipeline deal in 1998, and that the pipeline hasn’t been built. Often the complex subject matter is too easily summarized, such as Moore's recount (pun intended) of the 2000 presidential election. But by pressing the right emotional buttons, Fahrenheit 9/11 certainly achieves what it has set out do - arouse the vote against Bush in November. Kent Turner
July 14, 2004

DVD Extras: Of the new scenes, the standouts include an eye-watering speech by Lila Lipscomb at the film’s Washington D.C. premiere; an interview of Urban Hamid, a Swedish journalist who witnessed raids in Samara, Iraq and testified to horrific actions by the U.S. military; Iraqi citizens waiting at Abu Ghraib for the release of their relatives; and hilarious stage performances by Arab-American comedians. No one can deny, upon seeing the diverse extras, how extensive Moore's research and investigation were in the film’s making. With this supplementary footage, one is undoubtedly able to see the film in a different light. Hazuki Aikawa, journalist, director of the documentary Yancha
October 26, 2004