For what it’s worth, I really enjoyed Fahrenheit 9/11. The fact that Moore dug up the video footage for so many of the dopey statements of the Bush people that we’ve seen quoted on LRC and Antiwar.com was immensely satisfying. The music was also well chosen, with a sometimes macabre appropriateness to the lyrics. (One little bit of music that was played without lyrics was the briefest excerpt of the guitar from Eric Clapton’s “Cocaine,” as the screen showed us documentation about Bush’s refusal to take a medical exam during his military service.)
On net the movie is a plus, despite Moore’s economics, since it lays bare the mind-bogglingly despicable modus operandi of this administration. The main problem is that Moore focuses so much on Bush himself and his various connections that he leaves the impression that the problem centers around this single person. Typical of the naive Left, of course. What we still need is a movie illustrating that what we face is a much more systemic evil that permeates both parties. Moore goes after the Democrats a little bit for not having done anything to stop Bush, and indeed for having gone along with him, but if you went out for Bon Bons you missed it. That is the real shame of the film.
At one point we hear from a disillusioned soldier in Iraq that he’s planning to become active in the Democratic Party. Too bad Moore, who misses no opportunity to make a larger point from someone’s brief comment, makes no attempt to inform us that this poor kid can expect to find a party of warmongers even when he works for the Democrats (was Clinton a noninterventionist?).
11:44 am on June 29, 2004
