FAHRENHEIT 9/11  ***1/2

Reviewed 6/26/04

FAHRENHEIT 9/11 has only been released for a few days, but it’s already one of the most controversial, most watched documentaries in the history of cinema. Having made over $8 million on its opening Friday alone, it’s already more financially successful than your average 10 documentaries put together. It may also prove to be one of the more important documentaries ever made should it influence the upcoming presidential election, something its writer-director-producer Michael Moore heartily wishes. Given the intensely divided electorate (Moore inexplicably left out Bush’s “I’m a uniter, not a divider” line), all it will take are a few swings votes to do it.

So is FAHRENHEIT 9/11 fair and balanced? About as much as FOX News. Is it propaganda? Certainly. Does that mean a lot of it is untruthful? No. Will it change minds? You bet it will. I’m in disagreement with a number of critics on this last point, but if media, of which Moore’s documentary is a part, isn’t effective, then corporations wouldn’t pay for commercials, politicians wouldn’t need to spin, and the right wing wouldn’t be doing everything it can to limit screenings of FAHRENHEIT 9/11. As has been pointed out, the movie is less documentary than live action political cartoon. It wears its bias on its sleeve, but by this point, only the naïve believes there are documentaries without bias. As soon as one takes a point of view, bias sets in.

The movie has all of Moore’s typical faults, but to a lesser degree than usual. It’s a scathing attack on George W. Bush’s laziness, ulterior motives, and ineptitude. Not every assault sticks, but the bulk of its case from the government exploiting the fear of terrorism to the administration’s papering over the human costs of war is too obvious on its face to deny. The vast majority of the footage is taken from the public record with some choice moments showing Bush and his administration’s callousness. Moore and his crew edit it all together with strategic precision and score it with pop songs often commenting on the action in hilarious ways. What it finally comes down to is voter trust, and for a silver spoon President who wants to demonstrate his everyday folksiness and the politician who will admit no mistakes, Moore shows the difference there is enormous.