last night paul and i went to see michael moore's fahrenheit 9/11. it's not a movie that'll change anyone's mind; if you're already foaming at the mouth about boy george, you'll emerge nodding so hard your head will almost fly off its stalk, and if you're not, you'll instantly dismiss it as propaganda.
and it is propaganda, but in the same way that virtually every mass-media narrative (shout out to my good friends at fox news) is nowadays. moore pushes a very specific agenda, and he pushes it hard. like all of the best propaganda, it's audacious, manipulative, unapologetic, and effective.
you can dismiss moore as a sensationalistic blowhard if you like (and you might be shocked to hear that most of the time i do), but behind the cheap gimmicks of fahrenheit 9/11 are some deeply troubling truths. if you follow politics on the web with any tenacity, much of what moore asserts isn't a surprise. what is surprising, though, is the full-body impact of seeing real footage to illuminate what i'd already read.
some of the parts that disturbed me the most:
- the montage of black congresspeople protesting the florida 2000 results in front of the senate, when not a single senator would sign their complaints. the congresspeople's frustration and anger was palpable.
- the marine recruiters staking out the mall in flint, michigan, behaving for all the world like the sleaziest of snake-oil salesmen. "want to be a musician? the marine corps will help you become a musician!" "oh, you want to go to college and play basketball! did you know you can play basketball in the marines?" "not interested? fine! now i just want your name and address so we can cross you off our list..."
- the shocking youth of many of the soldiers in iraq. just like every other soldier in every other war, these people are babies. moore shows them in several phases: new arrivals eager to wreak some mayhem; more seasoned soldiers who wonder why they're there; sad young men who've realized that killing anyone "kills a part of your soul"; and amputees in a veterans' hospital.
- the seven minutes bush spent sitting idly in a florida classroom after learning that a second plane had hit the world trade center, that america was under attack. now, we all know he sat there listening to a story about a goat, but to see it happen, to watch his expression, vacant and bewildered by turns, to experience exactly how long an interval it was, was excruciating.
i don't claim that
fahrenheit 9/11 is a great movie. it's flawed and occasionally annoying, like when moore resorts to the cheap shots (which, in my opinion, he does all too often). some of his conspiracy theories seem questionable, to put it politely. and the movie's lack of subtlety is a bit off-putting: moore can't resist using a shillelagh when a scalpel would do.
it's just not going to change any minds that are already firmly made up. what it might do, though — and what might be moore's intent — is mobilize those who didn't vote in 2000, galvanize the apathetic, and outrage those who haven't been paying attention. if it succeeds on any of those counts, it doesn't need to be a great movie. if it contributes in even the smallest way to unseating bush in the 2004 election, that's accomplishment enough for any career.
