Ok, I'm sitting here on Saturday night, halfway into a half pint of my good friend, Mr. Daniels, and writing a blog entry about my impressions of Fahrenheit 9/11. I think I needed it (the JD) just to calm down a bit after returning from the movie.
I'll give you a quick description of the movie in a single word: powerful.
I thoroughly enjoyed it, was moved (but not shocked) at some of the scenes, and the entire theatre (sold out and standing room only), as far as I could tell, stood up and clapped and cheered for 2 full minutes as the closing credits started to roll.
Just to set the scene, I went to the 5PM showing with three of my best like-minded friends. Signs on the theatre door proclaimed that the rest of the showings for the day were already sold out. Thank God for fandango.com.
Folks, regardless of what you might think of Michael Moore, he's an artist and a storyteller. That might be the highest compliment that you can pay any movie maker.
Based on my own knowledge of the topics, he was fairly spot-on in most areas of the film. I'd like to see the film again - there's so much crammed into 120 minutes. Moore succinctly packages much of what many of us already know into those 120 minutes. And he does it sooooo very well.
Fahrenheit 9/11 was an affirmation of my loathe for BushCo. I think the most powerful part of the film was right after the opening credits rolled, and the screen went dark for four or five minutes. All you were left with was the audio, and your own mental images of that moment in time. And you probably know what I'm talking about, even if you haven't seen the movie (no 'spoilers' here). It was unbelievably powerful. Five minutes of dark screen with nothing but audio to refresh your mental imagery. And more importantly, the lost opportunities for real change.
What's more striking is that it brought back for me how this asshole who is running (ruining?) our country had his countrymen (and the world) in the palm of his hand - and instead of true leadership, George W. Bush squandered the whole political fortune that was dropped into his lap. Instead of using that fortune for the collective good, he reverted to his true typecasting: a tragic Willie Loman-esque character. Only Dubya still has people telling him he's not "tragic".
One of the more interesting acts for me was that of the footage from inauguration day, 2001. I'd never seen the footage of all those protestors at Bush's inauguration, or the eggs hitting the incoming pResident's limo. You never saw that footage. You never saw the speedup of the limos, and the SS running alongside out of concern for the soon-to-be Boy King. You never heard that Bush was the first pResident-select that chose not to walk part of the way up Constitution Avenue to Capitol Hill to take the oath of office. Monkey Boy™ rode the motorcade all the way, sanitized for his protection. And I sat wondering if he paid attention to the protest signs all along the way...
So, adding to the firepower of F911 was the footage you've never seen - because the press wouldn't air it or talk about it at the time (or even now).
Let me backtrack for a moment. In the leadup to the inauguration, there was congressional certification of election results from 2000. This is something (again) I'd never really seen. I've heard Donna Brazille talk about the complete Floridian coup / disenfranchisement in 2000, but I hadn't really seen the congressional response in action. With then Vice President Albert Gore presiding over the congressional certification of election results, the Congressional Black Caucus, one by one, took the podium to protest. All it would have taken was one single Senator to stand up and object to the results to deny certification. Not one damn Senator would stand up and object to the coronation...er...certification. And it would have only taken one.
There's so much more to talk about regarding F911. The Sunday talkie's will be full of it. But at the end of the day, it's the affirmation thing I talked about earlier for we liberals who actually follow this stuff. Fuck it if the brownshirts miss it. Every single person who sees the Willie Loman I see in George Bush needs to see this movie.
Quit listening to the noise machine. Fahrenheit 9/11 is perhaps the most important political statement I've seen in my 50 years on the planet. And Mike Moore's the messenger, in all his glorious bias.
