Posted: 06/27/2004

Fahrenheit 9/11

(2004)

by Hank Yuloff

Back in 1999, I sat in a movie theater fuming… I was promised the scariest movie of all time and it sucked. I hated The Blair Witch Project so much that I wrote a review and sent it around to all my friends. That’s how I landed this gig with FilmMonthly.com and have been extremely happy to share my feelings with all of you in cyberland.

Last night I felt that same anger. Only it was worse because it was a documentary and the subject matter had a direct effect on my life and the lives of literally billions of people on this globe.

We have a liar in the White House. He is part of a lying family whose business dealings with the Saudi Royal Family have cost United States families, this time, over 1000 of our best and bravest and have put almost 5000 more into hospitals.

Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 will probably not be seen by those of you who read that last paragraph and would label me a traitor to my country. And I am fuming mad about that because as I sat through the 112 minutes of Moore’s third major documentary (Bowling for Columbine, Roger & Me) all I could think about was “How could people like my father in law, or that guy in my networking group, or anyone who believes in a just and merciful G-d of any sort, support the evil that is hiding behind Christian family values while screwing our country?”

But I have digressed into a political discussion instead of a review but with this piece of cinema, its very difficult not to do. If you have seen Moore’s other documentaries, you will see the familiar style. Lots of archival footage showing the lies actually coming out of the mouths of the participants. The answer has been that they were operating on the information they had at the time, but when confronted with the truth that there are, for example, no weapons of mass destruction that they said were all over the place, their policies have not changed.

Especially good in establishing a background for why the political right is doing what it is doing, Moore shows the link from the Saudi Family backing up young George W’s early oil dealings as a way to establish ties with the head of the US CIA (George #41) and those ties remaining up to the 9-11 attacks and how members of Bin Laden’s family were allowed to leave the US without any conversations on where to find the purported black sheep of their family.

Rather than focus entirely on the misdealings of the Bush family and all of their supporting cast of extremists, Moore in the second half of the movie told the story from the point of view of individual families and soldiers. To tell you their stories here takes away from the strength of the 2nd half of the movie, but Moore’s narritive disappears for a long time and regular US citizens take the foreground. His handling of the crashing of the towers and the Pentagon is also very touching, focusing on the people watching the tragedy rather than using the footage of the wreckage.

To you who call themselves Compassionate Conservatives, if you watch this film, I will sit through anything the Neo-conservatives put out that is in the form of anything more than a 30-second campaign attack ad that they are no doubt preparing for the fall elections. What would be in that film? Would it cover why their policies do not serve the majority of moderate Americans, but are designed by, a very, VERY small percentage of Americans, (the Religious Right, or Corporate America, or just the very, very wealthy) to appeal to Americans who still believe in working hard, going to Church, and wrapping your family in the flag. The trouble is, by falling for that line of reasoning, you are letting the top 1/2% get richer, at the expense of all others who are hoping to grab enough of the crumbs to do better than their parents. Don’t believe me? Here is the quote from the movie, Bush at a fundraiser: “It’s good to be here among the have’s and have mores… Some people call you the Elite… I call you my base.”

What would the neo-conservatives have to say, honestly? What do they believe in?

1) De-separation of Church and State

2) Unilateral solutions to multinational problems

3) An end to the social programs of FDR

4) Unwavering support for Israel and a total war on Islamic fundamentalism

This film shows we live in a plutocracy,—that’s “rule by the rich” for those not familiar with the word—and the Neo-conservatives represent the plutocrats, operating within the structure of the Republican party. There ARE some decent, moderate Republicans out there who have worthwhile views on fiscal conservatism and smaller government, but have no doubt that Bush and his cronies do not even fit the definition of the modern Republican.

I hope this comes out on DVD before the elections this fall. It is the perfect early stocking stuffer for lots of my friend on both sides of the aisle, but only if you see the truth, and vote against those who have hijacked not 4 aircraft, but our way of life, our self respect as a country, our good guys where the white hats bravado, and the respect the rest of the world had for us when the only thing wrong with the presidency was that he got a blow job in the White House.

Hank Yuloff is his mother’s son, a financially conservative, socially liberal democrat. We are proud of him: we only had to edit out the words “Bush is a fucking asshole” 7 times from this review.

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