Fahrenheit

Just finished watching Fahrenheit 9/11. Michael Moore really knows how to stir up a controversy. The documentary was brilliantly executed, and according to Time magazine, not a single piece of fact was inaccurate or fabricated. The interpretations are biased yes, but the solid evidences provided by Moore are nevertheless interesting to say the least.

During the first half of the film, Moore attacks Bush’s credibility and that part is where the interesting things are. The second half is mostly there to invoke feelings of anger and sadness from the audience, standard procedure in any propaganda film and nothing worse than what Fox News does. Even knowing the fact that all the shots were choosen for maximum emotional impact, I couldn’t help but feel swayed by Moore’s message. Now, THAT is a great film. A starch suppoter of George Bush said after viewing the movie, “It’s bullshit, but I gotta admit it was done well.” And it was indeed.

Fahrenheit is a documentary, despite some White House officials saying otherwise. And as a documentary, it provides facts. Now anyone could’ve put together a bunch of facts and make a film out of it, but no one else could’ve sequence them so well.

First, Moore contented the legitimacy of George W Bush’s ascent to power. George W Bush was not elected to be the President of the United States, he was in reality institued into power by the Judical branch of the government, or the Supreme Court. According to other news networks, Al Gore had won the vote count in Florida, but some complications arised and Bush was declared the victor even though Gore had the majority votes. This is why democrats say that Bush is campaigning to be “elected” and not “re-elected”. During the joint Senate and House of Representative session in which they are to certify the Supreme Court’s decision, petitioners from various parts of the country seeked to overthrow the court’s decision and to demand a recount, but lacked the minimum requirement of ONE senator’s signature. They are all racial minorities. Ironically, Al Gore, as the Vice-President and President of Senate, was the one in charge of hearing these complains and throwing them out. Must have been hard on that guy.

So anyway, George Bush, with friends in the Supreme Court, became the President of the United States. On the day of his official inauguration, Bush was unable to take the traditional walk into the White House because of a gathering protest. According to Moore, it was the first time in history that had happened. So anyway, faced with all the problems, Bush took leaves. During the days before September 11, George Bush was on vacation 42% of the time. When asked by reporter, he revealled his poor lying abilities.

Perhaps the most important information was the link between the Bushes and the Saudi Arabians. Bush and his father were both former advisors to the Carlyle Group, one of the few companies that gained from the September 11 attacks. The company was heavily invested by the Saudis and by the Binladen Group itself. (not a coincidental name, they are relatives of Osama) All the companies that Bush managed to bankrupt were saved by fundings from the Saudis. Bush’s father and friends were having tea with a member of the Bin Laden family on the morning of September 11 in a Washington hotel, an annual meeting for Carlyle Group’s board members. The person in charge of managing bin Laden’s family assets in America was the other guy who got discharged from the National Air Guard together with Bush for failing to turn up for medical examinations. Taliban leaders even visited Huston to talk to an American company about building a pipeline through Afghanistan while George W Bush was the Governor of Texas. 142 Saudis, including 24 members of the bin Laden family were allowed to leave America after all flights were grounded post-911. And the list goes on and on. The facts are all true, but whether they do form a conspiracy or whether they are coincidence is anyone’s guess. Moore of course played on the former.

The second part of the film was somewhat less interesting. Tear-jerkers mixed with equal dosages of generic scenes of destruction etc etc. Perhaps the more representative ones were where Moore followed two Marine recruiters around and when Moore brought an Army recruiter to get Congressmen to enlist their sons and daughters. (Only one member of the Congress had a child serving in Iraq) Moore also added in footages of American corpses dragged out of their vehicles and hung over the streets in Fullujah ,[insert random Iraqi woman crying], and of course, the POW abuse videos.

In the end though, the second portion of the film contributes nothing much in terms of information, but it was certainly well-made. Overall, I can see why Fahrenheit 9/11 is getting all these attention, it certainly creates a strong case (or the illusion of one, depending on which side you believe) against the Bush Administration and the War on Terror.