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 fahrenheit 9/11
 to access audio and video on collective you need real player.Moore of the same... From hectoring General Motors and sniping at the gun lobby, Michael Moore now sets his sights a little higher. In Fahrenheit 9/11, Moore launches a personal attack on President George W Bush and his administration, splattering mud over the reputations of several extremely powerful multi-national corporations in the process. So is the big man from Flint, Michigan, punching above his weight this time? It seems not, as not only does Moore have the power of righteous anger on his side, he also has a damn fine editing team. And while it might not be the greatest stretch for them to portray Bush as a grinning goon suffering from arse/elbow identification issues, the fact is that given enough archive footage, a pair of scissors and a knack for comic juxtaposition, they could make just about anyone look dumb. Of course, Bush doesn’t do himself any favours. Pre-9/11, he addresses the assembled press from a golf course, earnestly assuring them of his commitment to fighting terrorism. Then, brandishing his golf club, he segues into, “Now, watch this drive…” Then there’s his response – or lack of – during a visit to a school to the news of the Twin Towers strikes. Unsure of what to do, Bush picked up a book and idly leafed through it. The book, Moore informs us with barely contained glee, was called My Pet Goat.  It is an uproariously funny film, at least for the first half, but there is something slightly ignoble about Moore’s wet-eyed sympathy for the little people caught up in Bush’s foolhardy crusade. It’s a cheap trick in a film that is overloaded with them. And this is the main problem with this polemic (I hesitate to call it a documentary) – however entertaining it is, however much we sympathise with its political aims, can we ever really condone what is, to all intents and purposes, a piece of overt propaganda?
Wendy Ide
Fahrenheit 9/11, on general release 09 July 04.
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