Tuesday, June 29th, 2004

I’m watching Fahrenheit 9/11, thanks

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I’m watching Fahrenheit 9/11, thanks to the miracle known as “screwing that guy who paints movie sets.” Overall I think it’s not bad, though it’s more propagandic polemic than documentary. Not that that’s necessarily a bad thing, since it’ll at least serve to get people thinking about the issues of Iraq, the Patriot Act and Bush’s delusions of empire.

Parts of the film are blatantly unfair, like the whole thing at the beginning where Moore uses shots of Administration officials getting ready to go on air. Democrats look just as dorky going through that process, and really, it’s just a cheap shot. He also cuts stuff together for maximum comedic effect or to emphasive his point, which is fine if you look at this as his opinion, but doesn’t really jibe with “documenting.”

But where it’s effective, it shines. He does a good job of illustrating the Faustian pact between Saudi Arabia and the US, and Sept. 11 footage is handled with remarkable restraint. The whole sequence with a woman who has a son in Iraq (who later is killed in a helicopter crash) is heart-wrenching to watch, and handled with a fair bit of subtlety on Moore’s part.

Warren Frey is a journalist, freelance writer, podcaster, video producer, and all-around media consultant currently based in Vancouver, Canada. His written work has appeared in such publications as Metro Vancouver, the Westender, Mac | Life and the Japan Times.

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