Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Ben Affleck | ... | Self (archive footage) | |
Stevie Wonder | ... | Self (archive footage) | |
George W. Bush | ... | Self (archive footage) | |
James Baker III | ... | Self (archive footage) | |
Richard Gephardt | ... | Self (archive footage) | |
Tom Daschle | ... | Self (archive footage) | |
Jeffrey Toobin | ... | Self (archive footage) | |
Al Gore | ... | Self (archive footage) | |
Condoleezza Rice | ... | Self (archive footage) | |
Donald Rumsfeld | ... | Self (archive footage) | |
Saddam Hussein | ... | Self (archive footage) | |
George Bush | ... | Self (archive footage) | |
Ricky Martin | ... | Self (archive footage) | |
Byron Dorgan | ... | Self (archive footage) | |
Osama bin Laden | ... | Self (archive footage) |
Following up on 'Bowling for Columbine', film-maker Michael Moore provides deep and though-provoking insights on the American security system, the level of paranoia, fear, uncertainty, false values and patriotism, which all combined together to set a stage for George W. Bush to launch a war on Iraq instead of focusing on getting the real culprit(s) behind the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. This documentary also focuses on how some Saudis were safely and secretly flown out of America while planes were ostensibly grounded after the attacks. Archived film footage, candid interviews with politicians, and an overall waste of public funds for a war that was initiated on false pretension to wit: a weapon of mass distraction - to take the focus away from the real enemy and get Americans glued to their TV sets to watch innocent Iraqis and Afghans getting killed. And a war that would eventually alienate the U.S.A. and it's citizens from almost every country on Earth. Written by rAjOo (gunwanti@hotmail.com)
Taking an unruly mass of information, many stories with multiple strands, presenting facts and establishing connections new to the general populace, and somehow weaving all this into something as crystal clear and concise as a world book article yet still personal, retaining its maker's voice is indeed the feat of a master film maker aborning. This, even his staunchest foes will have a hard time denying in light of the teeming vitality and admirable dress-down virtuosity of the film. Michael Moore has matured into a master film maker this trip out.
The first half of the film, especially, is an intoxicating Welles-like collage (reminiscent of Welles' F for Fake) of fragments from all media. Moore gives the participants enough rope here, as it were, letting them trip themselves up time and again in their own amateurish contradictions. You get a foretaste of the masterfully expansive pacing of the piece and some of the films most darkly funny moments during the first few minutes, as you catch privileged glimpses of the all the dramas main players preening candidly with spittle and comb, powder puff and pancake for their hour upon the stage. Clearly, they understand that this is theater. This is The Big Time, Baby! Bring it on! Despite the yelping of critics, what Moore says about these players certainly could be no more biased than their own brazen stab at "reality-craft," as acidly revealed by him during the course of Fahrenheit.
The film eventually merges into a second film, as it were, a disturbing meditation on the death of those close to you, and on man's inhumanity to man, the horror of war and occupation. The last half of Fahrenheit is harrowing and nightmarish, a collage of maimed and bloody soldiers and civilians, and midnight home break ins with interrogations by flashlight, at the point of a rifle, with a chorus of screaming and praying women in the background. Moore poses the question (and it takes a great deal of objectivity to grasp the objectivity of this question, apparently): Who are the bad guys in this scenario? At what point do well-intentioned, freedom-loving liberators, worn down and wearied by battle, succumb to the dark side of their souls and become like their worst portrayal of their enemy? This is not a new question by any means. But Moore makes it compelling and pertinent for our time.
As an experience, Fahrenheit 9/11 is many things: exhausting, laugh-out-loud funny, profound, emotionally draining, dark and ultimately stupefying. It is epic. No film will stir and involve you as much.
Ten stars. Highest commendation. Genuinely genius film making. See it.