Fahrenheit 11/9

The disappointment is to observe more people packing across the hall to see transformers rather than to watch this thought-provoking and well crafted documentary. If Americans are fatigued on our state of politics and checking out on Trump already.... we're in deep trouble!

More striking to me than the the film itself is its incredibly bi-modal retribution reveiwer scores, ALMOST ALL.NEARLY 1 or 2 OR 10 or 9. This not only strikingly illustrates the ideological/political character of user responses, but the limitations of mean scores as statistical summaries of viewer favor or disfavor. In this case no use, except as a benchmark for the polarized responses.

As for the film itself, think 11/9 is probably the best film of one of our most skilled cinemantic essayist. It's free of Moore's occasional gaffes (e.g. the cruel interrogation of Charlton Heston in Moore's critique of US gun use, the 9/11 shot of joyous Iraqies in Baghdad cafes just prior to Bush-II's military intervention into Iraq). It's polemical but conscientious, if not unselective, in its use of facts. It's a powerful piece of rhetoric, like say the Gettysburg Address or Reagan's "tear down that wall" speech.

As this is a Michael Moore documentary, there are probably hundreds of ratings and reviews on IMDb from people on the right who didn't even bother to watch this film. Just mentioning the name Michael Moore turns the more even-tempered Republicans into frothing rabid dogs. But, as the case with his film "Capitalism: A Love Story," this documentary is not just critical of Trump and the Republicans. The Clintons (both Bill and Hillary) and Barack Obama do not get away unscathed--in fact, Moore implies that the establishment Democrats may be worse than Republicans because the Dems claim they care about "every day Americans" and "progressive causes" (like the environment and taxing the rich) in order to get the votes and get elected to office, but in the end are beholden to the same corporate string pullers as Republicans are. And the corporate mainstream media - CNN, ABC, MSNBC/NBC, CBS - gets blasted as much as Fox News. This documentary is not really about Donald J. Trump per se, but more about what has happened in this country through the last several decades to allow someone like Trump to rise to power. Instead of examining the corporate mainstream media demonizing movements like Occupy Wall Street and truly progressive Democrats like the Squad, Moore turns his attention to one pre-Trump Presidential era disaster - Flint, MI (and not only the water crisis, but the military drill authorized by Obama that gave no advance warning to the citizens), and a then-current-Trump Presidential era disaster - the Parkland mass shooting. There is so much ground to cover in a documentary that was released two years into the Trump regime that Moore could not cover it all (violence at his rallies and Charlottesville are only seen in snippets). In the end, the tone of Moore's film is dire, even fatalistic. What are the answers to attempt to tilt the country towards a true "Democracy." Moore doesn't fill in the blanks. One image in the film has a map of the U. S. made up of a hundred match sticks, and the match is lit, to burn up the entire country. If you're already pessimistic about the direction of the country, this film will give you little hope. If you're still asleep thinking that "hope" and "positive thoughts" will make everything OK, justice for January 6 is coming, Biden or Harris will prevail in 2024, and no one like Trump could ever be elected again - may this documentary serve as a bitter wake up call.

You may love or hate Michael Moore's politics, but one thing is clear and that is that he makes good, entertaining documentaries. I guarantee that the vast majority of one star reviewers have not seen this movie. If you are firmly in Trumps party and think he's doing a "wonderful" job, yeah you probably won't like it. If you're anyone else definitely check it out.

The beginning is a little painful reliving election night. From there the film disperses into all kinds of political events, all illustrating that it is up to the people to take control back. This movie is not at all focused on Trump though he does take him on. There is a particularly cringe inducing part where he focuses on his bizarre relationship with his daughter. Moore also disses the DNC and even Obama (who seems to have really deserved it in this case). This isn't really a spoiler..just putting it out there so you know that Moore is no Democratic stooge. He's for the people and I always find it amazing that there are tons of working class Republicans who HATE him and yet would benefit greatly if his ideas were implemented.

To sum up, the movie is entertaining, very informative and above all very motivating! Loved it.

I've never posted a review before. I saw this film a couple hours ago. It's a typical Moore effort, minus the humor. He really blows up the BS in our modern society. His "feel good" bits trying to give us hope for a better future fall short. Pretty bleak. If you're looking for a rallying cry to action, it's not here. It's almost a eulogy for what might have been.