Fahrenheit 9/11

How does a faux-documentary become a box-office hit with its scatter-brain approach and shoddy directing? Simple. Make it tell the truth. The Weinstein brothers have reportedly taken great care and employed a horde of fact checkers to ensure Fh9/11 was accurate, and it shows.

The movie starts with African-americans on the senate floor after the 2001 election. Representing the tens of thousands of blacks who were not on the voter list, they are unable to find a single senator to support their cause. Al Gore himself, as president of the senate, has to deny their resolution. The screen fades to total darkness. You hear the sounds of 9/11 and see people looking up the towers. A chilling reminder of 9/11, with not a single shot of the actual crash. With an excellent start, Moore goes on to eviscerate Dubya as a country yokel with less-than-impressive intelligence and big-corporation connections.

What rankles, however, is the way Moore covers a lot of ground and tries to cover all his bases. There are no definite conclusions to his conspiracy musings. If you’re a democrat, you come out of the movie agreeing whole-heartedly with it. If you’re republican, you come out hating democrats and Moore even more. If you’re a right-thinking human, you wonder how you can get away with anything depending on which side you’re on.

Fh9/11 is probably the most powerful negative ad against Bush. Whether people will be affected by its powerful accounts of those directly involved in the war, or be turned off by its incoherent ramblings, remains to be seen.

From MeFi, apparently outsourcing works the same in Iraq as here. (user-email: infinion@gmx.net , passwd:infinite)

My favorite moments: The Taliban minister wondering about the american woman’s conjugal capabilities and Wolfowitz’s make-up tips.