Turan on Fahrenheit 9/11
The LA Times’ Kenneth Turan is normally a pretty tough reviewer. He occasionally gets a bee in his bonnet and trashes something I actually think is pretty good, but I’m not sure I can remember a single time when he liked a film that I ended up thinking wasn’t worth my time. So the crass Bush-hater in me is happy to see that Turan is impressed with Michael Moore’s latest: Fahrenheit 9/11. An excerpt:
What Moore has constructed in “Fahrenheit” is more ambitious and more complex than anyone had reason to expect.
This film isn’t about the Bush family relationship to Saudi Arabia, the excesses of the Patriot Act or the pitfalls of the invasion of Iraq, though it touches on those topics. Instead we get a full-blown alternate history of the last three-plus years. Moore makes a persuasive and unrelenting case that there is another way to look at things beyond the version we’ve been given.
What anger Moore has left over after savaging the administration is directed at the mainstream media for being too in thrall with the official line (“Navy SEALs rock!” exults “Today’s” Katie Couric in one clip.)
The core of “Fahrenheit’s” appeal comes in Moore’s alternating familiar images with footage many Americans may not have seen. The resulting mosaic, the cumulative effect of experiencing everything together in one place, is easily the most powerful piece of work of Moore’s career. Though it’s more likely to energize a liberal base than cause massive switching of parties, anyone who is the least bit open to Moore’s thesis will come away impressed.
Bush supporters: you have a problem.
June 23rd, 2004 at 8:12 am
Well, for every review that is positive there are a few too many popping up that are negative — from staunch liberals as well as conservatives.
Ain’t It Cool News has a lengthy review of the film — but then again there are a lot of people that get sick of the AIn’t-it-cool fanboy reviews.
I had also seen someoen post a review from Vanity Fair that was pretty critical of the “mess” that was the film.
It’ll be a success at the box office because of the controversey but how good a film it is, is going to remain unknown until the public starts judging the film for themselves…
October 22nd, 2004 at 2:16 am
Michael Moore is full of lies. He wouldn’t know or be able to comprehend the truth if it was thrown in his face. I feel sorry for all the “stupid” americans who should be ashamed of themselves for not supporting their country, their troups, and freedom and humanity all over the world. For all you who think Michael Moore is a saint, in an interview in the U.K. he referred to Americans as “The Dumbest People on Earth.”