Burn, Baby Burn: Fahrenheit 9/11

Burn, Baby Burn: Fahrenheit 9/11

Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 has descended upon us, a gripping
portrait of the Bush Kingdom that smokes with the flames of these
apocalyptic times. Moore documents how, since 9/11, even going back
to the Florida election scandal, George W. Bush & Co. has scorched
our liberties, our laws, our sensibilities, and our freedoms.

Bush is portrayed, without much effort, as a dangerous buffoon who
sat reading "My Pet Goat" for 7 minutes to a group of school children
in Florida, while hijacked planes were raining from the sky. The Bush
Family "oilgarchy" is shown to have deep business ties
(collaborative!) with the Saudi Royal Family as well as the Bin Laden
Clan, throwing the latter's post 9/11 getaway into suspect light. And
Moore's account of the Iraq fiasco centers around the ultra-patriotic
Lila Lipscomb from Flint, Michigan, who is shown sobbing in front of
the White House after the news of her son's death - raging against
the Administration.

Fahrenheit 9/11 will surely come to be known as the Great War Film of
the era of the War on Terrorism. The film is one part satire, one
part tragedy, and 100% act of artistic mediation that attempts to
unseat from power the President and his Republican cronies. However
accurate the film may be, its purpose is to peel off the layers of
lies and deception handed down by our political leaders to reveal the
true nature of their intent. It also attempts to reveal the
foolishness, sloppiness, and hypocrisy of politicians on both sides
of the isle: an appeal to Congressmen who haven't read the Patriot
Act is countered by reading it to them from behind the wheel of an
ice cream truck encircling the US Capitol; Moore personally recruits
Congressmen by asking them to sign up their own children to join the
Army if they really support the War in Iraq; and a startling scene in
the Senate Chamber at the opening of the film reveals that not a
single Senator supported a House-led petition to investigate the
Florida election scandal.

This is the film we have all been waiting for. Fahrenheit 9/11 is a
powerful catharsis that vents the anger spreading across the nation
and around the world at an Administration perilously on the brink of
self-destruction and global annihilation. Michael Moore is the hero
of our times, an artist who has expressed our collective horror.
Fahrenheit 9/11 is an artwork that reaches beyond the screen and
attempts to bring the possibilities of change into action, action
that might translate into votes.

Fahrenheit 9/11 demonstrates the power of art to reveal what is so
obvious to some, but remains elusive to most behind the veil of
deception and propaganda. Let's hope the film ignites Joe America and
the rest of the red-zone populace, inspiring them to shed the
terrible illusion afflicted upon them by Fox News and Rush Limbaugh,
to exercise their one remaining, untargeted freedom, the right to
vote (even that is now suspect). Our 200 + year experiment with
democracy hangs by a thread, but with films such as Michael Moore's
Fahrenheit 9/11, hope remains.

Go see it if you haven't already.

Randall Packer