Release Year: 2004
Director: Michael Moore
*****
Michael Moore's 2004 Oscar winning documentary, ostensibly about the links between the Bush family and the bin Landen's, is something people on both sides of the aisle should see. The information Moore brings to the surface was barely reported on by any mainstream news outlet. (For instance, the US government was in bed with the Taliban for two decades before September 11...and the government arranged the travel needs of bin Laden family member on 9/11 to Saudi Arabia.)
What holds this film from being a true work of genius is Moore's insatiable need to pick, prod and beat the president up at every opportunity. Any documentary filmmaker knows that, in order to be taken seriously, you must be impartial. Examine the issue from all sides, don't let your personal politics come through. Even and balanced. Fair. From the very instant Fahrenheit 9/11 begins with a quick history lesson on the presidential elections of 2000, it's obvious there will be no air of equality here. Moore is out for blood. Personal politics aside, is that really the best way to bring information to light? No, because it turns off a large segment of the population who, if they watched the film, might change their opinions.
Moore's research, it should be said, is impeccable. Regardless of anything else he could be pigeonholed for, he did not want to be told his information was faulty. Using a combination of interviews, news clips and archive footage, almost everything in the film is documented. If there is one place the narrative turns a bit circumspect, it is early on when the director hypothesizes what President Bush was thinking about sitting in the schoolroom when the towers were hit. There is no way we will ever know what went through the president's mind; to put words into his head is irresponsible.
Did Moore use clips of soldiers bashing the Iraq invasion without their consent? I don't know. Again, this is something we'll never know. What we can say with certainty is this: Fahrenheit 9/11 gets the audience from Point A to Point B, outlining every relevant fact we should know in order for us to draw our own conclusions. The Bush lineage in Texas is traced, straight through the 2000 elections, followed by September 11 and the beginning (and "Mission Accomplished" Photo Op) of the Iraq Invasion. Moore goes for sentimentality by introducing us to a woman in Flint, Michigan, who lost her son in the military. By and large, the emotional thread works. It is necessary for a film like this to engage the emotions; but was it really necessary? Not completely, and a valid case can be made against this part of the film.
Fahrenheit 9/11 rightly won the Academy Award for Best Documentary. Just imagine, though, for a moment the impact this film could have had if it had a History Channel objectivity instead of a partisan slant.