ON SEEING FAHRENHEIT 911 IN CENTRIGRADE COUNTRY

Jim Cohen
July, 2004

Michael Moore: not a saint, not an idol, but definitely the man of the hour

After spending an hour or so with 8 or 10 dedicated friends holding our antiwar, anti-occupation and anti-Bush banners in front of the UGC-Bercy cinema last night -- a presence noted by a few thousand passersby --, I slipped into the show at 8 pm with a friend. Infinite thanks to Peggy for having the great idea of ordering tickets well in advance, and also to the UGC-Bercy computer for somehow turning her order of 9 tickets into 18! That made a lot of people happy, including a few bystanders who were hoping for the lucky chance to get in for the "avant-première".

Michael Moore's presence at Bercy had been announced, but a letter written (supposedly) by him was read instead, in which he thanked "the wonderful people of France" profusely for all the support he's gotten. He also mentioned that if the election goes badly, he might come to France to stay...

Now, as for the movie itself. Much ink has been spilled already so let's be brief. Mike is up to a few of his usual tricks, playing the naive dude who just sort of discovers the iniquity of the Bush administration as he goes along. But this movie has an extra edge to it. He goes for the jugular, politically speaking. The sense of anger and outrage builds and builds (and if you're like me, you share it).

I think we have a document of historic proportions. It combines political arguments and (carefully-checked) facts with some humor and lots of emotion. You see civilian homes being raided in Iraq. You see people maimed by bombs. You see mutilated bodies. You see grieving and angry women -- both in Iraq and the U.S. You see people mentally and physically ravaged by war. Some will raise the question: are these images used purely for shock effect and for narrow political reasons ("get Bush") or do they contribute to an underlying argument about WHY the Bush administration is criminal? There's no question in my mind that the latter is true.

The really important question for me is whether those who are not already dead set against the Bush administration will be swayed. I think there's good potential here. Some will say: what about the Saddam Hussein regime? Why portray Bush as a simpleton and a tool, why deny his confirmed skills as a politician? Of course there's room for discussion. What you get, in any case, is a document that cannot fail to raise doubts, even in the minds of the most Moore-skeptical or the most blindly pro-Bush, about what, exactly, the war on Iraq was about; why the Saudi ties have remained so strong, even after 9/11; and who, exactly, Bush is working for. Bush himself provides plenty of fodder, in particular the following pearl of a line, delivered at a dinner of supporters: "Some call you the elite; I call you my base!".

Moore takes his arguments to the broadest public possible. He portrays US citizens in their diversity and without complex. And he does some interesting Howard-Zinny things, showing how the foreign policy priorities of the Bush administration tie in with its social and socio-economic ones. Listen, for example, to those kids in Flint -- prime targets for military recruiters -- who talk about parts of their town as a "war zone"....

Without starting some kind of a Michael Moore personality cult, I think our man has weighed in as skillfully and eloquently as any film-maker/author/troublemaker could be expected to do at the present time. For several years I figured Mike was the guy who used show-bizzy and clownish techniques to bring politics and critical thought to a broader public, in the absence of political parties ready and willing to do that job. This is still true. But in "Fahrenheit...", he steps up the campaign. He doesn't really want to be just a lone guy ranting on while the country and the world go to hell -- he wants to show people what a popular oppositional movement might look like and on what basis it could start to get its political act together. He's helping to get the ball rolling. Without getting all sappy about it, let me say: I'm glad I've lived to see this day. It's only the beginning, of course. (And regarding the election in November, "it ain't over till it's over" -- Yogi Berra).

Jim Cohen