Moore's Film example essay topic

Fair? enh eit 9/11 It was a typical Saturday at Florida State University. The Notes has defeated, pretty decisively, UNC and the people were conducting normal activities. However, this Saturday was different in the fact that Academy Award winner Michael Moore was to speak to students at the Ruby Diamond auditorium about the upcoming 2004 presidential election. I had received my ticket from the College Democrats, who had arranged for their group to have block seating.

During the event itself, which included an introduction by Andrew Gallium, a local Tallahassee politician, Michael Moore talked about his various complaints about President Bush's policies and told young voters to vote for the Kerry / Edwards ticket. He also showed some extra clips from his movie Fahrenheit 9/11. This movie, which is a "documentary", grossed over 110 million dollars in the U. S (Kopel 2). The budget for the film itself was only 6 million dollars. Michael Moore had won the Oscar for Bowling for Columbine the year before for Best Documentary, and so this film was very much anticipated by both sides of the political aisle. To add to this expectation, Moore was an outspoken opponent of the Bush administration and had used his 2003 acceptance speech at the Oscars to blast Bush's war on Iraq.

This film, at least from my perspective, was the result of great passion and zeal. The film itself, in the words of many commentators, a "two hour hate letter to Bush", and in my opinion it was. This film was coming out on the heels of Mel Gibson's hit success, The Passion, and the same type of intense controversy was surrounding Fahrenheit 9/11. The movie premiered in June, and according to a friend of mine the opening night was jammed pack in Tallahassee itself, which was showing the film only at the Miracle 5 Theater. All across the nation, Moore's film was number 1, grossing huge amounts of money. It was expected to generate huge profits all across the globe, for it was a film many who oppose President Bush were waiting to see.

I was amazed at how this film was treated as if it were Moses handing down the law, and with all the hype I decided that it was time for me to see itI did not think I would get to see this movie. My beliefs about the war and terrorism could be thought of as Pro-Bush, and I highly distrusted anything Moore had to say after seeing Bowling for Columbine, which I believed contained distortions. However, I swallowed my arrogance about the correctness of beliefs and went with my mother and brother to see the movie. I got my popcorn, sat down, and watched. The film opens with a semi-tragedic take on the 2000 recount in Florida and the subsequent Supreme Court verdict, which went in favor of George W. Bush, and allowed him to ascend the presidency.

The film itself portrays the events of that election, as if Fox News, Jeb Bush, Katherine Harris, and the Supreme Court all conspired to suppress African-American votes and steal the election. Regardless of claims to the contrary, Moore's film called President Bush's legitimacy into question. The film then does something which is quite effective by showing the opening credits with members of the Bush administration getting their makeup applied before speaking to the public. This, in my opinion, helps to create a feeling that the Bush and his administration were trying covering up that they really were and thus trying to mislead the people.

After this, the film then quickie delves into the 9/11 attacks and tries to paint the picture that Bush did nothing to try to prevent it. It says Bush went on vacation, never met with his counter-terrorism czar, and in essence, was absent from his duty as commander-in-chief. The film then takes a turn here and tries to connect President Bush with the Saudis. Moore very cleverly utilizes music and quick snaps of photographs and film clips to make people believe that Bush and the Saudis are, figuratively speaking, in bed together.

He also brings on authors and other experts to testify to this and also to comment on the departure of many Saudis from the US after September 13th 2001. The film then dives into the purposes behind the Afghan war, which Moore says was to be simply for an oil pipeline. It support this claim, he strings together a collage of different facts and tries to make his theory acceptable. I have remembered, like many critics, that Moore will sometimes go to the extreme extent to create the appearance of conspiracy. He had done this In Bowling for Columbine, when he tried to connect Dick Clark with a welfare mother and a child shooting. From here, the movie takes a humorous sidetrack.

It has always been my opinion that the success of Moore's films is partially based on how he integrates humor with serious matters. However, after showing some of the ridiculous incidents that took place in consumer America after 9/11, he places attention onto the Iraq War. Iraq is a major part of the Moore movies, as it was apart of the America dialogue during the recent presidential election. Moore tries to paint Saddam Hussein's Iraq as a peaceful nation that had no ill intentions towards anyone, but that Bush wanted, for oil, to conquer it. Moore describes the failure of American intelligence as it came to the whole Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) issue. There were no WMDS and this, in the opinion of many, hurt the reasons why America went to war with Iraq.

Moore then delves back into the America homeland, with an examination of mothers and family members who have lost young ones in Iraq. Moore then weaves together news reports and shows the death toll rise from about a hundred dead to nearly a thousand. At this point in the film, Moore focuses on one family, the Lip combs and their personal story of how their son died in Iraq. He follows her around on how she describes the horrible condition she and her family have been living with and on how many people in the country are suffering from President Bush's economic polices. The movie concludes, not only with a few moment of personal empathy between Moore and the woman, but also with many of those who are registered into service. The movie's climax is when Moore reads a passage from George Orwell's 1984.

After I left the theater, it had been two hours since I arrived, I was amazed at the many techniques Moore had used to get his message across. I believed that the film was well made, but then another question came to my mind: was the film accurate. To no surprise to myself, I found out the movie was mostly one big distortion. It was no surprise to me, since I knew going in, Moore had it in for President Bush, as he does for many conservative politicians. The extent of the distortions, however was beyond what I thought was possible. In my research for this paper, I read some movie reviews, critical ones.

One that stands out most to me was David Kopel's review "56 Deceits in Fahrenheit 9/11". That review, along with other articles and investigations, led me to believe the entire movie was an outright lie and should not be considered a documentary. Consider for example the opening scenes about the 2000 election. Most of Moore's statements about it are either wrong or just rumors, which were made to discredit Bush's legitimacy. The film also fails to mention that a independent review by the New York Times, not exactly the country's conservative voice, along with other papers, said Bush would have won the presidency even if the Supreme Court had gone for Gore over Bush. There are so many distortions, but a few more stand out to mind.

When it came to the Saudis leaving the country after 9/11, Moore does not mention that Richard Clarke approved of the departures himself, and that the FBI had checked out any suspicious passengers before they were allowed to leave. Moore also distorted the Afghan war by making it solely about a pipeline that an oil company named Unocal proposed back in 1998. This project had been shelved since then. When it came to the Iraq section of the movie, Moore doesn't point out many of the suspected the terror connections Saddam Hussein had with Al Qaeda and with Palestinian terrorists (Kopel 10-15). Also, the numerous atrocities Saddam committed on his people and also to those around him were convien tially forgotten. The most despicable part of the film, is the montage of the Iraqis living normally under the Hussein regime.

What Moore doesn't show are the ways the Shiites, Kurds, and many others suffered day to day under Saddam's brutal rule. He shows children in his film having fun, but doesn't mention Saddam had a prison U.S. soldiers liberated which tortured children as young as five. What this film reminds me of is the propaganda films of the Nazis and the Communists, and how the distorted the world around them. This opinion of mine, however, is not shared by everyone.

The film itself has been seen by millions of people, and I believe there are possibly millions of different opinions about this movie. Among my friends I found it out to be true that those who supported Bush loved the movie, while those who support the President condemn the film as I have. Even through I voted for Kerry, I don't hate Bush, and it was interesting to me to see the extent of hatred that people have for Bush, that blinds them to many obvious truths about Moore. What Moore and his movie have is a cult following. When I went to see him on that Saturday night, I saw an extremely divided campus, which was reflective of an extremely divided nation. What Moore talked about and the arguments he presented, all seemed extremely weak.

They were mostly populist messages aimed at inciting the converted. They did nothing to make me want to support Kerry any more than I did, and I voted Republican for everything else. I walked away from that night with a feeling that Moore and his movie get it wrong. While an example of artistic creativity, the lack of truth made this "documentary", a work of fiction.

The 2004 election was a victory for Bush. While not a landslide, it was a comfortable victory. Moore's website became a scene of incredulous contempt for the American people. Many of the people who had been caught in the anti-Bush fervor were brought down to Earth, Moore's film is on it way to win an Oscar. While I voted for Kerry, I view that vote as a mistake.

The film itself is entertaining, but it's not what I believe, and I believe the Democratic Party, which gave Moore a seat of Honor at the convention, represents what I believe. I still watch the movie from time to time, but I don't consider it to be something to be taken seriously. Work Cited Kopel, David. "59 Deceits in Fahrenheit 9/11".

Independence Institute. 1 August 2004.10 November 2004.