Nobody has the right to be pissed off by Michael Moore. If you've seen any of Moore's documentaries or his television series TV Nation and The Awful Truth you know his modus operandi: tongue-in-cheek hilarity and brutal imagery. First he makes light of the jokers behind corporate and right-wing America, then shocks your system with a sudden barrage of extreme poverty, violence, death and destruction.
Nothing in his new film, "Fahrenheit 9/11", Moore's all-around indictment of the Bush regime, the Iraq war and corporate America, is a drastic departure. Moore uses the same bait-and-switch technique to keep audiences on a roller coaster for the film's duration. From the opening sequence of assorted Bush gaffs and notoriously garbled turns of phrase, Moore plunges the audience into the horrors of the war in Iraq.
Moore's method is stunningly effective. I get the feeling that he is like a conductor behind the scenes, playing the audience like an emotional orchestra. His skills as an editor are unimpeachable as he splices together clips from Bush's public appearances, many of which were kept out of news footage. A montage of Bush on vacation set to "Vacation" by the Go-Go's is a perfect example of how Moore operates: funny, brilliantly edited and disturbing at a base level.
The biggest thing that seems to have changed since Moore's last film, 2002's "Bowling for Columbine", is a change for the better: less Michael Moore.
Moore always seems to come off as his own worst enemy. And given the number of people who want him burned at the stake, that's practically suicidal. Watching his manner on camera, in conversation with reporters and in debates makes me shiver. He frequently comes off as self-righteous, smug and condescending. His arsenal of meticulously researched facts only makes the whole thing more infuriating.
Wisely, Moore keeps his own on-camera appearances to a minimum in "Fahrenheit 9/11". He still pulls one of his trademark stunts, ambushing congressmen in the street by asking them to enlist their sons and daughters in the military, but it's a mere cameo compared to his screen time in his other films.
Not only is he annoying, but by putting himself in his own films he justifies criticism of his status as a documentarian. How many other documentarians spend that much time front-and-center in their own films?
Is he biased? Yes, and unabashedly so. No matter how skilled, artful and occasionally ingenious Moore's techniques are, he sometimes comes off as a propaganda artist. Which is not to say that he lies in order to make the Bush regime look bad. He just wields the razor blade with such precision that Bush's real character as a human winds up on the cutting room floor.
|
Moore has the dangerous ability to make caricatures of his subjects. Contrast that with fellow documentarian Errol Morris ("The Fog of War", "A Brief History of Time"), who lets his subjects talk and talk until they simply forget the camera is there. Moore is more interested in what Moore has to say than he is in his subjects. A man like Bush could make a potentially fascinating subject for a documentary. Instead Moore goes for the laugh.
The war footage, though, is worth the price of admission. Perhaps the most effective indictments of the war on Iraq and post-Sept. 11 politics, these images were never aired on American news networks. The sheer anguish and frustration of the Iraqis combined with footage of maimed children, Saudi executions and charred American corpses is enough to lend real weight to Vietnam comparisons.
Interviews with soldiers are sometimes enlightening and sometimes chilling. Some come off as bloodthirsty killers, others as disillusioned kids who simply want to go home.
Despite being the highest-grossing documentary of all time, I doubt "Fahrenheit 9/11" will be remembered as a classic of the genre. Moore's other films surely will.
He plays his short game, making an obviously polemical, if effective, attack on right wing politics and business. However, the film seems ironically too timely. It may be enough to carry liberal voters to the booths in November, but not enough to carry itself into the canon of great films. But I'm sure that's fine with Michael Moore.