Running Scared

Fahrenheit 9/11, Michael Moore's documentary about the state of the nation immediately before, during and after September 11th, is the Devil incarnate, we're all about to be told. Those who go to see it are people who would turn out to see Josef Goebbels convince you that Poland invaded the Third Reich. A group with the ludicrous title of Move America Forward is trying to stop the film from even being released, calling on supporters to flood movie theaters showing the film with negative mail and threatened boycotts. They claim on their website that "Fahrenheit 9/11 should be shown as a recruiting video for al-Qaeda, not in our movie theaters." Other right-wing pundits have called Moore "an enemy of the state," "a Minister of Propaganda," and worse.

In short, conservatives from coast to coast are frightened as hell, because they know they're sunk. Because, by all accounts, this isn't the standard Michael Moore movie. By and large, he stays out of it, rarely displaying the kind of hijinks that typified "The Awful Truth," "TV Nation" and earlier films. There's a segment where he reads the Patriot Act out of a megaphone in front of The Capitol, and one where he accosts Congresspeople and tries to recruit their sons to go into the Army. Sounds like about 6 minutes of screen time. The rest, based on reviews, particuarly Frank Rich's excellent piece for the New York Times, is a well-told summary of all that we've squandered as Americans in the close to three years since we had the sympathy of the globe. In the ensuing space, we've lost our morality, our honor, our compassion, our ability to lead the world. Moore lets the pictures tell the story, most of them pictures you would never see on American television, despite their relevance. From inside-the-front-lines shots of disgruntled Iraqi soldiers and abused Iraqi prisoners, to the heart-wrenching tale of a conservative family whose son dies in the war, leading them to grief and disillusionment, Moore's unsparing eye and unbelievable ability to unearth this footage allows you to forget that the man behind the lens is partisan. It belongs in the tradition of journalism with I.F. Stone, Upton Sinclair, and others who dared to show the world as it really was.

That's why conservative bitching about this movie will fail, in my opinion. Because there's no Michael Moore in there to bitch about. This will be the most profitable documentary in history (which is why I paid no attention to Moore's crying about not being able to find a distributor; that was merely a publicity stunt), and people will flock to make up their own minds. At least they will in 43 states; 7 states have no theaters currently showing the movie, including Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Mississippi, and the swing states of Nevada and West Virginia. You can go to f911tix.com to find out where it's playing.

Incidentally, Ray Bradbury's pissed because Moore never asked him if he could use a variation of "Fahrenheit 451" to title the film. I've always appreciated Moore's role as an American gadfly, but have often heard tales of his meanness toward his staff, intractability to dissenting opinions, and overriding interest in money. I think this latest film represents his turning the corner, in my mind, but we'll see. I'm happy to present a full portrait of things.