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Fahrenheit 9/11 Subhash K Jha

Movie Farenheit 9/11 Director Michael Moore Cast George Bush, Osama Bin Laden & a cast of thousands

By Subhash K Jha

Rating: ****1/2 �Do some real work,� George Bush shouts playfully at Michael Moore across a adulatory gauntlet of giggly supporters. Well, Moore seems to have paid closer attention to his President�s words than suggested by his tongue-in-shriek attitude in this scathing documentation of the alleged misdemeanours of the Bush administration after the 9/11 tragedy. Quite honestly Fahrenheit 9/11 makes Mr.Bush look like a cross between a buffoon and a villain. While on one hand we see him reading to kindergarten students while the twin towers were shot down (hence, buffoon), on the other hand we also get the singular privilege of watching Mr Bush fraternize financially the kith and kin of Mr Laden(ergo villain). But wait. Haven�t we �bin� here before? Didn�t Mr Bush repeatedly say he would like to �smoke out� bin Laden from his hideout? Hence the bombing of Afghanistan�.and Iraq? Then why were bin Laden�s Saudi Arabian relatives in the US allowed to leave the country within hours of the fall of the twin towers? What was the Bush administration thinking??? Hell, what was going on out there??!!This is a question that seems to haunt Michael Moore�s extraordinarily scathing, irreversibly damning deliciously sarcastic diatribe against the powers-that-be behind what�s ostensibly the most powerful democracy in the world. Cleverly Michael Moore looks at the Bush-fire from the average American�s point of view. He takes the camera to the lowest angles to shoot American politicians at crotch-level treachery. From there it�s down Capitol Hill all the way. Below the belt? Yup.That�s Michael Moore. He shamelessly sides with the common people to ask those uncomfortable questions from politicians which most of us like to sweep under the carpet�.or Bush, as it happens to be. Rising above the suicidal norm of self-hypnotic political ignorance Moore delivers a bludgeoning blow to the believers of a mock-democracy that seems to have crept into all allegedly contemporary societies. While launching what is for all practical purposes a frontal attack on Bush and his regime, Moore also delivers a global warning: ignore the sins of your chosen leaders at the cost of losing that very political ideal that gives you the right and privilege to vote them into power. Besides some truly outstanding footage of Bush caught on the wrong foot (watch him purse his lips and narrow his eyes right after the 9/11 as Moore�s ever-ironical voiceover comes on to say, �What�s he thinking?...Is he thinking, I trusted the wrong guys?).What really fuels this contemporary slice-of-life on a politics gone awry, is its outstanding level of connectivity with the audience. Moore isn�t afraid to get his feet into the muck. There�s a terrific interlude where we see army officials trying to round up young wastrels from small American towns to join the army. Right after that, microphone in hand Moore corners Congressmen to ask how many of them are willing to send their kids to Iraq. At times like this, the grim offers the comfort of the grin. Moore is a born crowd-seducer. He knows how to win the audiences� complete faith, and he uses his scathing satire to full advantage unleashing what can only be called a flurry of extremely pungent episodes that show the whole politics of war to be targeted at keeping the poor, poor and keeping the rich, rich. And the twain shall never meet�except in the next Michael Moore documentary�.Or the next Britney Spears concert. Yup, she too appears in Moore�s film to express confidence in Bush�s administration. Does she look misguided? Moore isn�t judging the onlookers.He just wants to damn the politicians. It isn�t often that a documentary gets to make its point as directly as Moore�s mirthful majestically moral fable of a regime on the brink of incoherency.He brings in footage from Hollywood films to show how unreal the politics of George Bush has become. Moore talks to mothers of 9/11 victims, follows them closely through their trail of sorrow and questioning of Bush�s policies and then quickly cuts to the Big Man at work and play (mostly the latter). The image that we get of Bush and his politics is also a representation of our worst fears about contemporary politics. Have we lost control of our destiny because of the leaders we choose for ourselves? Have we sold our national conscience to the highest bidder? These are questions that not only haunt the film and the American psyche, but also every right-thinking individual in the world trapped in one way or another, between Osama bin Laden and George Bush. However one question does loom large at the end of commodious and thoroughly provocative piece of pop-art. Isn�t Michael Moore also a part of the capitalist conspiracy that he so devilishly demolishes? Not only, Fahrenheit 9/11, but his other anti-establishment documentaries have also been immensely successful. So does the exploitation of the average tax-payer really stop? For now, stop all questions. Just go and see Michael Moore�s film. It�s one of the most important documents on the devaluation of human life and morals seen in contemporary times.