The best way to see “Fahrenheit 9/11” is with the sound turned off.
Silence doesn’t slow Michael Moore’s stomp through the roughage of our political system. But native Moore-haters will be spared his smug and sarcastic narration of the tumult.
It doesn’t prevent this impertinent impresario of documentaries from deploying an impressive arsenal of movie-making devices. But in those moments of pure satire, the absence of theater noise allows shouts of “Yeah, baby” to careen off the reinforced walls.
Most importantly, silence forces me and you to watch the movie. Really watch the movie.
Without question, this is a cinematic op-ed from an angry oracle of left-wingism. He accuses the president of misrule and hurls him into a mosh pit packed with Moore’s selection of ne’er-do-wells.
His intent is to enrage viewers and hope they get engaged in the elections this fall; on his Web site he’ll tell you how to enlist in a political militia to unseat the president.
Knowing all that when I bought a ticket, I braced for the barrage.
Only, I knuckled under to the visuals, a powerful riptide of reality, nearly two hours of wave after wave of images from the last four years of our nation’s life.
These are defining moments for each of us as individuals and all of us as a superpower.
Mute Moore for an unimpeded view of the forget-me-not foliage of terrorism and democracy, war and peace, Afghanistan and Iraq. Turn off the sound for the full calculus of events used and abused as rhetorical fodder in our national political dialogue.
Starting with election night 2000, the film pauses dramatically for Sept. 11, 2001, then motors through Afghanistan into Iraq, a layover on the Everett-based USS Abraham Lincoln and a finish on the streets of Washington, D.C.
You see Al Gore and the U.S. Supreme Court, a triumphant President Bush and a gantlet of egg-throwing protesters through which his limo passed en route to his inauguration.
There are the faces of those in the lead – Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell, Rice and Ashcroft, a singing Ashcroft. There are the faces of those alongside them – a smiling Ken Lay and an ebullient Prince Bandar bin Sultan, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the U.S. And there are the faces of the fighting forces and their families.
There is a dash of shock – the burned and hanged corpses of Americans – and a dose of “ah-ha” – an al-Qaida leader welcomed to Washington, D.C., in early 2001.
The group-think of critics is that this film is propaganda to be ignored for playing too fast and too loose with facts. The group-think of fans is this documentary tells a long overdue truth about a president and his people.
Being a blind partisan defeats the whole purpose of being an adult, wrote conservative author and talk show host Tucker Carlson.
In other words, think for yourself. Draw your own conclusions.
See the movie. I’ll keep my mouth shut, but I’d like to know what you think.
Reporter Jerry Cornfield’s column on politics runs every Sunday. He can be heard at 7 a.m. Monday on the “Morning Show” on KSER (90.7 FM). He can be reached at 360-352-8623 or jcornfield@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
