A RTS The Michigan Daily Tuesday, July 6, 2004 - 13
Michael Moore means well, but muddles his message

By Forest Casey
Daily Arts Writer
MOVIE REVIEW
When professional photographers cover a presi-
dential candidate or any other public official, they
usually leave the event with a
majority of unusable photo-
egraphs. The speaker may look Fahrenheit
awkward or simply be blink- 9/11
ing; these natural mistakes
make the photographs unus- At
able because the mainstream Michigan Theater
press won't publish photos of Lions Gate Films
people who aren't looking
their best.
What Michael Moore has done in his new film,
"Fahrenheit 9/11," is to mash several hours of this
same kind of embarrassing archival footage of
Bush Administration officials together to create,
depending on your political perspective, either a
new gospel or another liberal blasphemy.
Regardless of politics, the film itself is a
disheveled, unorganized mess. Despite verifica-
tions from attorneys that statements in the film
were fact-checked, Moore doesn't make his
assertions sound convincing. "Fahrenheit 9/11"
rattles loudly through jumbled facts to pseudo-
conclusions without even a semblance of a plot;
the eBay musical commercials on TV make
more sense than this movie. The cuts are so fast
Sand jumpy as to be headache-inducing, and
Moore presents an overwhelming barrage of
information which makes the audience yearn for

tive mother from Flint who loses her son in the
Iraqi conflict. Her experiences after his death
deserve the pity of the public - especially
when she actually doubles over with grief in
front of the White House - but Moore doesn't
use this footage to create any new connections
for the audience.
Yes, the war in Iraq is hell for both sides, but
is this really news? Is it really heroic of Moore
to champion this small-town soldier for his
"gift" to the rest of America when he has made a
practice of making fun of small-town Ameri-
cans? Earlier in the movie, he points out the sad
coincidence that U.S. soldiers like to listen to
"Let the Bodies Hit The Floor" when they are in
battle and lets his elite audience laugh at rural
America's fear of complex terrorist plots in their
backwoods towns. The resulting effect is a mes-
sage more muddled than ever, with no single
conclusion in sight.
Gone is the self-effacing humor that used to be a
hallmark of Moore's films. As a direct result, the
film is dour, unless, of course, you like to laugh at
people while they are blinking.
"Fahrenheit 9/11" is many things: loud, flashy
and rightly controversial, but it doesn't present a
clear, logical argument. Regardless of its cinematic
flaws, "9/11" has now grossed more in its opening
weekend than "Return of the Jedi." Moore
responds, "We'll make it up by producing 'Return
of the Texan to Crawford' in November."
If a movie can be somber and emotional,
illogical and loud and still change the course of
the election, then perhaps Michael Moore is on
to something.

Hey, wanna go grab a couple Big Macs? Yeah, me toc
some PowerPoint-style bullets.
With regard to politics, "9/11" is convincing,
if a bit overdone. Moore paints his subjects as
demonic and heartless. He takes a stand for
everything that Bush opposes, even painting Sad-
dam Hussain in a pleasant light and, with the
same stroke, portraying United States ally Saudi
Arabia as the next evil regime.
The film contains statistics, but it's a lot easi-
er for audiences to digest vague connections
than real evidence: Bush must be a terrorist
because the streets of Flint look a bit like the

streets of Baghdad. Saudi Arabians must be evil
because they are wealthy and have invested in
US banks - if they withdraw this money, bad
things could happen!
This sort of faulty, implied logic continues
for the rest of the movie, yet it is hurled at
audiences in such an overwhelming manner
that one feels uncomfortable questioning
Moore's ideas. And yet he finds it much easier
to present tearjerking anecdotal evidence than
to clarify these jumps in logic. The second half
of the movie focuses on a formerly-conserva-