At last, the hype

Okay, so I finally broke down and took in F-9/11, Michael Moore's latest opus du jour. And, unless you've been trapped underneath a television running the Fox News Channel, you undoubtedly know what this is all about. From a strictly "documentary" perspective, though, it fell very short. Clearly, trying to organize a project of this magnitude -- and a constantly moving target (documenting "history" as it happens is a notoriously slippery object), created some problems. The most powerful moments came with footage hardly seen of wartime mutilation (horrifying to witness -- if this were broadcast consistently on television news, would we be able to sit through dinner and watch the evening news? Doubtful...) and most strongly with his Flint, MI, mother of a son in Iraq. These moments were the most eloquent and real and felt akin to the final act of Bowling for Columbine -- in fact, it seems like most of Moore's movies follow a similar coda, with the tilting toward a windmill in order to create some semblance of solace in the face of something simply awful (destruction of his hometown's economy, gun violence, the illegitimate reign of George II...). Yes, it does make one mad to be faced with all of the overwhelming (and already known) evidence that paints the current faux-administration as nothing more than history's most craven war profiteers, slaves to a petrochemical master ensconced in the middle east. Though, the link in F-9/11 is never made strongly enough or conclusively, possibly because that link is kept very, very well-guarded. The hearsay and conjecture surrounding it, though, would be almost enough to convict in front of a jury of peers. One might be hopeful that jury might show up this November. I'm skeptical, though quite certain that Teresa Heinz-Kerry (bless her, she'll give the wags at the conservative rags something to harp on for the next several months) summation of 4 more years of this (as "hell") is an understatement of the millenia. Hell will look like a vacation compared to another 4 years of endless fear tactics (that are arguably patently laughable) and slash and burn economic and environmental approaches to this country and the world.

Despite F-9/11's shortcomings, cinematically, it still managed to pull off some very moving moments. Though, it definitely was hamstrung a bit by Moore's tendency to caricature and beat over the head with a hammer his overall point. The most irritating, perhaps, was his returning to a certain shot of GWB looking perplexed in a Florida classroom on 9/11, covered by Moore's heavily sarcastic voiceover questioning what Bush might be thinking. I feel there must have been a more potent way to work this together coherently. And my hat is off to the researchers/archival producers who worked on the project -- they did an amazing job culling through the available footage (and securing the rights to it) to create an incredible portrait of one of the most disturbing periods in American history. I'm so glad that I get to say I lived through it. So far. The year isn't over yet.