Friday, June 25, 2004

Fahrenheit 911

It's hard to put into words how deeply this movie moved me, but I will say it was the most meaningful political documentary I have ever seen.
Being in Texas, one might think F-911 would receive a tepid response on opening day, but the 1:10 p.m. matinee was sold out when I arrived 40 minutes early to buy tickets.
The cashier said the first screening had already sold out earlier in the week. So had the 7:10 screening tonight, but she did say she had a few tickets left for the 4:10 and the 10:10 screenings later today.
Anna and I were not to be discouraged.
We had met at the theater after braving a driving rainstorm, so strong it rained sideways, blew her umbrella inside out and downed several huge tree limbs on my block. We both got soaked to the skin trying to enter the mall.
Still, the showing was filled to 95 percent capacity, so we used some bogus tickets we bought for another movie to gain entry behind the velvet ropes, then we scampered to the ladies room, doubled back and snuck into the packed theater that was screening F-911.
From the opening scenes to the final credits, I fought back tears of sadness, outrage, fear and hatred. So did many seated around us.
I saw Michael Moore's last documentary, "Bowling for Columbine," and while I agreed with his premise, I must admit I found the movie too filled with cheap shots and easy setups, making for a sort of ham-handed, overly editorialized film I did not find particularly compelling.
This film, however, went light on Moore's trademark "gotcha" scenes and instead let the audience watch the film's antagonists do their own talking. The audience was left to draw their own conclusions.
The only gratuitously silly scene was Moore riding around the Capitol in an ice cream truck, reading the Patriot Act over a loudspeaker to members of Congress, who had apparently approved the Act before reading it.
For the millions of us who collect daily anecdotal evidence that condemns the Bush administration, this film offers a neat package of Bush and his administration's myriad acts of treachery, their cavalier attitudes and their outright filthy lies that don't border on treason- they are treason.
Moore uses facts, gleaned from documents, from speeches and from other irrefutable sources to indict Bush and his administration.
They have lied.
They do serve special interests that are not only un-American, they are the interests of foreign countries, like Saudi Arabia. Yes, Bush has favored Saudi Arabia over America in many cases, and this film offers proof.
It is illegal in this nation to call for a president's assassination. Though that sort of anarchistic statement probably should remain illegal in spite of the First Amendment, this movie might inspire many to do just that.
But let's not encourage anyone to kill Bush. Enough people have died because of him.
Let's just vote him out in a landslide, and let him be banished into the life of shame and disgrace he's brought upon himself.
If you disliked Bush before seeing this movie, you'll leave the theater hating him.
But hate is wasted on a person of such stupidity and worthlessness.
Please, see the movie, then channel your anger and hatred toward removing this malignant, malevolent administration.
Any American who still has a soul should see it as soon as possible. Even those who support the Bush administration should see it, so they can arm themselves against what will be an onslaught of demands for them to justify their support of this contemptible band of traitors.
I bought tickets for the 10:10 showing tonight.
Some of it was too intense to wrap my brain around the first time.
See it and tell us what you thought.

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