06.27.04
Movie Review: Fahrenheit 9/11

On November 1, 2000, I was in the process of moving from Rochester to New York City, and made a stop to visit my friend Matt in Scranton, PA. Al Gore was making a final whistle-stop in his campaign there, and Matt and I briefly discussed going down to his rally with “Vote Nader” bumper stickers plastered across our bare chests. Good times.

On November 7, Election Day, I was watching the returns at the 103rd Street AYH with a bunch of Eastern European college students who were trying to get me to explain what was happening.

The opening segment of Fahrenheit 9/11 takes you through the sequence of events leading up to Bush’s installation in the White House, and it reminded me of an old Wayne’s World skit on Saturday Night Live.

Wayne: Coup!

Garth: Coup d’etat!

Nothing can be said about Michael Moore’s movie that hasn’t been said already. He disposes with most of the Awful Truth-style stunts that he used in his earlier movies to get his point across, and it works. Nearly all of the footage is part of the public record. What Moore does do is provide a valuable service for the attention span-deprived American public by connecting the dots. Vaguely aware of the Bush family’s ties to Saudi oil money? Not sure how Dick Cheney and Halliburton figure into the “rebuilding” of Iraq? Heard rumors about John Ashcroft’s side job as a composer and performer of rousing patriotic hymns?

And the big picture is devastating. People walk out of the theater looking like they’ve been hit over the head with a sack of rocks. Which I mean in the best possible way.

My friend Matt, he of the politically-minded public nudity, joined the army after September 11th. He called me at about 2 am Sunday morning from Fort Bragg.

“Molly? This is Matt.”

“You sound kind of fucked up.”

“Yeah. I just got out of Fahrenheit 9/11…”

“Oh. Ohhhhhh….”