Review of Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) by Dan M — 03 Sep 2011

Michael Moore's faux documentary is a leftist propaganda attack on the Bush administration's actions prior to and after 9/11. It begins with the fallout of the Bush/Gore election then proceeds to detail the supposed business connections between President Bush and Osama bin Laden over oil.

Moore includes documents to support his claim but doesn't connect the dots, then he goes off on other tangents to portray the effects of the Iraq war on civilians. As funny as it often is, the movie is too far reaching and the storytelling is slipshod.

Even if we may agree with many of Moore's politics, his self-aggrandizing approach to the material becomes offensive. Moore is not above shameful tactics like exploiting a mother's grief over her son, who was a soldier killed in Iraq, to make a political statement.

He also panders to liberals by making obvious points about wars being fought in the majority by minorities and the poor, then expects us to be surprised and outraged as if this were a new revelation. Moore has always presented himself as a populist but he frequently conveys a superior attitude towards the working class.

There was a lot of outrage from the Right over the movie and the controversy it created probably added to the movie's success. It became the highest grossing documentary in history and was awarded the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.