Review of Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) by Kenneth H — 14 Apr 2010

This is probably Michael Moore's most controversial and inflammatory work, especially for conservatives. It's charged, incisive and indicting, and is thoroughly political: the main "star" is President George W. Bush, whose face is on the screen for 90 percent of the film. It's the most partisan, most biased and least objective and documentary-like of Moore's movies, which is probably why he submitted it for an Academy Award for Best Picture instead of for Best Documentary Feature.

Unfortunately, Moore, in his enthusiasm, tries to fire too many bullets at once, and the movie feels rather scattered, disorganized and incoherent. After a brilliant opening segment that looks into what happened in the 2000 presidential election, he gets bogged down in a lengthy and difficult-to-follow discussion of Bush's various business and political ties to wealthy Saudis, before getting his stride back when he starts talking about the Iraq war. The footage of the Iraq war is visceral, but for all the talk about how the war was based on lies, Moore doesn't do a very thorough job of debunking them.

I notice that a lot of the content here is recycled from Moore's 2003 book Dude, Where's My Country?