I’ll try to make this painless. I don’t think reviewing movies is my best schtick.
I woke up this morning with the hopes of packing some of the smaller items of my room into my Ford Focus and heading out to Alpharetta, Georgia to unload my possessions, temporarily, on my godmother. She wasn’t home.
No, wait. That’s not right.
I woke up this morning to the sound of a lawnmower engine making very quick passes by my window. It was 8:15. Star’s boyfriend was really making tracks on the lawn. Alas, this time he decided to keep his shirt on, and I was denied watching his sweaty, glistening, well-toned bod mulch that lawn into tiny tiny remnants. I pulled myself out of bed, began fixing up the coffee – got as far as the last step – turning on the machine – and went back to bed.
Two hours later I was up again. My alarm was going off. I decided to make something of the day – calling my godmother. No answer.
I logged on and read some feeds, checked the news, did my normal schtick. Then glanced at the time. 11:10. Farenheit’s first showing was on in 20 minutes.
Shower.
Glance in mirror. (Damn I’m hot.)
Theater.
First thing I notice when pulling in is the local NBC affiliate truck sitting right there smack dab in front of the doors. Damn, I forgot to shave! I’ve been featured in some local news clips before — I know all about the soundbytes — but this morning I was really thinking I didn’t have the star power the public demands. (No matter, they were waiting for the second showing anyhoo.)
Next thing I noticed was the diversity of the crowd at the ticket window. Well. Not really. It was mostly Black and White — but once in the movie theater — there were a lot of Grays and Baldies as well. I was happy to see those. Lately I’ve been thinking that perhaps my parental units’ friend Jim was on to something that was yet to be revealed to me when he said:
If you’re twenty and you’re a Republican – you have no heart – If you’re 40, and you’re a Democrat – you have no brain.
Or something to that effect. I guess I really shouldn’t put that in quotes – but – well – Buttwell — tee hee hee.
I’m in the theater and I notice the trailers haven’t started – so I head back out to get my breakfast. Popcorn and soda. Mmmmm… Unfortunately, some kids group is there, 20 or so, most likely to see Harry Potter – and the lines are exceptionally long. Understandable. I mean – it’s 11:30 on a Friday — who wants to see a movie? Well — a lotta people showed up.
I tend to judge a movie by how many times I get up to pee. (I have a really small bladder, and it’s a rarity that I make it through a movie these days without unleashing the beast.) I peed once during Farenheit.
Unfortunately, about 30 minutes into the movie I got fed up with seeing the bottom half of the screen getting cutoff because the frame was awry and rose to have a word with customer service. So I managed to leave my seat during this movie twice.
No matter. And I’ll tell you why.
If you don’t like Dubya, I mean really really don’t like Dubya — much like myself — then you won’t learn a lot from this movie. Most of it has been circled around the blogosphere for quite some time — and most of it still is. The information Moore puts into his film has a timeline that makes you wonder how recently the final cut was made – and how much of a rush there was to put it out there. And therein lies the problem.
This movie felt choppy (as does this review). Kottke wondered aloud what the movie would have been filmed like under different direction — and having read his comments earlier — I have to say the same thoughts were nagging on my mind. Moore still seems caught in the viewfinder for a television program. It’s good to let a little nervous laughter out — but the sequence of scenes and the gravity of the material really didn’t synch, or synch-out, as well as I would have liked it to. Perhaps that is why while I was at first laughing at Kottke’s pondering of how the movie would have been better had it been done in the style of Capturing the Friedman’s, I can now see his point (having seen the movie, duh.) Ebert has nuanced that there are pretty much two movies here. You could cut it with a butter knife the split is so evident. The problem is – in those two halves you have one half where Michael Moore finds it necessary to pull out his usual stunts of dropping in on the big guy…ambushing…bringing it on. The other half is a silent observation of the horror of war. I’ll address the second half first.
Many people, left and right alike are coming out to criticize one portion of the film in particular. Moore is making the bridge between 9/11 and the Bush’s alleged agenda for war with Iraq. In those scenes Moore displays snippets of Iraqi life one could easily associate with a Utopian society — a boy flying a kite, fine dining, women smiling as they walk through the streets. He then switches over to Bush declaring war (well, not really…military exercises) and a screen full of fiery bombings. The criticism has been that Moore shows a pre-war Iraq that pretty much all the experts have acknowledged is somewhat eschew from reality. I won’t argue with that. The mass graves are testimony enough.
Another criticism people are leveling is that the bombing footage he shows is footage of government buildings or the ministry of defense being shocked and awed into obliteration. Why? Well. What other footage is there? Precision bombing is precise on impact. A lens’ focus is on its operator’s focus. Who was behind those cameras? Think about it when you’re watching it. If you’re a cameraman – covering a war – expecting a bombing – where do you want to train your eye? Targets? Maybe? I would. From the safety of my hotel. Miles away. Would I hang with that kite flying kid in the slums that could, just maybe, be right next to these buildings? Time to call the cartographer.
Moore can easily repel this criticism. For in the following scenes there are pictures aplenty of dead babies. Yes. Dead babies. Men. Women. Loaded up into a truck to be taken…somewhere. Then there are the U.S. soldiers’ accounts of missles gone astray – and more pictures — and more Iraqi mourning. Not to mention the background of ruined buildings that are definitely not palaces or government offices.
There was one moment in the film that left an impact on me more than the others, just for bringing to the surface a level of ignorance so apparent in this country that perhaps just a teensy-weensie little more attention should be paid to. The mother of a soldier killed in combat sets off on a journey to the White House where she comes across a protestor (not sure on her story). They share a few words, the protestor stating that Dubya is the real terrorist. They are interrupted . I feel for that soccer mom who interrupted them. She has to feel stupid. She better feel stupid. She told that mother who had lost her child in Iraq to “blame Al Qaeda.” Now her ignorance is documented.
As for the first half…
I think Moore went into this project looking to make the connection between the Bush’s and the United State’s relationship with Saudi Arabia and then got slapped upside the head with a war that nobody could stop. Perhaps it began even earlier than that – with the robbing of the Presidency. It seems Moore was collecting an arsenal of material and just didn’t know what to do with it. But lo and behold, whilst one was stockpiling and another wasn’t, the muse was born.
I found the 9/11 scene to be amazing. We all remember the visions of that day. We recognize the sounds — we know what happened. The future generations will know what happened. And yet – it’s still just as frightening.
I’m losing my groove. I should say this before I pull my sheets up. I am curious to watch the other criticisms of the movie come out. I don’t think it really matters. This country is so partisan now that one person will see it and another will not. That’s what a uniter not a divider does for you. There is a lotta hype. Don’t believe it and you might actually enjoy the experience.
Maybe I’ll come back later with some more — but I’ve really got to get to bed now…