Fahrenheit 9/11

[selenak]

Fahrenheit 9/11 started in Germany last Thursday, and so yesterday I finally saw it, together with the Aged Parents. As there have been already hundreds of reviews, both pro and con, I’m going to concentrate on something which I don’t think has been pointed out yet so much.

Believe it or not, this movie actually awakens sympathy for Americans abroad. See, chances are that most people watching it in Europe are already convinced the Iraq War never was about weapons of mass destruction or liberating the Iraqi people, and they never thought of Bush as anything but a none-too bright walking, talking assembly of the worst assembly of anti-American clichés you could find. Also, the Bush dynasty being in bed with the Saudis isn’t news, either (nor unique to the Bush clan, or Republicans, or indeed Americans).

However, what people here aren’t widely aware of anymore are ordinary American people and the terrible circumstances they can be in. You get the high tech bombings of Baghdad in the news, you get the “embedded” stuff of patriotic pronouncements by soldiers, you get the ghastly Abu Ghraib pictures. What you don’t get is what Moore shows in his film – areas of unemployment looking every bit as poor and run down as the pre-war Baghdad footage he used, with the army being the only way out, soldiers in hospitals with missing limbs and twitchy faces who will never recover again, and, most poignantly, the families of dead soldiers. It has already been said but it bears repeating – the scenes with Lila Lipscomb, patriotic mother of a military family who never lets the flag she puts out touch the earth because it would be disrespectful, going from supporting the war to crying for her dead son and the futility of it all, are easily the most powerful and devastating of the movie. (More about her here.) They also form a kind of reply to an earlier scene where we see an Iraqi woman after a bombing crying with equal rage and despair, asking “why?” and calling on Allah. After the film was over, I listened to the people talking. One woman said “those poor people”, and she wasn’t referring only to the Iraquis. She meant the Americans as well. A lot of viewers remarked on the pity and sympathy they felt for the American people now, and how this was the other face of the US, as opposed to the one Bush and Rumsfeld showed.

Scattered additional thoughts:
- this is easily the most restrained of Moore’s movies, but it still could have used some snipping; the stunt with the Congressmen being asked to enlist their kids was superfluos, especially since the point about rich and poor was already made
- otoh, not using the familiar 9/11 footage of the planes crashing into the towers but instead going for audio only, with a black screen, and then footage of the stunned and grieving people in the streets was inspired and helped to counter any sensation of overexposure; it felt as horrible as when it happened.

Comments

[illmantrim.livejournal.com]

nice to hear the viewpoint of someone living outside the USA and with a mind and heart that one can understand. Thank you for giving us your view of this.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

You're most welcome. I've first visited the US when I was 14, and very often since (i.e. in the following 20 years), and these last years saw a lot of me trying to argue with my friends over here that they shouldn't fall for the trap of taking Bush as representative for the whole country.

[illmantrim.livejournal.com]

well thank you for that. There are a lot of us waging our own war trying to stop people like him from controling us and taking us down the qwrong roads...it isnt easy and people like him have most of the power, but as he commits more and more stupidities, our numbers grow...godwilling, it will be enough...

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I'm so crossing my fingers. I don't think I've ever been so emotionally invested in any American election before...

[altariel.livejournal.com]

the stunt with the Congressmen being asked to enlist their kids was superfluos, especially since the point about rich and poor was already made

This is one reason I haven't (yet) been to see this film: I don't like this kind of stunt, and it was perhaps the main reason I turned off Bowling for Columbine. I hate to feel manipulated, by a director or a writer - do you think I should skip this film and keep on just reading reviews and reactions to it?

[selenak.livejournal.com]

That depends. I mean, it's not like Moore ever makes a secret of his agenda, or pretends he's objective about Bush, so I don't feel manipulated, plus from the point of craftsmanship alone, it's worth watching. (Also, aside from the enlisting stunt and an earlier brief scene of reading the Patriot Act, he's hardly in the movie; he confines himself to narrating instead.) However, if you dislike open agendas altogether, I'd recommend Fogs of War instead, about which I wrote a couple of weeks ago.

It is a great deal more subtle, plus it does not comment - you just know Moore couldn't have resisted interpreting McNamara's close-ups.

[shezan.livejournal.com]

Fog of War is so utterly brilliant! You can see the mistakes and the hubris, and still understand McNamara and even like him many times.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Agreed. My favourite documentary of them all, and McNamara comes across as complex as the entire situation.

[shezan.livejournal.com]

what people here aren’t widely aware of anymore are ordinary American people

You realise that if you wrote this about any Third World country, you'd be called a racist in five seconds flat?

[selenak.livejournal.com]

No, why? (Aside from the public perception of Third World countries being rather the reverse - if you think of India, you don't think of the BJP higher-ups, you think of the poor, and if you think of African country X, you don't think of dictator Y but of dozens of photos of starving children.)

Incidentally, I was not talking of myself. Visiting the US on a regular basis and having friends in some of the poorer regions forms a quite different image than what is transported via the media (on both sides of the Atlantic). But you notice in conversation over here that many people tend to go for the media image.

[shezan.livejournal.com]

It's no better when you only think of starving Indians and forget the journalists, the playwrights, the political activists, the filmmakers, the computer wizards, etc... It's cliché replacing the complexities of reality, and used to buttress unthinking prejudice. I'm well-aware that European anti-American prejudice (I'm French) has reached fantastic, in every meaning of the word, proportions. I think we should fight this for many reasons, one of the most obvious being that we Europeans have a lot more values in common with Americans than with the nasty little dictatorships which spawn the current terrorist attacks.

[merkuria-lyn.livejournal.com]

Agree completely with you - but is pointing out that often people are not widely aware of the different society groups and tend to focus on one element (be it politicians, filmmakers or any other), neglecting what you rightly call the 'complexities of reality', not rather the opposite of racism? A pointing out of a prejudice that should be fought? I saw selenak's comment as her calling attention to the wrongness of that existing prejudice and the narrow-minded view that most countries tend to have of one another!

[shezan.livejournal.com]

Fair point, but it's the needto see that - surprise! Americans are human beings! Some of them are working-class! They have - gasp - mothers! which absolutely gets my goat.

Plus, being that ignorant (and again I'm talking about the general European public) means that one cliché is replaced by another. Moore's view of America is equally simplist & miserabilist; it's that things can never change & the poor will always be downtrodden which is a very 19th-century Marxist view. In fact the essential thing about America that Europeans never understand is how fantastically mobile and fluid the society is.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

We seem to make something of the same point. Precisely because this is so anything which shatters such prejudices and shows another side which people (on both sides) who tend to think in black and white are either unaware of or ignore is a step in the right direction, no?

[shezan.livejournal.com]

See above. They're two one-dimensional views. Sure, two views are better than one; but neither takes into account the dynamics and complexities of US society. And Moore's style encourages people to keep thinking in clichés.

[merkuria-lyn.livejournal.com]

Really? Why? I can't say that I see what is racist about that statement...

::is puzzled::

[shezan.livejournal.com]

See my answer to selenak above.

[merkuria-lyn.livejournal.com]

Interesting thoughts - thanks for the review.

I still haven't seen the film but am hoping to get round to it next week or so...

[selenak.livejournal.com]

You're very welcome!

[bubosquared.livejournal.com]

Also, the Bush dynasty being in bed with the Saudis isn’t news, either

Ew?

I haven't been to see the movie yet, and with everyone being rather strongly divided on the movie (love it or hate it, it seems), I didn't know that I should (if nothing else, more strong emotions are the last thing I need right now), but after reading this, I think I might. Or I'll wait for it to come out on DVD or tape.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Strong emotion is unavoidable when watching it, I'm afraid. I don't easily cry, but the raw agony of those grieving women (the Iraquis and the Americans) made me.

[bubosquared.livejournal.com]

Yeah, hence the avoidance until I can watch it somewhere privtae. :/

[artaxastra.livejournal.com]

I'm not understanding the comments about this post being racist or prejudiced. First of all, American isn't a race. As an American, I can safely say that we have many different racial, cultural, ethnic, and religious divisions that make it practically impossible to make any generalization that truly applies to all Americans. But I don't think you're doing that.

As I understand it, you're talking about the image of Americans in other parts of the world. Of course that's based on prejudice. We all prejudge things we know less about based on what we do know, sometimes with a negative, sometimes with a positive. We've seen a heartwarming movie about Australia, so we form the impression that Australians are wonderful, warm, generous people. We've seen six James Bond movies, and we've formed the impression that all Russians are idiots and couldn't screw in a light bulb.

The key is to realize what our prejudices are. All Australians aren't warm loving grandmothers. Some are. Many aren't. All Russians aren't bumbling idiots with bad accents. Some might be. Most aren't. I think it's worth noting if a movie challenges our preconceptions. And to say that it does isn't racist or prejudiced -- it's a mature observation of the human foible of overgeneralizing.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

As I understand it, you're talking about the image of Americans in other parts of the world.

Yes, and how this image is (arguably, of course, as always) challenged by this particular film. Ditto to everything else you said.

[par-avion.livejournal.com]

Thanks for your comments on the film.

Although LJ started primarily as a fandom thing for me, I've come to value the international and ex-pat POVs that pop up on my flist.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

You're very welcome, and the international aspect of lj world is a major treasure to me, too....

[artaxastra.livejournal.com]

I'm still trying to get used to it! Back in the old days (the early 80s) when I had Star Wars penfriends in Europe, it took three weeks to have a conversation. So strange to me to see people from all over the world weighing in on something in literally minutes!

*is amazed by technology*

[illmantrim.livejournal.com]

is also amazed, grew up as computers were being developed and saw the growth of this magic world wide web and wowsers!

the connections i make with people around the world make me a better man.

[cgallivan.livejournal.com]

I can link you to at least three sites that point out Moore's lies. Don't go to this movie thinking you'll see anything truthfull.

He is a liar. He edits heavily to prove his point. He is a liar. I can't say it enough.

I can't stand the fact that this guy was able to get away with this farce of a movie.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Oh, I've read both the anti-Moore article by Christopher Hitchens, and then the dissection of both Hitchens and Moore which so far was the most even take on the film and its issues I've seen here

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=5007548&postcount=73

and here:

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=5007553&postcount=74

Which isn't relevant to my main point in this post: this film creates sympathy for Americans (not named Bush and not in the current administration) when being abroad.

[neuralclone.livejournal.com]

It opened on Thursday in Australia too; I went to see it on Friday. I could hear people sobbing around me in the dark when they showed the scenes with Lila Lipscombe, and it was a very subdued audience who left afterwards.

(An aside - I hope this movie has some effect on Australian politics - John Howard our PM has got us in rather deep with the Bush administration, and I want people to see what he signed us up for. We're having a federal election later this year...)

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Crossing my fingers for your election here. And didn't Bush basically tell Australian voters to reelect Howard recently?