Fahrenheit 9/11

Check out what Bette Noir thougth of this film

The controversy over this film has been raging long before it got to the UK, and even before anyone in the US had seen it. Much of the debate centred on whether a polemical film could be called a 'documentary', though Moore hasn't claimed to have produced a work of independent journalism.

Moore opens his attack on the stolen election in which the governor of Florida (George Bush's brother), Republican judges and dodgy counting machines are used to ensure victory for GWB. With that out of the way, we are soon into the events of September 11 and the subsequent wars in Afghanstan and Iraq. Throughout the film, Bush is portrayed as a man out of his depth, a failure in every aspect of his life, controlled by sinister forces around him. That much we knew already...

Moore also runs over the complicated and confusing web of links between the Bush family, the oil and armaments industries and the Bin Ladens. All of this is on record already but if you were hoping for someone to pull all the pieces together into a consistent picture of corruption, you will be disappointed here - it will require another, more serious, investigation to replace the blurry impression of moral bankruptcy which we hold about Dubya's regime.

Where this movie excels is in showing the human cost of the war in Iraq. We see people pulling bits of their family members out of the wreckage of their Baghdad homes. Hyped-up teenage soldiers talk about the music they like to listen to while engaged in fighting. We see news footage of them raiding the homes of terrified Iraqis and then the backlash as charred corpses of coalition soldiers are dragged through the streets.

Central to the film is the story of a mother from Flint, Moore's home town, who lost a son in Iraq. Once a conservative who urged her children into the military, she is now a committed anti-war campaigner and critic of the American government. Her long-held truths were shattered by the death of her son, whose last letter to her expressed his frustration about being used in a war for oil. When she is criticised in the street by a supporter of the war, she breaks down. This makes for uncomfortable viewing as watching this on screen seems very intrusive.

There is a lot of humour in the film too. As with other Moore films, this is mostly created in the editing suite, with an ironic choice of music and careful clipped scenes to make the subjects appear ridiculous. Most poignant for me, however, was the attempt to get US senators to sign their children up to fight in Iraq, after showing us the army recruiters touring poor neighbourhoods to enlist more cannon fodder.

A worrying aspect of this film is that so much attention is given to the few hundred American lives lost compared to the tens of thousands of Iraqis and Afghans killed, not to mention those left homeless or destitute. This shows that the film is meant to be for America rather than about America, though perhaps justified by the fact that it is an attempt to influence the American public's choice in the forthcoming election. So, this is more of a rallying call than a documentary and here, as in America, it is probably preaching to the converted. If you support the war, you will no doubt have already discounted the arguments that this was a war for oil by a corrupt imperialist power. If you oppose the war, you won't be surprised by anything you see here.

This movie is poignant, very moving and above all necessary. Despite being disappointing for not knocking the last nail in George Bush's coffin, it certainly is a crowd-pleaser and earnt a round of applause from the Broadway audience.

Showing at the Broadway Cinema from 9 - 29 July 2004