‘Fahrenheit’ not too hot for public to handle
JIM ERWIN
Americans serving in the military, who generously offer their lives
so that all of us can be free, ask only one thing of us. Don’t put
them in harm’s way unless it is absolutely necessary.
That’s the controversial message of Michael Moore’s newest film,
“Fahrenheit 9/11.” It’s a movie that makes you feel proud of everyone
serving in Iraq, regardless of any feelings you have for the war. It
also makes you want to protect the faith and trust our troops put in
us, while condemning those who frivolously squander the gift of
service offered by our finest citizens.
Moore’s documentaries have a point of view. “Fahrenheit 9/11” is a
discussion about why President Bush and his advisors rushed America
into an invasion of Iraq, and who is making the most money from the
war. It’s also an indictment of the U.S. news media, who fell asleep
at the wheel and didn’t report a lot of what has transpired over the
last four years. This movie has been misquoted so widely in the media
that the only way to really know what it says is to see it yourself.
Moore feels that the war in Iraq was unnecessary and had much more
to do with oil money than protecting the U.S. from terrorists. What
makes his argument especially powerful is that he allows others to
state his case for him, including a senior agent on the joint FBI-CIA
Al Qaeda task force, U.S. law enforcement officials, members of
Congress, testimony given to the 9/11 commission and especially
comments directly from George W. Bush.
A scene particularly damning of the President as a leader shows
him on the morning of the Sept. 11 attacks. Despite the news that a
jet has just struck one of the World Trade Center towers, Bush
decides to continue with a scheduled photo-op at the Emma E. Booker
Elementary School in Sarasota, Fla. We see the president sitting in
the classroom next to a sign that says, “Reading Makes A Country
Great,” when an aide walks in and informs him that the nation is
under attack. A second plane has struck the twin towers. You’d think
this would make the President calmly get out of his chair and leave
the classroom immediately. He didn’t. For about seven minutes, he
stayed in his chair silently reading the book “My Pet Goat” along
with the students. Eventually his aides prompt him to leave. This
would be funny if the circumstances and situation weren’t so tragic.
It makes me wonder about a children’s book that was too enthralling
for the president to put down when his people were jumping from the
windows of what was one of the world’s tallest buildings.
Despite claims by the extreme political right wing, Moore’s case
connecting the Bush family, the Bin Laden family, and the Saudi
royals, is strong. What may be news to some people is the role played
by a man named James R. Bath.
Moore shows that both Bush and his friend Bath were no-shows for
their Texas Air Guard physicals. Bath’s name is blacked out of the
version of Bush’s military records released by the White House in
2004, but Moore had already obtained an uncensored version four years
earlier.
Bath became the financial representative for four of the Saudi oil
families, including the Bin Ladens. He invested their money in the
U.S. under his own name. One of the companies Bath funded with Saudi
money was the President’s disastrous company Arbusto, which seemed to
specialize in drilling dry oil wells. Moore asks the question, why
would the Saudis invest in dry oil wells halfway around the world? In
an interview in 1992, George W. Bush bragged that money buys access
and he has instant access to his dad, then-President George H.W.
Bush.
While filming in Washington D.C., Moore learns first hand that the
U.S. Secret Service is assigned to protect the Saudi embassy. The
Saudi ambassador, Prince Bandar, is lovingly referred to by the Bush
family as “Bandar Bush.”
Moore reminds us that 15 of the 19 hijackers involved on Sept. 11
were from Saudi Arabia -- they were led by a Saudi terrorist, and
funded with Saudi money. To stop investigations of the connections
between Saudi citizens and the Sept. 11 attacks, the Saudi government
hired the law firm of former Secretary of State James Baker, a friend
of the Bush family.
Most curious is why none of the Bin Laden family were asked to
make official statements for the FBI. People have been detained at
airports for looking Arab, but none of the Bin Ladens were ever asked
to go on official record. This is despite some of them having spoken
to Osama Bin Laden at a wedding about a year earlier. Two days after
the trade center attacks, and a day before most Americans could fly,
the Bin Ladens were allowed to leave America on flights chartered by
the Saudi Arabian government.
To show the human side of the war, Moore uses footage obtained by
embedded cameras in Iraq, talks to men and women serving in Iraq, and
talks to wounded veterans of the Iraqi war who are recovering in a
Veteran’s Affairs hospital. In the voice over, Moore mentions Bush’s
plans to massively cut V.A. funding, as well as cut military pay by
more than 30% and military dependent benefits by more than 60%.
Thankfully, Moore doesn’t force the soldiers who are already in agony
to confront the president’s stand on these issues.
When Moore introduces us to Lila Lipscomb, she’s working for the
unemployment office in Flint, Mich., Moore’s depressed home town. Her
job is to help people find work and she says the best employment
alternative in Flint is joining the military. She even convinced both
of her children to join. The movie doesn’t mention that you can buy a
three bedroom house in Flint for less than $10,000, but it does have
residents musing that parts of Flint look like bombed out sections of
Baghdad. Lipscomb is a self-described conservative Democrat. She is a
proud American who hangs the flag in front of her house every
morning, being careful to never let it touch the ground. She believes
the flag is sacred, and symbolic of all of those who have shed their
blood in the name of keeping America free.
During the filming of “Fahrenheit 9/11,” Lipscomb’s son is killed
outside of Baghdad when a Blackhawk helicopter is shot down. No
parent ever wants to bury a child and so we all feel her grief. What
we would never expect is the way she is treated by a Bush supporter
while visiting Washington D.C. In what is probably the movie’s most
poignant moment, a woman accuses Lipscomb of being a fake and doesn’t
relent until Lipscomb tells the date and location of her son’s death
in Iraq. The woman never apologizes or offers any condolences. The
incident causes Lipscomb to double over and completely break down as
she walks toward the White House. A lot has been made about the
graphic war footage Moore uses in “Fahrenheit 9/11,” but Lipscomb’s
agony after being abused by a right-wing bully is what will tear your
guts out. This is when I heard people in the theater sobbing.
Lipscomb encouraged her children, and many other people, to join
the military because it is an honorable thing to do. In her case, the
military could provide her children with things she’d never haven
been able to afford for them, including a chance to go to college.
Moore’s point here is that those among us who are the poorest are
often the first to enlist and do so proudly as a service to all of
us. However, you won’t find any members of the Bush family enlisting,
or any children of U.S. Senators. In fact, only one member of
Congress has a son in the armed forces.
In one of the funniest scenes of “Fahrenheit 9/11,” Moore decides
to go to the streets of the Capitol and confront members of Congress,
asking them whether they’d be willing to show their support for the
war in Iraq by persuading their children to enlist in the military.
The reactions he gets range from wild eyed, you-want-me-to-do-what
looks to Congressional officials fleeing from him in fear. Say what
you want about Michael Moore, but it makes you proud to be an
American when an ordinary citizen with a camera can make Washington’s
elite clam up and run in fear.
What may surprise some people is that Moore is also no fan of the
Democrats. When discussing the Patriot Act with Moore, Congressman
John Conyers (D -- Mich.) explains in condescending fashion that he
didn’t read the bill before voting on it because members of Congress
are far too busy to read every bill that comes up for a vote. This
movie definitely shows that neither political party has a monopoly on
stupidity. It’s kind of scary having people like this make the
decisions that control our future.
Moore decides that because most of Congress didn’t bother to
actually read the Patriot Act, he should probably read it to them. He
rents an ice cream truck and rides around the Capitol reading the
bill over the truck’s loudspeaker, allowing the truck’s seductively
twinkly ice cream music to play as he reads. This scene is a little
over the top, but that’s Moore’s sense of humor and he’s a funny guy.
My only complaint with “Fahrenheit 9/11” is the movie feels a
little long. Moore hammers you with detail after detail and there’s a
lot of information to absorb in just two hours. It’s obvious that for
Moore, the challenge was how to keep this movie from running 20
hours. The Bush Presidency has certainly provided him with plenty of
material and there is no way he could discuss all of the secret
meetings to award secret war contracts, secret meetings with energy
conglomerates to create secret policies, or inappropriate leaks and
statements about White House enemies.
I recognize that here in Huntington Beach, where the City
Government channel once featured a diversity discussion using a panel
made exclusively of white males, it may be difficult to persuade the
overwhelming majority Republican population to see this movie. Most
of the people I’ve talked to while waiting in line at the post office
and at Ralph’s have prejudged this movie without seeing it. Basing
their opinions on Michael Moore’s Oscar speech, and what they know
about other Michael Moore movies that they’ve never actually seen. A
lot of people have told me they already know what they need to know
about this movie.
If that’s how you feel, you’re wrong. You need to see “Fahrenheit
9/11.” You may not like Moore personally, but you won’t know what
this movie really says unless you see it for yourself. It’s sort of
like the old axiom about how only people who vote can complain about
government. You can’t say you hate Michael Moore movies unless you
actually see one, and then you’ll probably be surprised that you
don’t hate it. This movie’s message, to support our troops and honor
the gift of freedom they freely give all of us, is very patriotic and
very pro-America. You’ll walk away feeling that the least we can do
in return is protect our troops from war profiteers who have no
qualms about shedding blood to increase the value of their stock
options.
* JIM ERWIN is a technical writer and computer trainer.
‘Two Brothers’ is an artistic throwback
From opening to closing credits, Jean-Jacques Annaud (“The Bear”)
has created a beautifully rendered film suitable for the entire
family.
Set in the early 20th century, “Two Brothers” is the story of twin
tiger cubs -- one docile and clumsy, the other brave and adventurous
-- who are born among the stone heads of Cambodian sculptures
forgotten in an old world of caves and flora. When a revered writer
and hunter, played by Guy Pearce (“Memento,” “L.A. Confidential”),
comes to gather artifacts for profit, his meddling in the affairs of
nature cause the brothers to become separated.
The adventurous brother is sold off to a circus, where captivity
and neglect steal away his spirit. The docile, but oversized kitten
becomes the beloved companion for a rich politician’s lonely, young
son until an incident prompts the family to give him away to a
gluttonous aristocrat who chooses to abuse the tiger and harden him
to kill for sport. When both tigers are fully grown, the brothers
find themselves reunited as they must face one another before a crowd
of bloodthirsty spectators who expect these two “man-killers” to
fight to the death.
The screenplay with minimal dialogue was written by Annaud and
Alain Godard (“The Name of the Rose,” “Enemy At the Gates”) from an
original story by Annaud.
Annaud uses vibrant colors and pays wonderful attention to detail,
which allows viewers to absorb the experience of this film as they
would a sunny day. The film radiates intelligence while not being
judgmental. Should these tigers be killed since they pose a danger to
man, or should mankind simply keep a greater distance? Should works
of art be left to rot out of view in the wilderness they were
designed for, or taken away by profiteers and displayed?
The audience gets to weigh these questions and more while
following the dramatic story of these two expressive cats. Annaud
reminds us that before CGI became the go-to shortcut for today’s
filmmakers, there were other methods for creating remarkable effects
in film. In this film, the special effects are provided by the animal
trainers, who illicit remarkable emotion and depth from actual
tigers. This is not Scooby Doo or Garfield; these are actual animals
that don’t talk through obnoxious voice-overs, but through mood and
sensitivity.
I found myself wondering how much of the film was scripted and how
much grew as an organic process of combining set pieces and
circumstances. A humorous scene illustrates this: One tiger is held
captive in a crate within a vehicle while another vehicle pulls up
behind it carrying ducks and geese tied up by their feet as game.
Each time the vehicle carrying the tiger would come to a halt, the
other vehicle would also stop and the momentum of that action would
cause one of the duck’s quacking heads to pop through a hole and into
the baby tiger’s crate. The kitty stared back with a bewildered and
stunned glare.
Scenes like this staggered me. Though they sound simplistic, they
required either a great deal of imagination or recognition and
inspired vision by the director/writer.
The end of the story reflects themes of faith and trust, as the
boy and the man who have forged a bond with each of these cats must
decide their fate. Having faith in something is always a gamble, but
this film shows how gambling with faith can sometimes result in
higher dividends.
In a movie environment currently saturated by documentaries and
flashy films, I highly recommend this movie as it will give your mind
and your soul a little break from hype and spectacle.
* RAY BUFFER is a professional singer, actor and voice-over
artist.
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