‘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.