Fahrenheit 9/11

July 14, 2004

The Cornerhouse, Manchester
13 July 2004
1 Female Adult
Rating 9/10
Won’t rent, won’t buy

Fahrenheit 9/11, directed by Michael Moore, is an incredible achievement. In an era of robust and rising western neo-conservatism; battling against the flow of naive American patriotism; fighting against an American administration in collusion with, and almost ultimate power over, the media; and in the most litigious nation on earth where the courts have proven to be at the beck and call of the President, Fahrenheit 9/11 tells two stories: firstly, the personal and financial history behind the events of September 11th 2001, its immediate aftermath, and the invasion of Iraq; and secondly, the lives of the US soldiers and their families, and briefly of the Iraqis.

I was reasonably familiar with the background to all of the above, but to see the events played out on the screen is humbling. September 11th was unforeseen by all of us except a few in the US intelligence agencies. Afghanistan was perceived as an inevitable military counter strike (although the relationship between Afghanistan and oil is only really coming to light). Iraq was widely identified as unwarranted: not only did the justification for the war change several times in the lead-up to the invasion, not only was the intelligence with which the war was justified revealed as flawed before the invasion, but millions of people around the world marched in protest. Fahrenheit 9/11 probes the links between the Bush and Bin Laden families, and the financial relationship between the US and Saudi Arabia (the country from which most of the September 11th hijackers came). It shows the incredible pain of the families of the soldiers killed in Iraq. It shows how the American poor are targeted for recruitment by the US military. It shows the laziness, incompetence, complacency and naivety of the key Republican politicians. It reveals the way in which terrorism has been, and is being, used to cut through American civil liberties, creating an environment of fear where neighbour ‘snitches’ on neighbour for expressing anti-administration views, and where spies infiltrate peace organisations, just as we hear happened in oppressive regimes like the USSR and East Germany.

But Fahrenheit 9/11 is, in some ways, also a flawed documentary. Only the first third of the film has a cohesive narrative structure, the remainder feels like a montage of unpleasant scenes bolted together. Themes are developed and then left hanging. The only thing that draws the film together is the story of an American mother whose son was killed in Iraq. But these flaws do not detract from the film and may in fact aid it—the film feels much like a stream of consciousness novel: without structure or ordered narrative. More serious though are some glaring omissions from the film: when listing the members of the “Coalition of the Willing”, the United Kingdom is absent, leaving the film wide open to accusations of bias.

In terms of film-making, Moore’s previous film, “Bowling for Columbine”, is far superior. But despite the Fahrenheit 9/11’s apparent flaws, it is the most powerful documentary that I have ever seen, by virtue of the subject matter. If Bush is not re-elected in November 2004, this film will probably be remembered as one of the reasons.