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OPINION
Wednesday, June 30, 2004
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN—WEEKLY SUMMER EDITION
6
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STINSON'S VIEW
Zach Stinson/Kansan
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111 Stauffer-Flint
Film typical of Moore, not to be taken seriously
After only one weekend, Michael Moore's controversial film, Fahrenheit 9/11, has broken records and topped the $21 million gross of his last film, Bowling for Columbine.
The documentary, or rather mockumentary, in typical Moore fashion, is a pastiche of video clips, sound bites, pranks, gadfly-ism, tear-jerking, and egotism; a scrap-pile of political polemic with a clever, marketable soundtrack.
Americans should not only watch this film, they should enjoy it for what it is a stylized and meretricious rant from the loud mouth of the left wing's heavyweight entertainer — and take it no more seriously than a Rush Limbaugh talk show.
From the beginning, it is clear that the only purpose this film can serve is that of catharsis for a large (and lucrative) demographic of Bush-haters across the world.
perspective
Matt Gertken
mgerthen@kansan.com
From the beginning, it is clear that the only purpose this film can serve is that of catharsis for a large (and lucrative) demographic of Bush-haters across the world.
The frequent and lengthy clips of Bush's face, staring blankly (as usual), make up a considerable portion of the movie itself. This has much the same
And Moore does not hesitate to make the connection between Mr. Bush and Bin Laden explicit. Indeed, the oil-business relationship between the wealthy Bin Laden family in Saudi Arabia and the Bush family is one of Moore's central arguments.
effect on Moore's frothing audience as an Osama Bin Laden bull's eye does on your average National Rifle Association member at target practice.
This relationship ought to be probed and elucidated. But Moore's strategy is hyperactive and whimsical.
For example, in one scene he quotes a Saudi Arabian ambassador describing Osama Bin Laden as a "simple and quiet guy." Next scene, Moore hems, haws and repeats the phrase "simple and quiet guy" while showing President Bush with a quizzical face.
Is this bit of editorial chicanery to be taken as evidence? Furthermore, when Moore bothers to draw factual lines of
comparison between the Bushes and the Bin Ladens, his information is often vague and distorted.
In an interview with NBC's Matt Lauer, Moore said, "the art has to come before the politics."
This explains his aversion to objectivity, and to the complicated reality that America cannot be an isolated Big Friendly Giant.
As Quentin Tarantino said after presiding over the Cannes Film Festival jury that awarded Moore the Palme d'Or trophy, the movie has merit regardless of "all the politics crap."
It is a pill for the ignorant conservatives who want to keep ideas from being expressed freely. It is an orgy for trendy, self-congratulating, college-aged "dissenters." And it is a fiction that may sharpen political perceptions regardless of its showboating tactics.
Gertken is a Hutchinson senior in English.