WaPo's Richard Cohen on Fahrenheit 9/11:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ideas_opinions/story/207771p-179168c.html

Edit to add: just saw this clown on Hardball and got curious...


The movie is so bad it could help Bush

//snip

Moore's depiction of why Bush went to war is so silly and so incomprehensible that it is easily dismissed. As far as I can tell, it is a farrago of conspiracy theories. But nothing is said about multiple UN resolutions violated by Iraq or the depredations of Saddam Hussein.

In fact, prewar Iraq is depicted as some sort of Arab folk festival - lots of happy, smiling, indigenous people. Was there no footage of a Kurdish village that had been gassed? This is obscenity by omission.

The case against Bush need not and should not rest on guilt by association or half-baked conspiracy theories, which collapse at the first double take but reinforce the fervor of those already convinced.

//snip

protest too much.

but effective. I never took it at face value, but it did leave you with a bitter aftertaste, even if you did understand there were exaggerations and propaganda.

:shrug:

because he's a funny man. So maybe farce isn't the right word.

It wasn't a real documentary, it was done with irony. And I think the Iraq scenes were farce, done purposely.

It was not serious, old-time factually clear documentary. It is really a whole new genre.

There were no exagerations whatsoever in F911. Everything was legit. I know, because I remembered every single thing protrayed from when it actually happened. Strangest movie I ever saw. The first time I saw it, I was telling my wife what was going to happen next.

but the techniques Moore uses are not your usual Sir David Attenborough documentary techniques. The camera angles, jerky movements, quick screen changes...they are all exaggerated techniques. I am not looking at any facts right now to challenge any specific fact..that's been done ad nauseum. My point is that the move is kind of over the top as far as technique, presentation, etc.

but hey! I'm not criticizing him or the content! I'm trying to point out what makes the movie unique and how it just doesn't fit into a category..and much of the criticism OF the movie really was that he knocked folks off balance with his technique, which I happen to enjoy.

I think folks here on DU are perhaps a wee bit sensitive to even discussion this movie in a critical (as in review) manner.

It was a valuable movie and will remain a valuable artifact of our times, in my opinion.

"It's a silly case about nothing much."

Moore's depiction of why Bush went to war is so silly and so incomprehensible that it is easily dismissed. As far as I can tell, it is a farrago of conspiracy theories. But nothing is said about multiple UN resolutions violated by Iraq or the depredations of Saddam Hussein.

And what about the sanctions levied by the US which resulted in the death of Iraqi's? What about the billions dollars "unaccounted for" in Iraq by the US?

F9/11 came out last year? And this guy is still complaing? What, is he trying to cling on to his fifteen minutes of fame much?

just how "half baked" are they now, MF?! Go ask 65% of Americans.

a war which they also supported in their editorials. Cohen & Woodward - both of whom seemed like real journalists at one point - are now both tools of the Establishment.

is that if Bush nukes a blue state city in a fit of rage , they'd be warbling that nothing happened here, or that it was Micheal Moore's fault that he went over the edge, or that the city asked for it. There is no bottom to the stupid stuff that they will come up with to make republicans look good. No lie is too big for these people and it is pointless to try to make any sense out of them except that they lie and twist for the GOP. They are also paid obscenely well for their services too.

they may write to please the red state 'morans', but to live with them????!!!! Please

Cohen is a hack ... in 2000 he wrote that Gore's choice in clothes WAS a legit campaign issue ... this lazy idiot doesn't even help shape the BS 'conventional wisdom' but actually belives it

He actually knows something about film, unlike a wanker like Richard Cohen.