I saw the flick last night, and it’s disappointing. I knew going in what the limitations were going to be. I knew this was going to be an anti-Bush attack, geared toward getting him out of office, but I really hoped there would be more substance in this flick.
The opening sequence, a pre-amble about how the 2000 presidential election was stolen from Al and Joe, is laughable. Moore seems to be saying that Fox News bullied the other networks into giving Florida to Bush when they had already given it to Gore. Those racists at Fox caused the whole thing. Movies can never afford to waste time, and this movie wastes at least half of its screen time.
Moore’s film goes from this inauspicious beginning to an attack on Bush’s vacation habits after the election, but I’d be happy to pay the President 400k per year to play golf and stay out of DC. At least nothing would get done, which is, for the most part good. The 9/11 attacks are up next, which mercifully contain no video, only sound over a black screen. Moore then goes into an extremely bizarre conspiracy theory involving the Bushes, bin Ladens, Saudis, the Carlyle Group, Enron, the Caspian oil pipeline, and I guess just about everyone else in the world except Moore. Endless shots of the Bushes shaking hands with Saudis, as well as evidence of business connections are included in this gigantic waste of time. Moore believes everything that happens in the world is the result of evil rich white businessmen trying to enhance their ill-gotten fortunes. If you buy it, you may be able to tolerate this sequence. The incredible amount of screen time wasted on the conspiracy material finally gives way to some good stuff: the Patriot Act. The sequence is very good, funny and informative, especially John Conyers’ hilarious quote about who in Congress ever reads legislation before voting on it (nobody, that’s who). Moore focuses the entire film, up to this point, on attacking the private interests which supposedly control the Bush administration, but it’s a much greater issue than that. Bush is not the only politician in the US that’s for sale, this is a systemic and insoluble problem with the political process itself. Moore’s message is that we must elect a Democratic administration which cannot be bought, but Mike, there is no such thing.
Moore finally gets to the red meat with his examination of the Iraq war. The entire Iraq sequence is brilliantly effective, showing the destroyed Iraqi lives to Americans who perhaps do not understand that effect of war. The most effective scenes involve a family from Moore’s hometown, which he interviews at length. The sequence should be experienced on its own, so I won’t reveal anything about it.
Returning to the film’s purpose, which is to extricate Bush from office, I think the flick will hurt the effort. There are so many attacks on Bush, so many out-of-context scenes where Bush makes a fool of himself, that I actually found myself feeling sorry for him. Orally, he just isn’t FDR, but he’s no dummy, either. Focusing relentlessly on one man, Moore misses the larger picture, the perspective the film needed. There is no mention of where the phoney evidence the administration had against Hussein came from. There is no mention of the Office of Special Plans, or its head, Douglas Feith. No mention of the Defense Policy Board, headed at the time by Richard Perle. No mention of Paul Wolfowitz, who spends a few seconds onscreen combing his hair and grinning at the camera. We are left to think he’s a dolt, which is the farthest thing from the truth. No mention of the ideology of neoconservatism, no mention of Israel. Moore’s socialist ideology is partly responsible, but there’s more to it. Moore is gun-shy at attacking the War Party, because to do so, he would have to admit that it also has the Democrats by the balls. That would undermine the message Moore is sending in this flick, which is [i]vote for the Democrat.[/i] Moore has marketed this flick to the undecided voter, and as anti-Bush propaganda, it doesn’t work, but as anti-war propaganda, it does. I can’t help but think, since the Democrats have nominated the warmonger Kerry that it just doesn’t matter anymore.