We went and saw "Fahrenheit 9/11" yesterday afternoon. The theater was sold out, and in front for a while was a group of elderly women (they had a name like The Rapping Grannies, or something like that) singing songs to thank the theater for showing it (at first we thought it was an anti-F911 protest, as unlikely as that would be in Mountain View.) While I didn't agree with everything Michael Moore had to say or how he said it, it was an interesting film that I recommend.
I'd like to own it on DVD, although I'm not sure I could sit through an entire showing again. Just as the media and government puts a spin on stories, Moore does the same thing, and he's pretty good at it. There was at least one section that I would want to re-watch just to figure out the phrases he used. As I remember it, Moore apparently interchanged the phrases "the Saudis" with "the Saudi royal family" and "the Saudi government" which makes for some confusing statements. For example, he said "the Saudis" own 7% of the United States (my words, I don't remember the exact percentage, or precisely what it is they own here.) But did he mean the government, the royal family, or "the Saudis" (which I take to mean people from Saudi Arabia in general, businessmen and government alike)? Is it all that uncommon for foreigners to own bits of another country? How much of the rest of the world do "the Americans" own? Now, I could be remembering this completely wrong (that's why I want it on video), but it seemed like he played with words to make us think something other than what is reality.
The movie provoked a lot of discussion, on everything from if it was right of President Bush to be sitting in a classroom while planes were crashing into buildings to whether the movie should have been rated PG13 or R. To paraphrase what someone in our crowd said, it doesn't matter what side you're on, you're going to be mad when you leave the theater. Go see it.
Posted by Jen at June 27, 2004 09:02 AM