<nettime> Burn, Baby Burn: Fahrenheit 9/11

[Randall Packer <rpacker@zakros.com>]

Burn, Baby Burn: Fahrenheit 9/11

Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 has descended upon us, a gripping portrait
of the Bush Kingdom that smokes with the flames of these apocalyptic
times. Moore documents how, since 9/11, even going back to the Florida
election scandal, George W. Bush & Co. has scorched our liberties, our
laws, our sensibilities, and our freedoms.

Bush is portrayed, without much effort, as a dangerous buffoon who sat
reading "My Pet Goat" for 7 minutes to a group of school children in
Florida, while hijacked planes were raining from the sky. The Bush Family
"oilgarchy" is shown to have deep business ties (collaborative!) with the
Saudi Royal Family as well as the Bin Laden Clan, throwing the latter's
post 9/11 getaway into suspect light. And Moore's account of the Iraq
fiasco centers around the ultra-patriotic Lila Lipscomb from Flint,
Michigan, who is shown sobbing in front of the White House after the news
of her son's death - raging against the Administration.

Fahrenheit 9/11 will surely come to be known as the Great War Film of the
era of the War on Terrorism. The film is one part satire, one part
tragedy, and 100% act of artistic mediation that attempts to unseat from
power the President and his Republican cronies. However accurate the film
may be, its purpose is to peel off the layers of lies and deception handed
down by our political leaders to reveal the true nature of their intent.
It also attempts to reveal the foolishness, sloppiness, and hypocrisy of
politicians on both sides of the isle: an appeal to Congressmen who
haven't read the Patriot Act is countered by reading it to them from
behind the wheel of an ice cream truck encircling the US Capitol; Moore
personally recruits Congressmen by asking them to sign up their own
children to join the Army if they really support the War in Iraq; and a
startling scene in the Senate Chamber at the opening of the film reveals
that not a single Senator supported a House-led petition to investigate
the Florida election scandal.

This is the film we have all been waiting for. Fahrenheit 9/11 is a
powerful catharsis that vents the anger spreading across the nation and
around the world at an Administration perilously on the brink of
self-destruction and global annihilation. Michael Moore is the hero of our
times, an artist who has expressed our collective horror.  Fahrenheit 9/11
is an artwork that reaches beyond the screen and attempts to bring the
possibilities of change into action, action that might translate into
votes.

Fahrenheit 9/11 demonstrates the power of art to reveal what is so obvious
to some, but remains elusive to most behind the veil of deception and
propaganda. Let's hope the film ignites Joe America and the rest of the
red-zone populace, inspiring them to shed the terrible illusion afflicted
upon them by Fox News and Rush Limbaugh, to exercise their one remaining,
untargeted freedom, the right to vote (even that is now suspect). Our 200
+ year experiment with democracy hangs by a thread, but with films such as
Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, hope remains.

Go see it if you haven't already.

Randall Packer



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