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Review by: Graeme Kay | Rating:
Two
DVD SPECIAL FEATURES: Release of Fahrenheit 9/11. From
Iraq: The eve of the invasion, Outside Abu Ghraib Prison, Eyewitness
account form Samara. From Washington: Rose Garden press briefing,
Condoleeza Rice’s 9/11 testimony, Lila Lipscomb at the Washington
DC Premiere. Music: Soundtrack to War, System of a Down music
video 'Boom', John Ashcroft Sings; Additional footage: Homeland
security Miami style, Extended interview with Abdul Henderson,
Arab/American comedians, Kudos Youth Group, Career Gear featurette.
WAY, way back in the 1960s, when the Cold War was at its height,
Farncois Truffaut directed a film called Fahrenheit 451.
It was a film about a repressive society which banned and burned
all books and kept control of its citizens through the manipulation
of the media - mainly television.
In short, it was a vision of dystopian, pseudo-democratic society
controlled by a political elite whose only aim was to keep themselves
in power by keeping the general public in fear and ignorance.
From this we can see why Michael Moore's follow up to Bowling
To
Columbine has taken the title it has.
Because, once again, Moore, with the aid of countless talking
heads from all walks of American society, is putting the boot
into the un-elected president of the USA, George W Bush.
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On this occasion, Moore's main thrust
is to illustrate just how the
American establishment - i.e. the Bush family, and their various
friends and employees - manipulated the media and the public during
the year 2000 presidential election campaign (thus ensuring that
George Bush Jnr was shoed into the White House and that the men
who had previously run the country, Defense Secretary, Donald
Rumsfeld, et al, in the service of his good ol' dad could get
back to doing the same thing again while simultaneously lining
their pockets with (more) money gained from lucrative oil and
arms deals), and, in the months following the events of September
11, during which the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq were planned
and executed.
Thus, we hear (among many other things) how the Bush clan were
so close to the Saudi Arabia ambassador - the country from which
the majority of the 9/11 hijackers originated - that he was nicknamed
Banda Bush; how several members of arch-terrorist, Osama Bin Laden's
family (again close friends and business associates of the Bushes)
were secretly flown out of the States in the days following 9/11
without so much as a single question from the
US security services, and, at a time when every other single flight
in or
out of the USA was grounded; how the US press and the public were
constantly fed misinformation by the government in order to whip
up anti- Muslim, anti-terrorist hysteria that could then be used
to justify the invasions of two countries which had never so much
as lifted a finger directly against America, while Saudi Arabia,
which should have been top of the list, in terms of harbouring
Al-Quaeda members/fundraisers, was left alone.
How much any of this comes as a surprise to you depends on how
closely you follow world affairs, and how cynical you are about
the way politicians operate.
How much you enjoy it depends on how much you enjoy seeing despicable
air-heads, like Bush and his mendacious, greedy cronies squirm
in public, as their rotten secrets are exposed by Moore's tenacious
reporting.
Me? I thought it was great. So let's hear it for Mr Moore and
hope that the success of this film in the USA (where it reached
No 1 at the Box Office) ensures that George W Bush is ceremoniously
kicked out of the office he should never have
occupied in the first place.
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