Michael Moore's film
should prove divisive

updated 2:24 p.m. ET June 25, 2004

LOS ANGELES - Michael Moore is not known for restraint, yet when it came to showing the Sept. 11 attacks in “Fahrenheit 9/11,” Moore opted for moderation: The screen fades to black and the audience hears the engine roar and explosions of the jets that crashed into the World Trade Center, and the screams of witnesses.

After more than a minute, the image fades back, showing anguished faces, followed by slow-motion footage of dust and debris drifting through lower Manhattan. The planes and trade center are never shown.

Moore had spoken with relatives of Sept. 11 victims and said one told him that with endless footage of the planes hitting the towers, “‘It’s so hard for us to keep watching our loved ones die over and over and over again.”’

People had viewed the disaster from every possible angle, so Moore figured he might confound expectations — and create a stronger impression — without pictures.

“I thought, I’ll bet you a lot of people would expect Michael Moore is really going to give it to us for whatever that is in the movie, the 9/11 part,” Moore said at the Cannes Film Festival, where “Fahrenheit 9/11” won the top honor. “So why don’t we just go the other way? And when’s the last time in a movie the screen goes black for a minute and 10 seconds?”

“Fahrenheit 9/11” hits theaters after a fierce debate unlike anything that’s greeted a documentary before. Much like Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ,” Moore’s film has polarized audiences, with the left-leaning anti-Bush crowd rushing to embrace it — the activist group MoveOn said at least 107,000 of its members have pledged to see “Fahrenheit 9/11” over opening weekend — and conservatives and Moore critics calling it a hatchet job.

Going after Bush

‘The reason why I believe I’ve had this very fortunate success in reaching a wider audience than anyone on the left gets to reach is because I actually put the entertainment and the art before the politics.’ — Michael Moore

Moore recaps the photo-finish 2000 presidential election, reiterating opponents’ gripes that Bush stole the election from Al Gore. The film then characterizes Bush as a slacker president more interested in his next vacation than national security when the Sept. 11 attacks came.

After examining Bush’s alleged financial ties to Saudi royals and the family of Osama bin Laden, Moore accuses the White House of using vague threats of future terrorism to win Americans’ support for the Iraq war.

Laced with Moore’s irreverent humor, “Fahrenheit 9/11” uses snippets from Bush’s clumsy speeches for some of its funniest moments. Moore also weaves in pop tunes for ironic laughs and pulls some amusing stunts, such as reading the Patriot Act through an ice cream truck’s loudspeaker outside Congress for lawmakers who supposedly voted on the bill without reading it.

“The reason why I believe I’ve had this very fortunate success in reaching a wider audience than anyone on the left gets to reach is because I actually put the entertainment and the art before the politics,” Moore said. “It’s very hard for someone on the professional left to put anything ahead of the politics, and that’s why they lose out.

“Because nobody wants to listen to that. Nobody wants to be around it. I don’t want to be around it. If you told me this movie, ‘Fahrenheit 9/11,’ it’s just an anti-Bush movie, I don’t know if I would go see it...Why would I waste two hours in the theater to learn that Bush is bad if I already feel that way?”

Could it become the most successful documentary ever?
The film debuts in at least 500 theaters, twice as many as Moore’s Academy Award-winning “Bowling for Columbine” played in at its widest. With so many theaters and so much audience interest, “Fahrenheit 9/11” seems likely to pass the $21.2 million domestic gross of “Bowling for Columbine,” a huge number for documentaries.

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The fury began just before the Cannes festival, when Moore began assailing Disney for refusing to let subsidiary Miramax release “Fahrenheit 9/11.” Disney boss Michael Eisner said the movie was too politically charged for the company.

Moore and Miramax founders Harvey and Bob Weinstein quickly sealed a deal to market and distribute “Fahrenheit 9/11” through a partnership with Lions Gate and IFC Films.

Moore’s critics are lined up with their complaints that the filmmaker distorts facts and lifts archival material out of context to make them fit his arguments.

“I see it as being dishonest and shifting things around to make a point or make a joke,” said Michael Wilson, director of the upcoming documentary “Michael Moore Hates America,” a disapproving look at Moore’s methods. “I see it as counterproductive to the bigger conversation.”

Moore receives similar criticism in David T. Hardy and Jason Clarke’s book “Michael Moore Is a Big Fat Stupid White Man,” published by Regan Books, which also released Moore’s best seller “Stupid White Men,” an assault on Bush and his associates. Hardy and Clarke’s book hits stores June 29.

Supporters of Moore say the filmmaker is a satirist with a unique and valid approach.

“We love being involved with a filmmaker who has a point of view, and we’re passionate about and love giving him a platform where he can get his personal vision out there,” said Jonathan Sehring, president of IFC Films. “Nowhere else in the world would a filmmaker be able to make a film like this. Most governments wouldn’t allow this.”

“His courage and humility shine through,” Harvey Weinstein said in an e-mailed response to questions from the AP. “He’s Will Rogers and Mark Twain rolled into one.”

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