The Michael Moore documentary the Walt Disney Co deemed too partisan to distribute offers few new revelations about the connections between President George W. Bush and prominent Saudi Arabian families, including that of Osama bin Laden.
But this film, Fahrenheit 9/11, contains stark images of civilian casualties and disillusioned soldiers from the Iraq war zone that have rarely, if ever, been shown on US television. And the muckraking craft evident in this nearly two-hour attack on Bush's tenure in the White House is likely to have a galvanizing effect among both conservatives and liberals should the film be widely distributed this summer.
A reporter for The New York Times was invited to a screening of the film last week. Fahrenheit 9/11 focuses on long-standing ties among the Bush family, its associates and prominent Saudis and on whether those ties clouded the president's judgment in recognizing warning signs before the Sept. 11 attacks and hampered his response afterward.
Moore extends his critique of the president to his conduct of the war in Iraq, arguing that the war is victimizing not only Iraqis but also the lower-income enlisted Americans who are fighting in it. In addition he attempts to make a case that the government's terrorism alerts at home are being used to repeal some civil liberties.
Hot potatos
These are the subjects that have made Fahrenheit 9/11 such a political hot potato. Icon Productions, Mel Gibson's company and the original primary investor in the film, backed out last spring, and Miramax Films, a Disney division run by Harvey and Bob Weinstein, stepped in.
Although Disney executives said they made clear last May that Disney would not allow Miramax to distribute the film, it was only recently that the Weinsteins became convinced they would not be able to budge their corporate masters. Two weeks ago Moore, who won an Oscar for his documentary Bowling for Columbine, went public to protest Disney's actions. "Some people may be afraid of this movie because of what it will show," he said at the time. (Last week Disney sold the movie to the Weinsteins, who can arrange for its distribution in North America, though not under the Miramax name.)
Republicans predict that many viewers will discount the film as an anti-Bush screed, and that it will ultimately have no effect on the election. Democrats say they hope it will feed what they describe as growing discontent in the US with Bush's Iraq policy and help the campaign of Senator John Kerry, his presumptive Democratic challenger.
Moore is confident it will sway votes against Bush, though he notes that the film, into which he also has tried to inject a good dose of humor, is likewise critical of Democrats for not posing any significant opposition to Bush after Sept. 11. Moore said he was considering making at least one sequence from the film available to the news media yesterday after he presents it at the Cannes film festival: that of American soldiers laughing and taking pictures as they place hoods over Iraqi detainees, with one of them touching a prisoner's genitals through a blanket.
Moore and his production team said they also believed the film would get attention for showing that a name excised from one of Bush's National Guard records was that of an investment counselor for one of bin Laden's brothers, Salem.
RSS