I'm a fan of micheal moore but I liked him alot more before he got so famous. His earlier documentaries were some what unrefined but it gave them some raw character. I havent seen farenheit 9/11 but I'm curious as to what other people though of it.

Great, great stuff. Unlike Columbine, he actually makes an argument and doesn't shy away from actually saying something concrete. There are a few jumps and holes in his case, but it is altogether more well thought out and presented than I expected. I had some ethical issues with the sound design in a few places, but it is nothing most people would notice or mind. And he's on camera alot less than in earlier films, and he lets his footage speak for itself more. Altogether a great work.

Will

I am going to see this movie today and I am intrestes to see what he dishes out. I thought columbine was huge misrepusentation. Maybe he will back up his facts a little bit more this time. But with out a doubt he is hilarious and in the way he presents things.

I loved this movie. i cried a good bit, just because of the war footage. I think it was fabulous, though. Really well put together. but i was on his side beforehand anyway.

I was able to see this movie in Hollywood yesterday with a bunch of film industry interns. After the movie was over, we all were pretty much speechless. It made me almost insanely depressed. One of the guys thought that the structure of the movie was lacking and a bit jumbled, but I think it's the message of the movie that is more important. Sure there are holes, but how in the hell he was able to get access to the information he obtained, is amazing to me. It made me question the line between what is entertainment vs. what is factual information. And how we, as the public are supposed to sift through everything that is thrown at us (or just accept the 6 o'clock news) to search out the truth. Maybe I've been thinking too deeply on it, and too much, but I really dont trust any information anymore. It's all biased in some way or another. Critics of the movie will definitly claim that it is a biased-left-wing-extremist point of view, and maybe it is. But maybe it's not?

In short, great movie... really made me think alot more than any movie I've seen in awhile.

I haven't seen it yet, but I find michael moore very entertaining. He's a sharp one, just a bit manipulative for me.

It's been ages since I watched the news, I havent put much stock in anything from any news network.I used to catch bits on the local news about some third grade teacher who had her class do somthing nice for the community, or the elderly couple confounded as to how a muskrat got loged in one of their above ground pool "cleanin tubes." I'm sure "some" would agree with me when I say, "this hardly qualifies as news". But now that I live in NYC I dont even have to watch the news, i see it on peoples faces. If I do happen to catch even a few seconds on say, a cabbie's radio, it's always Bush did this blah blah blah, Iraq that blah. And even if its not that it's somthing else thats no fun to hear, shootings, beatings, hearsay about shit politcal moves that are going to change the way me or someone else lives i.e. not being able to smoke in bars. But I feel I am much better off avoiding the news at all costs, I mean some people hang on every word the news folk say and they are all having this constant freak out in the back of their heads that totally shows up in their everyday lives.
I'll tell you a story of mine that happened just the other night:
I work on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, this area of town is fairly wealthy, and ridiculously safe even when compared to the Disneyland they have turned Times Sq. into. I had a closing shift this particular night and was more than slightly annoyed that as we were closing customers kept comin right on in. We recently had a large staff turnover and our new general mgr. is a rather "soft" man fresh picked from Brazil. He speaks less english than our bus-boy Javier. He speaks the english decent enough at least, his words are intelligible. But his sentences dont quite add up. As my torturous and unrelenting evening begins to wind down, everyone splits, dumping the uphill battle of shoo-ing the customers out in my most polite manner(all I can say is, its a damn good thing I'm southern). Leaving Myself Brazil boy and the very girly girl hostess. . . Oh, and Javier of course, with the last of the patrons who just wont take a fucking hint. Our sweet hostess, being detained at work only by the free boozy-drink she scored of one of the leftover alkies, finally decides to make her exit, when to her dismay she is unable to push the door open. I know what your thinking and no, It wasnt a pull. There happend to be a large non-descript heavy box blocking the door. Immediatly she was fearing for her life, she still managed to trot gracefully back to where Myself and Brazil's Finest Export were in a slowly simmering debate of simple common sense. We were made aware of the situation, and I made light of it, and my humor was totally wasted and unappreciated by them. This further annoyed me and I stared our helpless and ineffectual manager in his dopey, vacuous face and said " Well Boss, this is quite a situation we've got here, do you want to check it out for yourself or should I go ahead and dial 911?" He seemed not to hear me, which is the norm. " Jimbo. . . Jimmy, James!" he finally moved some muscles in his face. " I . . tink. . .I'n gointa take a loook, for mysef." Some of the leftovers got wind of the commotion, and those who weren't good and sloshed began to ease into panic one by one. Turning white and whispering were a few reactions among the sober, but nobody wanted to be the first to freak out. Jimbo, crept up on the front door, keeping his dumb stare fixed on the package through the glass. Eventually he tried to open the door and found that in actuality there was a largish heavy box blocking the way of the door. Our #1 in command, Captian James, master of the obvious, slowly walked back to us to reveal his findings. "Ha-veer, wud you mine move that box from doutside?" Javier just looked at him, much like a puppy looks at a person trying to get it to fill out their tax forms. "Wull I jusdunno what. . to do, who shud I call?." I was as visibly iritated as I get, which means that inside I had all the stupid and naive people in the world lined up and was shooting their kneecaps and genetalia in no particular order (so they wouldnt breed any longer and that they would feel pain similar to the one they put in my head) one person at a time, starting with everyone in that room(except Javier, who just didn't want to move the box because he didn't feel like it, and I can respect that). "Jesus f-ing C! " I bellowed, to my own astonishment cos' I dont say that. "Am I the only usefull human being that works here!" This is especially funny because I am terrible at my job and its no secret. After another short staring contest I wheeled around still talking loudly about how ridiculous it was to be afraid of a damn box that was dropped off at a place of business. I pushed an open space in the door till I could fit out, whipped out my trusty pocket-knife (I wasn't a boy scout or anything I just happen to know a few well enough for the whole "be prepared" thing to rub off), cut open the box and lo! there were girlie mags pilled to the brim. Not quite a skin mag, but you know, hot mostly nude girls in suggestive poses. Naturally I went from angry dwarf to hardly being able to contain myself as I pressed the covergirl up to the window with satisfied sarcasm. Turns out the box was a promotional one and our establishment had agreed just earlier that evening to make free copies available.
All that said, I'm becoming of the opinion that it may be more damaging for your health to watch the news then to, say smoke cigs, or eat right before you go swimming.
Hope someone was entertained by my silly story, I know it's a bit long and possibly in the wrong thread, especially since I haven't seen the movie, but shit like this really makes me sad. I had to get it off my perfectly bow-flex sculpted chest.

Farenheit 9/11 was certainly a sad and funny movie. I did know a lot of that stuff already, but I did learn a lot of new stuff as well. Micheal Moore did appear a lot less in the movie, and he put a lot more facts in there, instead of him trying to prove everything without document. That footage he got of the war was just insane and very hard to watch. But I really liked farenheit 9/11 it was woth seeing.

Remember "TV Nation"? I used to watch that show with my parents all the time when I was in high school. My favorite episode was when he had people with throat/lung cancer that had had their voice boxes removed come sing Christmas carols in the the lobbies of Phillip Morris and R.J. Reynolds.

yeah, that is available on DVD if you want to check it out again.

The library in Murfreesboro (shameless employer plug) has a few volumes of TV Nation and The Awful Truth on VHS. That is if I don't have them checked out still.

if the damn movie would quit selling out i could maybe see it.....

It's opening up in theatres all over the place on Wednesday apparently.

Yeah, but so is Spiderman 2. Where are your priorities, folks! It's f**king Spiderman, here!

Michael Moore is registered to vote in New York and Michigan. In New York, he's Democrat. Crazy!

that is one funny story. The film touches a bit on that subject; people being absolutely ridiculous and afraid of nothing. I mean, it's a good idea to stay on your toes, due to the murderers and rapists out there (which were still on the prowl 3 years ago), but people take it too far.

That part of the film with the guy in his trusty safe box? was that a joke?

Seriously. It looks like we'll be waiting 'til Monday to see F 9/11, so that means Spidey will definitely gain priority. After rewatching the first Spiderman on my parents huge ass tv a few weeks ago (Why do parents buy such things in their retirement years? It's like torture thinking how much fun I would have had with that and their million cable channels when I was living with them, which was when we had like 10 channels), I'm really looking forward to seeing this sequel. I wonder if it will make as much money as everyone's speculating.

it was aight.

I'd rather watch THIS documentary instead. Too bad it isn't out yet.

The thing is, I really don't think that Moore hates America. I think that at the end of the day, he really does love our country and want what he sees as the best for it. But I am totally opposed to the way that he's going about it. He deals in hate, plain and simple. He's in the same category as Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh. No matter how much I do happen to agree with Moore's political agenda, I will not support a man who is explicitly trying to ratchet up the level of animosity and hate in our country. I know many people will reply to this that I'm just a crazy dreamer or an idealist or whatever, but I really do believe that LOVE can facilitate real, positive change in this country.

I saw it today. I enjoyed it, but it is pretty dangerous if taken completely at face value. I think the government is a little bit evil, but not the complete devils that the film portrays them to be. I just think people need to know going in that it is more of an opinion piece than a documentary, although several points were validated by statistics, facts, etc. The thing about it, though, is liberals already feel the way Moore does at least to some extent, and conservatives generally aren't open-minded to what he has to say, so who is really going to have their opinions changed by the film, no matter how powerful it tries to be?

I think that there are plenty of people hovering around the middle or sitting on the fence or what have you, who can and will be persuaded/told how to vote by the film. Hell, I think alot of people will be persuaded just by seeing the trailer and hearing the watercooler talk about the film.

I forget the statistics, but one thing I do remember from PSCI 100 is that a significant percentage of the American public hold no political affiliations and make their voting decision based on various factors around the time of the election.

yeah, i think at least some people will be swayed by it. i loved the film, thank you michael moore! but i was more happy about seeing the theater packed, with cheering crowds no less. the whole experience gave me hope that Bush is on his way out

(Edited by Elixir Sue at 11:33 am on Jul. 4, 2004)

So I went and saw the film yesterday and I really enjoyed it. I had to beg the person to sell me a ticket considering I had a day to go before I was seventeen it was a bit pathetic and embarassing. On another note though when he did the small part on Oregon he was only about 20miles from where I live, kind of nifty. Although I do find it extremely pointless and a bit ridiculous that people clapped at the end of it.

The average American is not intelligent enough to properly comprehend most statistics and Micheal Moore is counting on that.

I hope to see the movie soon.

After seeing it this afternoon, I am reminded that seeing a film or reading a book or taking in any media is in fact a dialogue between two minds, and in this case it was a documentary film maker and me. I think our natural reaction to the facts is to imagine the Bush family and the bin Laden family sitting in a dimly lit room smoking cigars and diabolically deciding that it was in all of their best interests to start wars and all of that. Does the film say that Bush is evil? No. It just says he has an agenda. Is that agenda questionable? Yes it is. Is that agenda steeped in a time-honored idealism that has taken Americans into war since the American Revolution? Yes.

People have attacked it as not being a documentary. I don't think that's fair. He is really really good at making people look really foolish. He's really good at it, and think about all the laughs in this and Bowling for Columbine that came from him doing just that. He also does attack Bush from several different sides that add up to a lot of different things.

Two questions:
1) I didn't see how the name blacked out tied into a questionable service record and also into future business ties. How did the name of the Bath guy being discharged at the same time as Bush tie together?

2) I also noticed that there was a discrepency in where someone else said Bush was on Sept. 10 and where Moore said he was, but I can't remember now. Did anyone else catch it/remember it? Can you clarify?

I was also happy to see a bunch of frat boy/rednecks standing right outside the theater discussing whether it was true or not. And that, I think is the real value in this film. It has stirred up enough hype and controversy that people will go and see it and then they will question it and hopefully think about it for a while after that. Hopefully whatever conclusion they take with them will be taken all the way to the polls.

I very much like the comparison between Moore and Rush Limbaugh.

(Edited by YaDaDaDa at 4:57 pm on Jul. 5, 2004)

Yeah who wouldn't want to put money in someone's pockets that exploits someones name to ride their coattails .....*cough* hack filmmaker!

Of course I enjoyed the movie. But I was surprised by how heartbroken & upset it made me feel- I expected to get more angry & riled up. A lot of the war footage was way graphic, which I think is good so we don't forget what happens in a war, but it was very hard to watch. I don't really consider him a hate-monger...if you watch his older movies & projects, he's more like a fearless (and shameless) crusader for justice. I get the feeling he's been pushed to a point of extreme anger & disgust by the wrongdoings of this administration, like a lot of us have, and has been lashing out because of it. Definitely love & forgiveness would be the higher road, it's just hard in the face of such great evil (he didn't call them evil, I did).

But there were some annoying aspects of the movie- while the economic relationships between the Bushes & Bin Ladens are disturbing, and the Bushes certainly profit from war, I still don't think that means the whole thing is an outright conspiracy. The name blacked out thing was really a tiny point & I don't understand why such a big deal was made out of it- it just proves another little link to the Bush family. I also don't know why such a big deal has been made out of the time Bush spent with the schoolchildren while the planes were crashing. Yes, he could have leapt more immediately to action, but he was probably as shocked as the rest of us were. Plus, what could he have really done from a schoolroom in Florida?

To me, I think it just serves as an interesting piece of conjecture about the mind of George Bush.

I haven't seen the movie so please excuse me if this has already been explained. Do we know what Bush was told while he was with the school children? Was he told details about what happened or simply that there was a significant national crisis and he needed to wrap it up as soon as possible?

From what I know, he was told of the planes crashing into the building. The infamous shot of someone whispering in his ear was suppose to be the confirmation of a SECOND plane crashing and that it was clearly not an accident.

Either the voice over or Michael Moore's book says that he was told "we are under attack" or some similarly dramatic thing. But I don't think there was any instruction given to him, probably because he's s'posed to be in charge. I guess I figure everyone already knows he's kind of a doofus & mostly a puppet, so I place more of the blame on his handlers for not explicitly saying "let's wrap things up", as someone suggested. So, I was not so shocked that he just sat there dumbfounded.