The heat is on across the United States as Fahrenheit
9/11 opened in 900 cinemas nationwide to
an angry debate that has divided America.
Few movies have fired up political passions
so much as this incendiary documentary about
US President George Bush administration's "march
of folly", especially in Iraq. It has been
wildly acclaimed by Democrats, liberals and
lefwingers. But equally it has been damned by
many angry Republicans, conservatives and rightwingers.
Film maker Michael Moore charges the Bush camp
with stealing the 2000 US Presidential election,
neglecting to act on terrorism warnings before
Sept. 11 and playing on people's fears of further
attacks to drum up Americans' support for the
Iraq war.
He presents a damning indictment of White House
actions after the Sept 11 attacks.
The film relies heavily on interviews, footage
of US soldiers and war victims in Iraq, and
archival footage of President Bush, to make
the case against the war in Iraq.
A Fox News review said the movie was "a
really brilliant piece of work, and a film that
members of all political parties should see
without fail." It went on to describe it
as "a tribute to patriotism, to the American
sense of duty - and at the same time a indictment
of stupidity and avarice.
However, liberal commentator Christopher Hitchens
raged: "To describe this film as dishonest
and demagogic would almost be to promote those
terms to the level of respectability. To describe
this film as a piece of crap would be to run
the risk of a discourse that would never again
rise above the excremental."
In its first three days of screening Fahrenheit
9/11 broke box office records for a documentary,
taking in $23.9 million in US cinemas.
The movie was released in the year that the
US votes for a new President. Its makers Disney
found it too hot to handle. Bankrolled by Disney's
Miramax division, Disney head Michael Eisner
refused to release it and it was left to a Canadian
company to distribute it.
Fahrenheit 9/11 scooped the top prize
at the 57th Cannes Film Festival in France.
It has the distinction of being the first documentary
to win Cannes' prestigious Palme d'Or (Golden
Palm) since Jacques Cousteau's The Silent World
in 1956.
