Any extreme Left or Right statement must be considered with caution because it represents a particular point of view. Truth can indeed be looked at from many different vantage points, and I personally believe it's never just a black or white issue. Moore brilliantly manipulates the conventions of film to make us see and feel these issues the way he does. But I think, from moment to moment, viewers must continually ask themselves: Is this the way I see it? Is this the truth, or merely an opinion? For instance, the sequence showing Bush reading the kiddie book for all those minutes after hearing about the Twin Towers attack: Moore looks at the President's face and sees a man who doesn't know what to do, or, using the image as a dramatic convention, speculates on many of the issues surrounding Bush and his family that will be developed later in the film. Moore's impression may be correct, but as I watched the footage I couldn't help but wonder what would be going through my mind at such a moment? To me, Bush looks honestly stunned and worried. Whatever his thoughts were at that moment, I don't fault him for sitting there all that time, thinking through them. I am not a Bush supporter, and for the most part, I found the connections that Moore makes in the movie to be thoughtful and more than likely ... close to the truth. I don't buy everything he says, even though the film's emotional power tells me that Moore's vision comes from a very honest and committed need to communicate what he believes. A great playwright once said that Art is not a mirror, it's a hammer. Moore uses his art to hammer home the notion that the face of our nation, like Bush's face in the school room, holds a wide range of possible meanings. And we really must look beyond what we're told to see and find the truth for ourselves. This movie is an alternative vision of the last four years. Moore presents social, political, and business concerns like they are dots on a great big puzzle. We are meant, I think, to connect those dots and fill in the picture. After seeing the movie, I sat in my car for a long time thinking through the experience - and it was an unsettling, emotional experience for me. The question, though, running through my mind was: how much of this is really true, and how much of it is mere speculation? The conclusion I arrived at is simple: if only a fraction of what's laid out in this movie is true, and I believe at least a fraction of it must be, then these guys in Washington, the entire crew, have seriously screwed up. Perhaps it's time to unleash the Hounds and hope they can sniff out the actual truth with Starr-like zeal. People are dying over there. And that's NOT an opinion. It's the truth.
Review of Fahrenheit 9/11
