I finally saw Fahrenheit 9/11 a few days ago. On the whole, I think the film was pretty good, but I did have a few issues. For example I was annoyed by all the voice overs in the beginning where Mr. Moore says things like “What was Bush thinking when xyz?” and then fills in with some hypothetical answers. Cheap shots: the film is already exposing plenty to think about without Mr. Moore chiming in. And I was left wondering “Why are these soldiers raiding this house on Christmas?” as we only get to follow them along for the raid and the film never tries to explain why they’re conducting it. Those annoyances aside, however, I felt the film was something everybody should watch, just to think about some things. I had forgotten, for example, that Mr. Bush was on vacation so much of his time in office prior to 9/11 (42% it turns out – where can I get that kind of vacation package!) and I had no idea about the strong connections the Bush family has with the royal Saudi family.

There is an interesting article on Salon where some US soldiers who watched the film and shared some of my criticism, along with having plenty of their own. I don’t agree with their opinions that the images of wounded soldiers went too far, however. Are we supposed to pretend these things are not happening, or at least allow ourselves to be more comfortable by censoring ourselves?

Many people seem to get all worked up about the film because they feel like it’s not a “documentary” because it’s not measured or unbiased. Perhaps that’s part of the definition of a documentary, but at the same time, the film is “documenting” current events, i.e. it isn’t fiction. It certainly is biased, but I don’t think the film ever tried to claim otherwise. Maybe we can think of it as an op-ed piece.

In the end, the film raises many issues to think carefully about. Hype and hysteria aside, I do think this is Mr. Moore’s most significant film to date, and hope more filmmakers are empowered to create similar works. We (Americans) shouldn’t be afraid to talk about uncomfortable topics, especially issues that affect the world.