Grade:  B+

Director:  Michael Moore		Released:  June 2004
Writer:  Michael Moore		MPAA Rating:  R
Players:  Michael Moore		Running time:  110 minutes

Ratings System

Man, if I thought Harry Potter 3 was a geriatric matinee, I should have held my tongue until after I attended this 1:00 pm Saturday showing.  I've never seen so much grey hair (besides in the mirror).  First a word of advice: don't go into this film with preconceptions.  Don't think you already know everything there is to know about this movie.  If you see it, judge it on its own merits, not your preconceived notions.

This is a tough one.  I've graded the film on its filmic qualities.  Does that mean I agree with everything in it?  No.  Does it mean I don't recognize manipulation intended to provoke emotional responses from viewers?  No.  But ... the movie is well made, entertaining, and thought provoking, so I gave it a good grade.  Besides, at this point it is part of the popular culture.  It's relevant.  The truth?  Sure.  The whole truth and nothing but the truth?  I think not.

As for the content of the picture.  The attack on Sept. 11, 2001 was devastating, and you'll relive it a little during this film.  As they say, war is hell.  People die; innocent people die; it's tragic.  But I will not cry for the death of soldiers.  If you join the military, it's your responsibility to be aware of the risks.  It's not all about having your college tuition paid and visiting exotic locales.  If there's a war, you are expected to fight, and risk death.  The question then becomes, "is the war worth fighting?".  That's the question at the root of this film.  Moore believes the war in Iraq is not.

Back to the military, I have a criticism of Lila Lipscomb.  She apparently had no problem with the war until her son was killed.  I find that short-sighted and hypocritical.  If she had been complaining about the war before her son died, that would be one thing.  But she wasn't, she was pro-military.  If you're going to be pro-military, you should prepare yourself for the reality of what that means.  It means fighting, battling, injury and death.  You can't be a fair-weather fan when it comes to this stuff.

In the 2000 presidential election, Bush won Florida.  Can we move on now?  I didn't vote for the guy in that election, but the decision is in Bush's favor.  And ultimately the U.S. Supreme Court ruled for Bush.  There's a reason that not a single senator attempted to oppose the ratification of his election.  The ground was not solid enough for them to stand on.  As for the 10 representatives that attempted to oppose it, that's 10 out of approximately 450, or 2%.  Moore makes this seem like a big deal ... but come on, 2% of the representatives and 0% of the senators?

I agree with Moore's point of view pertaining to fear in America.  Orange and red level alerts, parachutes in case you need to jump out of a building, plastic to insulate your house in case of biological attack.  Fear is a great motivator, and a lot of people (businesses and governments) took advantage of Sept. 11 - and the resultant fear - for personal and/or political gain.

The section where Moore visits Oregon and talks to the state troopers is typically frightening.  Miles and miles of unguarded coastline.  Moore doesn't state it, but the implication is that terrorists could easily sail up in a ship and enter our country undetected.  I don't know how true that is, since Moore didn't interview the Coast Guard.  Maybe the Coast Guard has constant patrols and radar scanning the coasts for approaching vessels.  Moore seems to be using the same type of fear tactic in this segment that he mocks elsewhere.

So Bush stayed in that Florida classroom for seven minutes after learning of the second plane hitting the world trade center.  What does that mean?  I don't know, and neither does Michael Moore.  But he sure enjoys speculating about it.  To me, it's a non-issue because nobody except Bush knows why he did that.  The fact that he did it means nothing, the important part is the reason behind it.  Would we somehow have been better off as a country if Bush had jumped to his feet and dashed out of the room?

The sequence where Moore points out that only one member of congress has a child in the military and then attempts to have other congressmen sign up their kids is classic Moore.  Entertaining yet empty.  I get his point, but it's irrelevant.  If you round up a random 550 affluent families, I suspect you'd find a similar percentage of their children in the military.  It has nothing to do with the fact they are congressmen.  A parent cannot enlist their child in the military anyway.  If Moore was truly interested in making this point, he could have tracked down the children himself directly.

I'm aware it is somewhat trendy to point out flaws in Michael Moore's arguments.  I'm not doing it to be clever, I'm doing it because it's important, and because I believe in my own views as strongly as Moore believes in his.  I saw his movie to hear him out.  Very interesting movie, with a lot of factual information.  Information that is not exactly confidential, for that matter.  Much of it was found on nightly news broadcasts over the last few years.  But anyway, how much you like this movie will probably be in direct relation to how much you agree with Moore's analysis.  Personally, I like the picture, and agree with some of the analysis, but not all.

- crocoPuffs