Michael Moore's view on what happened to the United States after 9/11 and how the Bush Administration allegedly used the tragic event to push forward its agenda for unjust wars in Afghanista... Read allMichael Moore's view on what happened to the United States after 9/11 and how the Bush Administration allegedly used the tragic event to push forward its agenda for unjust wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.Michael Moore's view on what happened to the United States after 9/11 and how the Bush Administration allegedly used the tragic event to push forward its agenda for unjust wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
- Awards
- 29 wins & 17 nominations
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Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAfter its official showing at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival the movie was given what has been called "the longest standing ovation in the history of the festival". Although the exact length of the applause is a matter of debate, journalists at the screening have reported it being in the area of 15 to 25 minutes.
- GoofsTowards the films end, Moore claims one member of Congress had a child in the armed forces. At the time, two members had children in the military.
- Quotes
Narrator: George Orwell once wrote that, "It's not a matter of whether the war is not real, or if it is, Victory is not possible. The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous. Hierarchical society is only possible on the basis of poverty and ignorance. This new version is the past and no different past can ever have existed. In principle the war effort is always planned to keep society on the brink of starvation. The war is waged by the ruling group against its own subjects and its object is not the victory over either Eurasia or East Asia but to keep the very structure of society intact."
- Crazy creditsThis film is dedicated to ... all the soldiers from the Flint area who have died in the Iraq war ... the 2,973 who died on 9/11/01 and the countless thousands who have died in Afghanistan and Iraq as a result of our actions.
- ConnectionsEdited into Fahrenheit 11/9 (2018)
- SoundtracksVacation
(1982)
Written by Charlotte Caffey, Kathy Valentine (as Kathryn Valentine), and Jane Wiedlin
Performed by The Go-Go's
Courtesy of IRS Records
Under license from EMI Film and Television Music
Well, it has been a year since Moore's film hit the streets and almost as long a time since Bush won reelection for a second term as president. The question to be asked now is, with the passions on both sides cooled down to at least some extent (or are they?), how does "Fahrenheit 9/11" play in a post-election world? The answer is pretty damn well actually, mainly because most of the issues Moore raises are still as valid after the election as they were before (mainly because Bush WAS reelected).
Moore is, of course, an unapologetic liberal and a self-appointed gadfly for the powers-that-be in our society. As such, he aims his sights directly at the Bush administration and all those who support it. He starts off brilliantly by recalling the horrors of 9/11 in a unique way: showing us a black screen while the sounds of the planes crashing into the buildings are heard on the soundtrack. With memories of that horror still lingering in our heads, Moore then proceeds to expose the Bush family's long standing connections with the Saudi royal family, a fact that few people seemed aware of before this film was released. Moore then goes on to criticize the way in which the Bush administration has exploited the "War on Terror" for maximum political effectiveness, culminating in the Patriot Act which, he argues, has had a draconian impact on the civil rights of ordinary American citizens.
But the greatest part of Moore's wrath is saved for the second half of the film, when he confronts what he sees as the wholly unjustifiable war in Iraq. Moore is to be given credit for being one of the first and only people to have shown us actual on-the-ground pictures of the death and carnage that occurred in that country immediately after the initial bombings. Watching these gruesome images, we are immediately struck by just how antiseptic the media's coverage of the war has been here in the United States - a fact that Moore blames not only on the Bush administration but on a press that has allowed itself to become little more than an extension of the rah-rah, war-rallying propaganda machine set up by the government (a government, for instance, that refused to allow any pictures to be taken of flag-draped coffins coming back from the war zone).
The section dealing with the Iraq War is the most emotionally devastating section of the film, mainly because Moore is able to bring it home to us personally through the ordinary individuals who have been most directly affected by it - soldiers on the field, amputees in the hospital and, most heartbreakingly, the mother of a boy killed in a helicopter crash in April, 2003. Her unbearable grief, so nakedly exposed on camera for all to see, becomes an emblem for a war that not only need not have happened, but has, as Moore points out in various ways, been largely bought and paid for with the blood of brave men and women from the lower, underprivileged tier of society. He ends his film by confronting a number of congressmen who voted for the war but who seem reluctant to send their own children over to do the actual fighting. Actually, there is so much going on in this film that it becomes virtually impossible to convey even half of it in a short review such as this one.
As with his previous films, Moore once again proves himself the master of facile irony, pointing out, in darkly humorous fashion, the absurd inconsistencies and blatant hypocrisies that abound in the world around us. These moments are what keep Moore's films from becoming dry-as-dust jeremiads against what he sees as a corrupt system. He makes us laugh even when we know we should be crying, but this is the way a polemicist reaches his audience. And no one understands that better than Michael Moore.
Is the film "fair," "balanced," "nonpartisan" in its approach? Absolutely not. Does it need to be? Well, I can certainly see where people of the opposite political persuasion might find themselves wanting to yell back at the screen or lob a few well chosen projectiles where they feel it would do the most good. And that's fine too. After all, it's a free country and the Bush supporters have every right to launch their own rebuttal against this film if they so choose. I would truly love to see it. But until that time both liberals and conservatives will have to be content with kicking the set every time "Fahrenheit 9/11" is appearing on the screen. The funny thing is that they'll be doing so for entirely different reasons.
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Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Languages
- Also known as
- Fahrenheit 911
- Filming locations
- Production companies
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Box office
- Budget
- $6,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $119,194,771
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $23,920,637
- Jun 27, 2004
- Gross worldwide
- $222,446,882
- Runtime2 hours 2 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1