I was one of those ticket-buyers who helped set the record for Michael Moore’s new documentary, “Fahrenheit 9/11”. Iva and I went to a midnight screening on Friday. The movie opened on only 868 screens and pulled in almost $22 million over the weekend. Not only was it the #1 movie of the week (outperforming “White Chicks”, which was on three times as many screens) but it broke Moore’s old record for most money grossed by a documentary, which he set with “Bowling for Columbine”.
You know how much I enjoyed the movie. I was a bit underwhelemd by the movie, as I already have a very good knowledge of many of the topics that Moore exposes, like the Florida Election disenfranchisement, the Bush/Saudi ties through the Carlyle Group, the evacuation of bin Ladens after September 11th, going to war under false pretenses, etc. There wasn’t much of a “gasp” factor for me.
There were three things about the movie that stuck with me:
- Gore acting as President of the Senate, certifying the 2000 Election results. Members of the House file by issuing written protests against the election results. All they needed was the signature of just one senator to throw the election into dispute. Not one senator would stick his or her neck out to contest the election
- Bush sitting there in the classroom for seven minutes after the second plane had hit the tower. I’d seen the clip on The Memory Hole, but up on the big screen you can really catch Bush’s beady-eyed confusion and panic.
- Soldiers in Iraq describing their experiences there.
That seven minutes of footage showing the “steady leadership” of George W. Bush, may be just enough to counteract the “surprise” October capture of Osama bin Laden.
The best part about the movie was not anything in the movie, but the crowd’s reaction to it. There was open booing and cheering. There was an ovation at the end credits. Best of all, both midnight showings were completely sold out, with at least ten people I counted sitting on the floor for the whole film.
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_ | "RADICAL" RUSS BELVILLE | Read More at http://radicalruss.net/blog/
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