It’s funny that this is where you will begin to read my blog, because I feel like I have been writing it forever. I have been typing up a few different ideas that didn’t really work for me. So now, instead of speaking, to the T, about what I am suppose to talk about, I will speak about an aspect I would like to talk about.
Just as we discussed in class, Fahrenheit 9/11 is structured quite well to express the political opinions of director Michael Moore. It is no shocker that I will tell you he is not a fan of former president George W. Bush. In fact, a lot of the film is composed in a distinct way to undermine him. Satirical music, like stereotypical southern music to mock certain things he did. There is the song with the lyrics, “Vacation, All I ever wanted…” that blasts in the background and the film shows Bush on vacation during pressing times. He juxtaposes serious and comedic moments to impress upon the audience his opinions with out actually saying them straight out. It is interesting to me to see, scenes and music conveying ideas. It was smart for Moore to persuade the audience with out saying anything directly straight out. The film seems like a lot of clues that are each distinct in their own right. While watching the audience feels like there are not being convinced of a truth, but rather with Moore’s help, coming to a conclusion on their own. In this film Moore is being politically explicit while being completely ambiguous at the same time.
Not only did the way he pieced together the film impress his hatred of the Bush administration and his mockery of the President, but the seemingly simplistic way Moore displayed the information to the viewers helped make the points he was trying to get across, accessible. He feature an interview of Britney Spears, our formerly “All American Girl,” voicing her trust in faith in the president. Now in this scene she looks pretty stupid. This tells the viewer, wow stupid southern people love Bush, and maybe voting for him is not the smartest idea.
All these points are really interesting, and I could probably write an entire blog if I delved into them and expanded them further. But I do not intend to do that. Instead I have thought of something that really intrigues me. A kind of train of thought, a theme that I think is important to the roots of this film. What makes the war in Iraq and 9/11 so culturally and politically significant? Obviously, this seems like a pointless question.
What made me even ask this was a recent Art History class. My teacher does research in 2nd generation Asian American art and so when we spoke about Vietnam and art she had a lot to say. We spoke about time. About how certain wars and significant events linger in the present. Historian Rick Berg said, “Vietnam remains… What is left of the war, its fragments and its ruins, stay irrepressible and endlessly recuperable.”
I believe this concept can apply to 9/11. That is something really significant that Moore is doing with this piece. Even though the film was made three years after 9/11, it still dug deep for the day was still fresh in people’s minds. The events of that day linger especially in our culture. So Moore is able to connect to the American people through this unifying event.
Moore’s film is one of the many ways that culture keeps reminding American Society of 9/11. What’s specifically interesting is that culture will sometimes skew what really happened. Just like the many Vietnam War films, (Apocalypse Now and Born on the Fourth of July), that portray Vietnam in a specific way, Moore’s film is specifically a reminder that this terrible event and the war that ensued, did not have to happen the way they did. Moore is putting the blame on a single administration and specifically Former President Bush. The documentary, just like former films based on important and controversial historical events, is a form of revisionist history. Some people may tend to believe everything Moore is reminding them. Moore strongly believes it and can easily, through make the viewer follow suit.
9/11 and the events that followed are not simply the esoteric international events that most Americans will not read about in the newspaper everyday. They are events that hit close to home. Through strategic filmmaking, Moore was able to tap into that and remind Americans who was right and who was wrong.
