COMMENTARY ON MICHAEL MOORE'S FILM

I saw Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 911 not once but twice. First last week in the Savoy theater in Montpelier, Vermont. The second time in NYC two nights ago. Even more immpressive than the movie itself is the fact that such a film can get wide distribution in the USA in the wake of the neofascist post-9/11 political atmosphere.

However, I want to share with you this interesting critique of the movie. It will most likely provoke a lively dialogue:

"Fahrenheit 9/11" is a Stupid White Movie. What Michael Moore Misses About the Empire

by Robert Jensen


I have been defending Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" from the criticism in mainstream and conservative circles that the film is leftist propaganda. Nothing could be further from the truth; there is very little left critique in the movie. In fact, it's hard to find any coherent critique in the movie at all.

The sad truth is that "Fahrenheit 9/11" is a bad movie, but not for the reasons it is being attacked in the dominant culture. It's at times a racist movie. And the analysis that underlies the film's main political points is either dangerously incomplete or virtually incoherent.

But, most important, it's a conservative movie that ends with an endorsement of one of the central lies of the United States, which should warm the hearts of the right-wingers who condemn Moore. And the real problem is that many left/liberal/progressive people are singing the film's praises, which should tell us something about the impoverished nature of the left in this country.