Cicely Herbert reviews Michael Moore’s documentary film on events following the election of President George W. Bush in 2002.
This huge demonstration was ignored by those in power, and what followed has been the shameful destruction of historic cities and villages, the pollution of the land, the death of thousands of innocent people, and at the time of writing, the probable start of civil war in Iraq. Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 is a brilliant documentary film, huge in its scale and shocking in its revelations about the self-interest of the Bush administration that led us into this war. (Interestingly, Tony Blair’s role as Bush’s side-kick is barely touched on).
The film begins with the United States presidential election in 2002 when the all-important results in Florida appear to have been fixed in favour of the Republican party.
Although there were protests at the result, which was alleged to have disenfranchised many of the poorer citizens of Florida, Bush was declared winner after gaining a questionable victory by a margin of a few hundred votes, and duly became President of the USA. Throughout the film Bush and his cronies are shown as smug, wealthy, corrupt and as belonging to an enclosed circle of the elite.
Much amusement is extracted from the numerous rounds of golf played by the president at times of crisis. The cosy connection between the Bush family and the Saudi Royal Family is made abundantly clear and can be traced back over many years to the time of the presidency of George Bush senior: the chief uniting factor being, naturally, oil.
Michael Moore’s depiction of the bombing of the World Trade Centre is all the more powerful because of its restraint – we do not see the planes as they hit the Towers - – the screen is left a terrifying blank and we hear the tragedy unfold as the towers collapse. We are informed – and the allegation has not, apparently, been refuted – that in the few days following the hijacking of the planes, although all other flights were grounded, members of the bin Laden family and other Saudis living in America were permitted to fly out of the country.
When Afghanistan was attacked in an attempt to rout out Osama bin Laden, the film suggests (and this is perhaps far-fetched), that the country was targeted mainly for the opportunity to install a fuel pipeline through the land.
Some scenes from the war in Iraq are shown in sickening detail – Moore’s choice of material has been criticised as being almost pornographic , but, is not the very subject – that of the mutilation and death through war, of children, civilian men and women and of soldiers – in itself pornographic?
The central story in Fahrenheit 9/11 is of Lila Lipscomb, an ordinary patriotic working class woman living in Flint, Michigan, who proudly flies the American flag in her front garden and who believes that her son has enlisted in the US army to fight a noble cause. There are shots of smilingly persuasive men following young, unemployed and mainly black youths through bleak acres of parking lots, in a recruiting drive for the army where they will be assured of food and above all, a regular wage. After her son is killed in Iraq and Lila receives his last letter to her in which he expresses doubts about the validity of the war and his part in it, the mother becomes an impassioned anti-war campaigner, and visits Washington in an attempt to get her voice heard. It is here that one becomes uncomfortably aware of a stunt being performed, when Michael Moore becomes very much part of the action, handing out recruiting leaflets to senators as they go about their business and urging them to encourage their own children to do the noble thing and enlist in the army. It seems that at the time of the filming only one senator actually had a son fighting in Iraq. Whatever one’s misgivings at the method, this brings one back to the central issue of the film: that it is the interest of those in power to continue to create wars in order to maintain the status quo and that it is always the poorest sections of the community who are enlisted to fight for their country and who will be offered as a sacrifice on the altar of war.
I am reminded of a poem by the First World War poet Siegfried Sassoon, ‘The General’:
‘Good morning; good-morning!’ the General said When we met him last week on our way to the Line. Now the soldiers he smiled at are most of ‘em dead, And we’re cursing his staff for incompetent swine. ‘He’s a cheery old card,’ grunted Harry to Jack As they slogged up to Arras with rifle and pack. But he did for them both with his plan of attack.
But he did for them both with his plan of attack.
Cicely Herbert was one of the the Barrow Poets. Her poetry collection In Hospital describes her time in University College Hospital London after a serious accident. She is one of the trio that founded and continues to run Poems on the Underground.
Cicely Herbert reviews Fahrenheit 9/11 directed by Michael Moore.