Liza
> From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>
> Reply-To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Date: Sun, 4 Jul 2004 12:41:11 -0400
> To: lbo-talk <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org>
> Subject: [lbo-talk] CP's hit on F911
>
> [wotta pile of crap - I saw the movie in Danvers, Mass., which is not
> much like Northampton, but the audience reactions were not dissimilar
> - and yesterday in a chain steakhouse in suburban NJ we overheard a
> gray-haired lady in a powder-blue suit at the salad bar, urging
> fellow diners to see it]
>
> <http://www.counterpunch.org/valentine07022004.html>
>
> July 2, 2004
>
> Moore's Fahrenheit 911
> Mocking the Moral Crisis of Capitalism
> By DOUGLAS VALENTINE
>
>
> "The question is not what goal is envisaged for the time being by
> this or that member of the proletariat, or even by the proletariat as
> a whole. The question is what is the proletariat and what course of
> action will it be forced historically to take in conformity with its
> own nature.
>
> Karl Marx, "The Holy Family"
>
> They wept! They roared with laughter! At inappropriate times they
> applauded, the politically correct, white middle class audience at
> the Academy Theatre in avante guard Northampton, MA, home of Smith
> College, and many fine restaurants.
>
> But, then again, Michael Moore was preaching to the choir, wasn't he?
> And that's the first of two big problems with Fahrenheit 911.
>
> The other big problem is this frivolous film's utter futility.
>
> Let's be realistic. Moore says the purpose of his incoherent
> mockumentary is to get Bush out of office - which, in and of itself,
> "t'is a consummation devoutly to be wish'd." But the political
> passing of George W. Bush has no meaning, for even if the public
> shuffles him off, it's still left with Long John Kerry, and the
> strangling coil of oppressive laws, secret decrees, and eternal
> imperialistic war (with its attendant corruption) that Bush has
> wrapped so tightly around America's neck.
>
> "Ay, there's the rub."
>
> Kerry is just another "money-grubbing, ass-kissing, bromide-mouthing"
> politician, as Gail Sheehy might say, and he is as acceptable to the
> Establishment as Bush. With Kerry in office, the war on terror and
> the occupation of Iraq will continue apace, with perhaps a little
> more of the stolen loot going to our anxious allies waiting
> avariciously in the wings. In the larger scheme of things, Fahrenheit
> 911 changes nothing: Halliburton keeps its blood-soaked contracts,
> the Republicans control both houses of Congress, and no neo-conmen go
> to the gallows for stealing $20 billion in oil revenues from the
> Iraqi people (I'm curious to know how Christopher Hitchens
> rationalizes that?), or for the massive war crimes they have
> committed. Kerry's performance during the Iran-Contra investigation
> assures the rich political elite of a continuing cover-up.
>
> While watching the movie, I couldn't stop thinking about how Moore
> had evidence of the torture at Abu Ghraib, and didn't tell anyone! I
> wanted to stand up and scream: What's it all about, Mickey? Is it
> just for the moment, or the money, we live? Or is it the thrill of
> being catapulted into the stratosphere of American celebrity?
>
> I thought to myself: I should have seen it coming, when the nouveau
> riche glitterati gave the movie a twenty-minute standing ovation at
> Cannes. Anything that so pleases the perfect people in Porsches
> cannot, by definition, have any redeeming value.
>
> A monumental letdown, Fahrenheit 911 is a sick exploitation film that
> tells us nothing new about ourselves, and changes nothing in the
> world. Yes, the farcical clips of Bush making a fool of himself add
> comic relief to the melodramatic footage of Bush and his venal clique
> visiting vengeful tragedy upon the world, and profiting from it. And,
> to his credit, Moore courageously goes where no man in the corporate
> media has dared to go before: he loosely chronicles how the tragedy
> unfolded, while being extra careful not to mention Israel. Here's how
> the story goes: Bush steals the election, lets the main Saudi
> suspects in the 911 mass murder case escape because his "daddy" is in
> business with them, and then goes on a worldwide killing spree with
> the blessings of Major Generals Rather, Brokaw, and Jennings.
>
> You've heard it all before; any tenth grader from Freyburg, Maine
> could have told us that.
>
> To sum it up, Moore's swipes at Bush are irrelevant during the
> current crisis-du-jour of capitalism. How much time must we waste
> laughing at Bush, tripping over his tongue, before we grab our
> pitchforks and storm, as family-values proponent Dick Cheney might
> put it, the fucking White House?
>
> The answer, to judge from the reaction of the "progressive" and
> academically oriented audience I was sitting with, is over and over
> again. Which, again, is the saddest part of watching his film. I'm
> sure Moore didn't intend it, but his mockumentary is as much an
> indictment of his adoring, bourgeois fan club as it of the criminal
> Bush regime.
>
> Even the film's unstated premise - that the government, on behalf of
> the rich, creates employment and a disposed, easily indoctrinated
> lower class that will happily fight and die in imperialistic
> adventures - was put forth about a hundred and fifty years ago.
>
> Alas, to the earnest audience in Northampton, this subliminal message
> seemed like a revelation.
>
> So there we sat. When the clapping was over, there was no place to go
> (save one of those fine restaurants). Like Bush in Iraq, Fahrenheit
> 911 has no exit strategy. Nor was one ever intended. F-911, like the
> psychological warfare campaign we are subjected to by the Bush
> regime, is a cataract of powerful, contrived words and images that
> generate raw, predetermined emotions that result in a disturbing, but
> aimless, class-consciousness.
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk