Movie Review by EDF
Starring: Michael Moore, George W Bush
Director: Michael Moore
People go to the movies for different reasons but one of the most popular is to get away from the outside world and to be entertained. Why would you bother to go and see a documentary on the cinema screen about a subject that has been a regular feature on our news channels?
Michael Moore claims to have sorted through all the pieces and presents the background facts, the widely known facts and facts that he claims the powers that be want to cover up. He says he has unveiled various opportunities that were just waiting to present themselves to those who could make personal gain from tragedy.
Starting with a prequel of sorts, we find Gore and Bush slugging it out for the 2000 presidential race. Moore shows how Bush got help in winning the election and how African-Americans were apparently discriminated against when voting. Moore states that after becoming President and leading up to 9/11, Bush was on vacation near half the time, seemingly uninterested in doing the job he was elected for. When the titles finally roll, we enter the horror that was 9/11.
Thankfully a blank screen spares us the visual horror of what happened at the twin towers but it is the audio horror that will unsettle some people. The pictures flicker onwards to show us the shocked and frightened expressions of onlookers as they see people jumping to their deaths.
Director Michael Moore, an investigative reporter, questions why members of the Bin Laden family and other Saudis were given a one way ticket out of America, on planes that were supposed to be grounded. Among other items presented are a Bush / Bin Laden business connection and it is shocking to find out how much financial power the Bin Ladens have in America.
The next step for the Bush Administration was to sell a war to the American public by the reporting of imminent terrorist threats in America which of course would generate fear. These fears lead to the intrusive Patriot Act that allowed the US government to snoop into the public’s affairs without telling them. The documentary continues with the second Iraq war, the shameless method of recruiting potential marines and how disillusioned the troops are about the real reason why they are over there on foreign soil.
The one thing that Moore excels at is that he introduces the human element as well, by finding those who have been affected by these events. The fact that big businesses are making a ton of money in helping “rebuild Iraq” is an example he gives of corporate greed at work. It gets more ridiculous that an American bus driver sent over to drive US oil workers in Iraq receives three times more wages than the troops over there.
Amazingly for such a passionate subject, Moore only expresses his personal views to the camera during the last few minutes of the film.
