![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trinityvixenThere is no debate. There is no question. THIS IS A MOVIE THAT EVERY PERSON IN THIS COUNTRY SHOULD SEE. I don't care if you're a Republican or a Democrat. If you are fucking human, you must see this film. I am too emotional to brook with disappointment, so beware of telling me any 'reasonable' excuse (and don't flatter yourself: running away from this film is the same principle by any other name, even 'dislike' is just a FUCKING EXCUSE) for not seeing it because I can't be held responsible for my reaction.
And now, Fahrenheit 9/11 in the pieces and parts that together were, even though it seemed impossible, greater than their sum.
Dear God.
I came home and hugged my Dad. Thank you God for him. I am so grateful, so grateful he was not there that day. I would never have been able to deal with the not knowing...the the wondering...
And the film paid the highest tribute to its audience: it respected our intelligence enough, our humanity enough to trust we would understand what was unsaid while it, again respectfully, said little, presumed little knowledge of the suffering of others, innumerable (there is a number of dead, but it is irrelevant compared to the millions affected) in their many wounds. The film also terrified me in a way I've not been scared EVER IN MY LIFE, hurt me in a way that I never knew could hurt that way. Nothing, not the meaningless raised alert levels, not the terror-talk of any in our government, NOTHING comes close to understanding what true terror is. True terror cannot be banished by closing one's eyes, by turning away.
True terror is playing the sounds of jet liners crashing into the building my father used to work in. True terror is that ominous wait, shortened for a documentary but agonizingly long with anticipation, the wait for the second strike, the second odd sound that, but for national tragedy, you wouldn't know from Adam. The screen went black after the credits, and, when the screen didn't immediately start up again, I knew what was coming. Tears were glossing over my eyes before I could hear the first plane's approach, but I shuddered with the effort of not screaming once it began. In horror movies, you can close your eyes against what's coming, and Michael Moore knew it and refused to let me get away with it. He didn't give me anything I could, save for running from the theater, escape. He knew I'd want to close my eyes and denied me the comfort--I did it anyway because I instinctually had to try, had to do something that wasn't hurting. I wanted to scream, to cry and sob harder than I was, to hit something, to run back to a time where it wasn't ten o'clock on a Tuesday morning all over again. And, curling literally in on myself, I still couldn't get away.
If you've become numbed by terror, see this movie and remember. If you can't stand Michael Moore's rhetoric, watch the first ten minutes then leave. I don't care about your politics, if this doesn't move you, YOU HAVE NO FUCKING SOUL. No ifs, no ands, no buts.
God bless her and bring her peace. I'm not the world's most religious person, but there are some people about whom that is all you can say. Like those people praying to be healed--still praying--after 9/11. Like this woman, missing her baby. I can't imagine a better poster child for supporting the war and the president, a woman who encouraged her children to enlist, proudly and, for the time, prudently, to better themselves. Loves this country, proud of her children for defending it.
Then she loses one in Iraq the second time one of hers is over there. Complete 180 degree turn. Loves her country, loves her children, that has not changed, will never change, but supports the war? Can't imagine how she ever did it. The president? Her son's last letter indicated he didn't like Dubya, so I can guarantee you that she will never love the man. "I have a place to put all my pain and anger now," as she looks at the White House.
Minutes before, a woman accosted her, demanded she offer proof that her son was dead. "Where was he killed?" The woman asks, and Lisa and the rest of the theater gawps at her. HOW THE FUCK CAN YOU ASK THAT QUESTION OF HER? The woman acts triumphant, as if Lisa's pause of shock and horror and revulsion was one out of Dubya's book, one of admission of guilt. IT IS HER BEING TAKEN ABACK, YOU HEARTLESS BITCH, AND I HOPE YOU ROT IN HELL. When Lisa confronts her with the place (burned into her memory for sure, all she can do is say "well, it's not the president's fault (that her son is dead" as Lisa limps away and nearly collapses. I don't care if you think that someone's faking a death, do you really dare talk to a parent of a MURDERED child that way?
Jesus...that woman was the part that outraged me most of all. Dubya's inbred relationships with big business? Moore's written two books on it by now. Cheney's buddies profitting? Old news. Saudi-Bush relations? Disgustingly under-reported, but known. Ignorance and cruelty unparalleled from a stranger: priceless. Heartless, heartless bitch.
Those Seven Minutes: They're a buzz-word in reviews, defended by Bush supporters, excused by most middle-of-the-roaders, attacked by anti-Bush groups. But I defy the reviews or the reviewers to find anything salvagable in seven minutes of Bush supposedly not alarming the kiddies by not doing something. If the Commander-in-Chief is told by his trusted advisors, ones that he relies on to know what he does not (he's only just smart enough to know he needs them), that the country is under attack, he has an obligation to do something about it. No, he was not comforting those kids. He needed to get up, tell them he was sorry but being President has its really, really, really bad days, and he had to go take care of them. It would go a lot farther than the Pig book. Tell them there was a better book in another classroom and he'd be back as soon as he found it. Something. Anything but that dazed, almost stoner-like confusion that crossed those dull sow eyes of his. More than that, he has a fucking obligation to ensure that he is safe in the event of a crisis. I would NOT bash him for protecting himself in the event of an attack. It is his duty to be SAFE in an emergency so that he can reassure the nation and respond to the crisis. If he's told that there's been an attack on our country, he has no business risking his life by sitting in a classroom in Florida and not heading to a secure, unknown facility. It's not selfish--in a crisis, we need a leader, and we need him safe. If it was so important that he be at that school and stay there while people jumped to deaths rather than die under the rubble of their livelihoods, then you can bet the terrorists could have found him there. He had no right risking his life, jeopardizing the country by not securing our leader. I may not like our leader, but I want to know that he'll be there. Cheney was in a bunker for months, why not Bush in one immediately???
And would someone who knows, please answer the question Michelle has about Election 2000? WHY THE HELL DIDN'T ONE SENATOR SIGN THE PETITION THAT WOULD ALLOW THE STALLING OF THE CONFIRMATION OF BUSH AS PRESIDENT? Wasn't there one Democratic senator who could sign it? Look, I get it. Career suicide move if ever there was one. But you won't convince me there aren't a few guys, probably newly re-elected, who were getting on in years and could afford to retire after their last term. Someone, just ONE who would bite the fucking bullet and say, "I don't care if I look like a sore loser, I oppose the disenfranchisement of the elderly, the minorities, the non-Jebbers in the state of Florida?" Going down on principle would be highly profitable--imagine the book sales for one. Did it have to be a Florida senator? I don't think anything could have been more awkward or embarrassing than listening to people addressing Al Gore as Mr. President (of the Senate, but that part was left out when they addressed him) as he told them they couldn't do anything to get him elected as the President of the United States without ONE senator's signature.
Le sigh. I want another hug. You will laugh at 9/11. You will cry (if you've got a heart). You will be angry, one way or another. You will be outraged. You will be shocked (what is shown of the treatment of our dead, of Iraqi dead is enough to make you, probably for the first time in your life, just like me, wish wars never existed). You need to see to understand. To feel. To mourn. To love. This is the most patriotic thing I've ever seen. This is what anti-Bush people mean when they say they love their soldiers. We do love them. We want them back, and our President is doing his damnedest to see that that won't happen soon...or, for many more than I could comprehend, ever. A soldier with nerve damage pulled more tears from me than the dead (the treatment of the dead, the things not shown on TV, made me physically ill to the point of wishing I would vomit so I could find relief)--he said exactly the same thing I just did, basically, "I'm going back but not the same as I was and I never can be what I was ever again."
And now, Fahrenheit 9/11 in the pieces and parts that together were, even though it seemed impossible, greater than their sum.
Dear God.
I came home and hugged my Dad. Thank you God for him. I am so grateful, so grateful he was not there that day. I would never have been able to deal with the not knowing...the the wondering...
And the film paid the highest tribute to its audience: it respected our intelligence enough, our humanity enough to trust we would understand what was unsaid while it, again respectfully, said little, presumed little knowledge of the suffering of others, innumerable (there is a number of dead, but it is irrelevant compared to the millions affected) in their many wounds. The film also terrified me in a way I've not been scared EVER IN MY LIFE, hurt me in a way that I never knew could hurt that way. Nothing, not the meaningless raised alert levels, not the terror-talk of any in our government, NOTHING comes close to understanding what true terror is. True terror cannot be banished by closing one's eyes, by turning away.
True terror is playing the sounds of jet liners crashing into the building my father used to work in. True terror is that ominous wait, shortened for a documentary but agonizingly long with anticipation, the wait for the second strike, the second odd sound that, but for national tragedy, you wouldn't know from Adam. The screen went black after the credits, and, when the screen didn't immediately start up again, I knew what was coming. Tears were glossing over my eyes before I could hear the first plane's approach, but I shuddered with the effort of not screaming once it began. In horror movies, you can close your eyes against what's coming, and Michael Moore knew it and refused to let me get away with it. He didn't give me anything I could, save for running from the theater, escape. He knew I'd want to close my eyes and denied me the comfort--I did it anyway because I instinctually had to try, had to do something that wasn't hurting. I wanted to scream, to cry and sob harder than I was, to hit something, to run back to a time where it wasn't ten o'clock on a Tuesday morning all over again. And, curling literally in on myself, I still couldn't get away.
If you've become numbed by terror, see this movie and remember. If you can't stand Michael Moore's rhetoric, watch the first ten minutes then leave. I don't care about your politics, if this doesn't move you, YOU HAVE NO FUCKING SOUL. No ifs, no ands, no buts.
God bless her and bring her peace. I'm not the world's most religious person, but there are some people about whom that is all you can say. Like those people praying to be healed--still praying--after 9/11. Like this woman, missing her baby. I can't imagine a better poster child for supporting the war and the president, a woman who encouraged her children to enlist, proudly and, for the time, prudently, to better themselves. Loves this country, proud of her children for defending it.
Then she loses one in Iraq the second time one of hers is over there. Complete 180 degree turn. Loves her country, loves her children, that has not changed, will never change, but supports the war? Can't imagine how she ever did it. The president? Her son's last letter indicated he didn't like Dubya, so I can guarantee you that she will never love the man. "I have a place to put all my pain and anger now," as she looks at the White House.
Minutes before, a woman accosted her, demanded she offer proof that her son was dead. "Where was he killed?" The woman asks, and Lisa and the rest of the theater gawps at her. HOW THE FUCK CAN YOU ASK THAT QUESTION OF HER? The woman acts triumphant, as if Lisa's pause of shock and horror and revulsion was one out of Dubya's book, one of admission of guilt. IT IS HER BEING TAKEN ABACK, YOU HEARTLESS BITCH, AND I HOPE YOU ROT IN HELL. When Lisa confronts her with the place (burned into her memory for sure, all she can do is say "well, it's not the president's fault (that her son is dead" as Lisa limps away and nearly collapses. I don't care if you think that someone's faking a death, do you really dare talk to a parent of a MURDERED child that way?
Jesus...that woman was the part that outraged me most of all. Dubya's inbred relationships with big business? Moore's written two books on it by now. Cheney's buddies profitting? Old news. Saudi-Bush relations? Disgustingly under-reported, but known. Ignorance and cruelty unparalleled from a stranger: priceless. Heartless, heartless bitch.
Those Seven Minutes: They're a buzz-word in reviews, defended by Bush supporters, excused by most middle-of-the-roaders, attacked by anti-Bush groups. But I defy the reviews or the reviewers to find anything salvagable in seven minutes of Bush supposedly not alarming the kiddies by not doing something. If the Commander-in-Chief is told by his trusted advisors, ones that he relies on to know what he does not (he's only just smart enough to know he needs them), that the country is under attack, he has an obligation to do something about it. No, he was not comforting those kids. He needed to get up, tell them he was sorry but being President has its really, really, really bad days, and he had to go take care of them. It would go a lot farther than the Pig book. Tell them there was a better book in another classroom and he'd be back as soon as he found it. Something. Anything but that dazed, almost stoner-like confusion that crossed those dull sow eyes of his. More than that, he has a fucking obligation to ensure that he is safe in the event of a crisis. I would NOT bash him for protecting himself in the event of an attack. It is his duty to be SAFE in an emergency so that he can reassure the nation and respond to the crisis. If he's told that there's been an attack on our country, he has no business risking his life by sitting in a classroom in Florida and not heading to a secure, unknown facility. It's not selfish--in a crisis, we need a leader, and we need him safe. If it was so important that he be at that school and stay there while people jumped to deaths rather than die under the rubble of their livelihoods, then you can bet the terrorists could have found him there. He had no right risking his life, jeopardizing the country by not securing our leader. I may not like our leader, but I want to know that he'll be there. Cheney was in a bunker for months, why not Bush in one immediately???
And would someone who knows, please answer the question Michelle has about Election 2000? WHY THE HELL DIDN'T ONE SENATOR SIGN THE PETITION THAT WOULD ALLOW THE STALLING OF THE CONFIRMATION OF BUSH AS PRESIDENT? Wasn't there one Democratic senator who could sign it? Look, I get it. Career suicide move if ever there was one. But you won't convince me there aren't a few guys, probably newly re-elected, who were getting on in years and could afford to retire after their last term. Someone, just ONE who would bite the fucking bullet and say, "I don't care if I look like a sore loser, I oppose the disenfranchisement of the elderly, the minorities, the non-Jebbers in the state of Florida?" Going down on principle would be highly profitable--imagine the book sales for one. Did it have to be a Florida senator? I don't think anything could have been more awkward or embarrassing than listening to people addressing Al Gore as Mr. President (of the Senate, but that part was left out when they addressed him) as he told them they couldn't do anything to get him elected as the President of the United States without ONE senator's signature.
Le sigh. I want another hug. You will laugh at 9/11. You will cry (if you've got a heart). You will be angry, one way or another. You will be outraged. You will be shocked (what is shown of the treatment of our dead, of Iraqi dead is enough to make you, probably for the first time in your life, just like me, wish wars never existed). You need to see to understand. To feel. To mourn. To love. This is the most patriotic thing I've ever seen. This is what anti-Bush people mean when they say they love their soldiers. We do love them. We want them back, and our President is doing his damnedest to see that that won't happen soon...or, for many more than I could comprehend, ever. A soldier with nerve damage pulled more tears from me than the dead (the treatment of the dead, the things not shown on TV, made me physically ill to the point of wishing I would vomit so I could find relief)--he said exactly the same thing I just did, basically, "I'm going back but not the same as I was and I never can be what I was ever again."
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-06-27 02:44 am (UTC)Le sigh. I want another hug.
*hugs* :)
do you know when/if it comes out in Australia?
no subject
Date: 2004-06-28 03:35 pm (UTC)If you want to check out when it might be coming to a theater near you, try Michael Moore's website or, at least, it worked in the states, www.f911tix.com.
::hugs back::