Ellington

Perhaps the most controversial (and deservedly so) film so far this year is "Fahrenheit 9/11," a new release from Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Michael Moore. Winner of last May's Golden Palm, the highest award of the Cannes Film Festival, it became the highest-grossing documentary in history in just one weekend. Now playing in modest wide release, the movie is currently showing in Tupelo and will open at the Tinseltown theater in Pearl Friday, July 2.

"Fahrenheit 9/11" is a scathing critique of the Bush administration, exposing the highly questionable statements and actions of the president and his advisers beginning just prior to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. No one is immune to Moore's microscope, and few escape untarnished at the close of the dynamic two-hour feature.

As much of Moore's "Bowling for Columbine" was more about the country's obsession with violence than it was about guns, "Fahrenheit 9/11" is much more than a mere attack on the commander-in-chief. It is a brutally honest portrait of a surreal period in U.S. history, in which fear overwhelmed many citizens and Americanism was radically redefined. The nature of the Bush presidency has been debated endlessly in other forums. In actuality, Moore has created an unflinchingly candid depiction of human struggle and a statement about the manner in which Americans are linked and, at times, divided.

Still, it will be nearly impossible for most moviegoers to separate the film itself from the opinions it professes, which is a shame. Conservatives will attack its accuracy without even seeing it; liberals will flock to it and praise it as a vital analysis of a dubiously appointed leader. In truth, "Fahrenheit 9/11" is a film for members of every party and a film for members of no party. It will be labeled (perhaps appropriately) as leftist propaganda, but it is difficult to imagine the last time a piece of propaganda provided such a level of emotional resonance.

The film opens with an account of the disputed results of the 2000 presidential election, and rewinds (one of the picture's numerous shifts in chronology) to reveal the history of an apparent business relationship between the Bushes and the Saudi royal family. When Moore details the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, a soundtrack of collisions, explosions and human screams plays in complete darkness. Moore later cuts to footage of a clearly confused Bush reading "My Pet Goat" to an elementary classroom for a full seven minutes after aides interjected to tell him of the attacks.

But it is the film's lengthy segment on Gulf War II that proves to be the most memorable. The questionable motives of Bush's decision to initiate the war will cause most Democrats to squirm in their chairs, but Moore's depiction of its aftereffects proves appropriately chilling and heartbreaking to members of either party. There is little room for dispute over the images presented in the film's final third.

"Fahrenheit 9/11" does not fit neatly into the documentary filmmaking genre, resting closer to a filmed op/ed piece than a completely objective narrative. Moore synthesizes a vast amount of information into a relatively brief feature, and makes little room for other interpretations of Bush's decisions. The fact that Moore's film is largely a polemic should not be especially surprising, however; nor should it deter anyone from viewing it.

Powerful and troubling, "Fahrenheit 9/11" is an often funny, incredibly moving examination of a contentious presidency, of a nation dominated by trepidation, of the adverse necessity of doubt.

Paul Dearing is a film critic for the JFP. "Fahrenheit 9/11" opens at Tinseltown in Pearl Friday, July 2. Call 936-6611for ticket times.