A Film to Polarize Along Party Lines [NYT analysis of Farenheit 9/11]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/17/movies/17MOOR.html?ei=5062&en=bde611aaa940658f&ex=1085371200&adxnnl=1&partner=GOOGLE&adxnnlx=1084766550-ieSz/yx6TCtjqy+JQiM93Q&pagewanted=print&position=



May 17, 2004
A Film to Polarize Along Party Lines
By JIM RUTENBERG

<snip>

In a copy of the record released by the National Guard in 2000, the man in question, James R. Bath, was listed as being suspended from flying for the National Guard in 1972 for failing to take a medical exam next to a similar listing for Mr. Bush. It has been widely reported that the two were friends and that Mr. Bath invested in Mr. Bush's first major business venture, Arbusto Energy, in the late 1970's after Mr. Bath began working for Salem bin Laden.

<snip>

In one connection the film notes that Mr. Bush's father, George H. W. Bush, worked as a senior adviser to the Carlyle Group, a private investment company with various ties to Saudi Arabia and even, for some years, to the family of Osama bin Laden.

"My point is first of all that the Bushes were so close to the Saudis that they essentially had turned a blind eye to what was really going on before 9/11," Mr. Moore said in an interview. "And after 9/11 they were in denial."

More specifically the movie implies that the Saudi connections explain why the United States facilitated the departure of dozens of Saudi nationals from the country — including relatives of Osama bin Laden — shortly after the attacks, and charges they were not properly questioned. But like other points in the film, critics will certainly argue with that assertion, and may not have to go far to seek ammunition. The independent panel investigating the Sept. 11 attacks recently reported that it believed that the evacuation was handled properly. And the family of Osama bin Laden disowned him in the 1990's and says that it has no relationship with him anymore.

<snip>

middle. This is gonna hit the people who only get their "news" from TV, like a ton of bricks. We've known about this stuff for years, but I know that corporate broadcast media has avoided this stuff like the plague. This movie could set off a firestorm of outrage when people see how this administration has been blatently compromised by their relationsip with the Sauds. Perhaps they'll even see the actions of this administration from 9/11 on in a completely different context.

You can explain this stuff to people, but there really is nothing like a audio/visual documentary to get people's attention and drive home the point.

I want to see and buy this movie now. This could be the mother of all exposes.

...and right wing Conservatives...

:kick:

and which is based on fairy tales?

Being that it is a second hand review (A reporter for The New York Times was invited to a screening of the film last week. - notice that is wasn't the reporter writing the piece that saw the screening),it seems to take great pains in downplaying the Bush-bin Laden connections even while revealing a few I didn't even know (...offers few new revelations about the connections between President Bush and prominent Saudi Arabian families, including that of Osama bin Laden. ...).

Anyone else?

Once upon a time it WAS a newspaper, but those days are long gone!

I stopped reading it regularly in the early 70's because I was so disgusted with its support of the Vietnam War.

When I was a kid, my mother told me about how during the Spanish Civil War in the 30's, the Times would avoid mentioning the extent of German involvement with Franco's forces, out of fear of offending its advertisers. She had to go to independent commentators like George Seldes to learn what was really happening in Spain.

The Times has its virtues, but objective reporting on events where the Establishment has a stake is not one of them.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=638&ncid=762&e=1&u=/nm/20040517/en_nm/cannes_moore_dc

Here's a sample:

The screen goes dark. The sound is of planes crashing into the Twin Towers before the grief of the victims is contrasted with Bush sitting, apparently impassively, in a Florida schoolroom for nine minutes after the news was broken to him.

Moore uses a pop soundtrack to mocking effect.

As shots are shown of members of the bin Laden family being hastily flown out of the United States after September 11, up surges the song: "I gotta get out of this place."

He shows gum-chewing pop star Britney Spears supporting the president.

Thanks for the link. I got goosebumps when I read this review.

in March of 2001. Six months before 9/11. Doens't sound like "disowning" to me.

Nicely disabling jargon to undercut the message. Fence-sitting words.

But even if it did 'just polarize,' the anti-Bush* forces can be aroused to action by re-awakened outrage, as if there wasn't enough of that going around anyway.

The enemy of mass consciousness is the conveyer belt media. Every story lasts 24 hours before it is moved down the line and replaced by the next distraction.

Stand alone art like this movie and the expose books from O'Neill, Clarke, Woodward etc. have the lasting qualities that allow the info presented to seep into the public mind with some lasting effect.

For that reason alone it is important to have the info in this film sitting in theaters and on the lips of talking heads for more than the 24 hour news cycle.