{"id":43,"date":"2004-07-10T00:20:30","date_gmt":"2004-07-10T00:20:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/applecrumble.wordpress.com\/2004\/07\/10\/farenheit-911\/"},"modified":"2017-10-01T13:46:14","modified_gmt":"2017-10-01T13:46:14","slug":"farenheit-911","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2004\/07\/10\/farenheit-911\/","title":{"rendered":"Farenheit 9\/11"},"content":{"rendered":"
Last night, we went out to the wonderful Phoenix Cinema<\/a> to see the new Michael Moore<\/a> film, Farenheit 9\/11<\/i><\/a>.
\n
\nI didn’t see Moore’s earlier film, Bowling For Columbine<\/i><\/a>, but having recently read Stupid White Men<\/i><\/a> and seen so much about Moore on the TV<\/a> and Internet<\/a> I was looking forward to watching it, albeit with a little scepticism. I wasn’t disappointed.<\/p>\n

As I mentioned in an earlier post<\/a>, I was lent Stupid White Men<\/i> to read by a friend. When it was passed my way I had recently finished reading another political book, The Silent Takeover<\/i><\/a> by Noreena Hertz. Moore’s book differs vastly in tone and style from Hertz’s, which is particularly notable as on a number of occasions they seem to be driving at the same point. Hertz makes some very well-reasoned, well-thought-out arguments that show how the primary purpose of governments these days is to create an attractive environment for investment by multinational companies, as opposed to looking after the welfare of its citizens. Governments rely on getting investment and money ‘trickling down’ from the richest to the poorest in society instead of taxing company profits and redistributing wealth centrally. The book is a wonderful read and appears to back itself up with footnotes, references etc. By comparison, Moore’s book comes across as a personal rant.<\/p>\n

Although for the most part I agree with Moore’s political slant and what he is trying to do with his book I found it very hard to digest. All along I found myself thinking that there seemed to be a lack of evidence for his arguments, which distracted from the central points he was making.<\/p>\n

By contrast, Moore’s new film is a revelation. It has been a long time since I came out of a film feeling so emotional – I was extremely angry and appalled at what I had seen. Although the film is very US-centric, it makes me ashamed to be associated with the what my country has been doing abroad, particularly in Iraq. You want to shout out that the Iraq war was not in your name, but then you realise that although it is so blindingly obvious that we were duped by our leaders we have done hardly anything to try to remove them from power. Hopefully both Bush and Blair won’t be around for much longer in their respective governments.<\/p>\n

Although I didn’t particularly enjoy Stupid White Men<\/i>, I think it is so important that somebody like Michael Moore is around, creating books and films on these topics that appeal to the general public. I have only read one of his books and seen one of his films, but based on that he seems to be a far better producer than writer. Farenheit 9\/11<\/i> was so much more subdued than I expected – Moore left it to Bush and co to make themselves look at times menacing, ridiculous, dangerous and stupid, which they seemed to do with great ease. It’s a must-see film.<\/div>\n

Last night, we went out to the wonderful Phoenix Cinema to see the new Michael Moore film, Farenheit 9\/11.<\/div>\n<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"webmentions_disabled_pings":false,"webmentions_disabled":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-43","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-film","7":"h-entry","9":"hentry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5286,"url":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2019\/09\/24\/5286\/","url_meta":{"origin":43,"position":0},"title":"Great to hear Dick Moore\u2026","author":"Andrew Doran","date":"24 September 2019","format":"status","excerpt":"Great to hear Dick Moore give an interesting talk on emotional health and wellbeing at our primary school last night. Very well-attended by parents from lots of local schools. An excellent speaker who really got me thinking about how well I\u2019m doing as a parent, in every sense.","rel":"","context":"In "Snippets"","block_context":{"text":"Snippets","link":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/category\/snippets\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":23,"url":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2004\/04\/28\/the-barrytown-trilogy\/","url_meta":{"origin":43,"position":1},"title":"The Barrytown Trilogy","author":"Andrew Doran","date":"28 April 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"I've just finished reading the absolutely fantastic Barrytown Trilogy by Roddy Doyle. At first I thought I'd just read The Commitments before moving onto something else again but after consuming that within two days I couldn't wait to read more. The Snapper was just as good - a little longer\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/category\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":71,"url":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/2004\/11\/08\/videorama\/","url_meta":{"origin":43,"position":2},"title":"Videorama","author":"Andrew Doran","date":"8 November 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"A few weekends ago it was our pleasure to hold the first of what we hope to be many 'Videoramas' at our flat. A few of our London-based friends were emailed and asked to pick two films on the theme of 'Films of our Youth'. 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Is there something about society\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/andrewdoran.uk\/blog\/category\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"\"When someone says we ought to separate the art from the artist, they're saying: Remove the stain. Let the work be unstained. 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