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		Points of View Joe Kirkish July 5, 2004  Guest Column © 2004 Joe Kirkish Reprinted with Permission

Fahrenheit 9/11 exposes; Spider-Man 2 dazzles

By Joe Kirkish

HOUGHTON -- Two movies in town this week -- both by talented filmmakers -- are top box-office attractions. While the first may be both thought-provoking and disturbing, the second is dazzlingly escapist.

FAHRENHEIT 9/11 (R for profanity and disturbing images ): If the country has been seeking an antidote to right wing extremist Rush Limbaugh, Michael Moore might be it.

Here Moore sees an enemy of the people behind every corporate or political Bush and has the hubris to assume he can expose them with his Swiftian weapon. Similarly, Leni Riefenstahl used film to sell Hitler and Nazism to the public. Why couldn't he do the same in selling his argument here?

Moore is a clever purveyor of propaganda, often walking a fine line between fact and half-truth, disarming us with his innocent demeanor; but behind his small-town guise is a well-educated liberal with plenty of political savvy and documentary-making know-how -- one who sees democracy vanishing as the little guys are constantly hoodwinked by the big guys in a massive political campaign. And he isn't afraid to show you proof, often from the mouths of the very people he attacks. (President Bush is found chumming with wealthy businessmen, saying, "You are the 'haves' and the 'have mores'; you form the base for all my operations.")

In Fahrenheit Moore follows a format he used in his other two films (Roger and Me and Bowling for Columbine) -- that of using stunning contrasts: a president at play while Iraq burns, for example. Here, however, Moore uses the contrast more incisively, with evidence for his accusations piling up, until one feels that, if even a fraction of what he puts on the screen is accurate, we've been bamboozled by brilliant, greedy people who, as stated candidly by one of them, believes that "What we're doing here is good for business, bad for people."

The New Yorker's David Denby puts it succinctly in one sentence: "In this incendiary and viciously funny attack on the Bush Administration -- a whirlwind of political charges, sinister implications, and derision -- the President comes off as a betrayer and a fool who has all the substance of a stuffed doll."

With ingenious editing and ramrod drive, Moore takes us on a roller coaster ride, sometimes to make us laugh, but more often to shock. He begins the film with information that suggests the president's winning of his office was a cleverly manipulated trick; then he goes on, step by step, to the questionable liaison of the Bush family with the Ben Laden family, to the devious framing of the Patriot Act -- here insidiously recalling the McCarthy era -- to the effective use of the administration's scare tactics after 9/11 for keeping us confused and frightened.

Moore continues, on and on, through his intimation of manipulative word juggling about Saddam Hussein and his "weapons of mass destruction," a slide into what Moore and others he interviews see as a war with hidden purpose, one that will serve only big business -- Cheney's Halliburton and Enron included. (At my viewing, a buzz of agreement rippled through the theatre, here and at many other recalled incidents.)

From there Moore traces, through a "lack of transparency" in coverage, the blurring of events that lead to Ms. Rice's introduction of a new theory, that "there is beyond a doubt a linkage between the Al Qaeda and Saddam."

Here the film becomes graphically ugly with scenes of men, women and children maimed, burned or dead. It is contrasted with the president's photo op in full flight gear as he proclaims, proudly but prematurely, "Mission accomplished."

The irony, in retrospect, is sharply rubbed in, especially when that scene is followed by more of wartime expenses in lives and money, leading to an impressive series of interviews, including Lila Lipscomb, as she first professes her unquestioning belief in her government's "saving the world from terror" to a total reversal when her son is killed in a senseless battle. It creates a devastating conclusion to the documentary, but only after Moore reminds us again of the president's corporate side and of the revelation that congressmen refuse to allow their children to join in the war.

What Moore offers is a pragmatic exposé, riddled with snippets of the president continuously going beyond his jurisdictional rights in John Wayne fashion to blunder into foolhardy results while his staff smoothly explains away one wrong decision after another. Never since Ms. Riefenstahl has a documentary filmmaker so cleverly edited his attacks to suggest such "facts" -- strongly enough to move an international audience at the Cannes Film Festival to win him the Palme d'or, while subsequent showings reveal that his darts are hitting their target among Americans, powerfully affecting the upcoming election scene -- admittedly Moore's intent.

As an entertainment, there is no doubt about the movie's ability to hold interest. It is more than competently made, with never a dull moment. As a piece of propaganda, it reveals that Moore -- a classic populist like his conservative counterpart, Mr. Limbaugh -- is out to convince the world that he is absolutely, smugly right. In final analysis, each of them may be preaching only to the already converted. Time will tell... (Grade: B)

SPIDER-MAN 2 (Rated PG-13 for stylized action violence): What could be a more perfect escapist movie for summer viewing? Following in the tradition set by the earlier Superman series -- with Sam Raimi at the director's helm and starring Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man, Kirsten Dunst as his love interest and Alfred Molina as his semi-mechanical nemesis -- how could it fail? Though it seems to take forever to reach the exciting action involving our city-hopping hero, the film provides a wham-bam action thriller while at the same time introducing more -- deeper insights into the characters, who are now fleshed out with penetrating revelations of their desires, fears and human failings.

Maguire's character, for example, is portrayed at first as a loser -- a fellow who can't hold a job, exhausted beyond belief with his Spider-Man activities and ever doubtful about the moral values in his escapades. Even as he chases down his latest enemy of the people -- a brilliant scientist now taken over by a quartet of evil, octopus-like arms imbedded in his body -- doubts creep constantly into the hero's actions. This is no one-dimensional comic book kid!

Everything about the film, from Alfred Sargent's intelligent script to dazzling special effects, has been created brilliantly. Beyond a doubt, the movie will satisfy everyone -- children (who might be occasionally bored during the all-talk-no-action scenes) and adults -- going far beyond the typical commercial pap ground out to rely solely on being loud and fast and full of eye-popping special effects aimed at pleasing a much less demanding audience. (Grade: A-)

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