My First Wild Week with "Fahrenheit 9/11"
06/07/2004
- Opinión
Friends,
Where do I begin? This past week has knocked me for a loop.
"Fahrenheit 9/11," the #1 movie in the country, the largest
grossing documentary ever. My head is spinning. Didn't we just
lose our distributor 8 weeks ago? Did Karl Rove really fail to
stop this? Is Bush packing?
Each day this week I was given a new piece of information from
the press that covers Hollywood, and I barely had time to
recover from the last tidbit before the next one smacked me
upside the head
** More people saw "Fahrenheit 9/11" in one weekend than all the
people who saw "Bowling for Columbine" in 9 months.
** "Fahrenheit 9/11" broke "Rocky III's" record for the biggest
box office opening weekend ever for any film that opened in less
than a thousand theaters.
** "Fahrenheit 9/11" beat the opening weekend of "Return of the
Jedi."
** "Fahrenheit 9/11" instantly went to #2 on the all- time list
for largest per-theater average ever for a film that opened in
wide-release.
How can I ever thank all of you who went to see it?
These records are mind-blowing. They have sent shock waves
through Hollywood - and, more importantly, through the White
House.
But it didn't just stop there. The response to the movie then
went into the Twilight Zone. Surfing through the dial I landed
on the Fox broadcasting network which was airing the NASCAR race
live last Sunday to an audience of millions of Americans -- and
suddenly the announcers were talking about how NASCAR champ Dale
Earnhardt, Jr. took his crew to see 'Fahrenheit 9/11' the night
before. FOX sportscaster Chris Myers delivered Earnhardt's
review straight out of his mouth and into the heartland of
America: 'He said hey, it'll be a good bonding experience no
matter what your political belief. It's a good thing as an
American to go see.' Whoa! NASCAR fans - you can't go deeper
into George Bush territory than that! White House moving vans -
START YOUR ENGINES!
Then there was Roger Friedman from the Fox News Channel giving
our film an absolutely glowing review, calling it 'a really
brilliant piece of work, and a film that members of all
political parties should see without fail.' Richard Goldstein of
the Village Voice surmised that Bush is already considered a
goner so Rupert Murdoch might be starting to curry favor with
the new administration. I don't know about that, but I've never
heard a decent word toward me from Fox. So, after I was revived,
I wondered if a love note to me from Sean Hannity was next.
How about Letterman's Top Ten List: 'Top Ten George W. Bush
Complaints About "Fahrenheit 9/11":
10. That actor who played the President was totally unconvincing
9. It oversimplified the way I stole the election
8. Too many of them fancy college-boy words
7. If Michael Moore had waited a few months, he could have
included the part where I get him deported
6. Didn't have one of them hilarious monkeys who smoke
cigarettes and gives people the finger
5. Of all Michael Moore's accusations, only 97% are true
4. Not sure - - I passed out after a piece of popcorn lodged in
my windpipe
3. Where the hell was Spider-man?
2. Couldn't hear most of the movie over Cheney's foul mouth
1. I thought this was supposed to be about dodgeball
But it was the reactions and reports we received from theaters
around the country that really sent me over the edge. One
theatre manager after another phoned in to say that the movie
was getting standing ovations as the credits rolled - in places
like Greensboro, NC and Oklahoma City -- and that they were
having a hard time clearing the theater afterwards because
people were either too stunned or they wanted to sit and talk to
their neighbors about what they had just seen. In Trumbull, CT,
one woman got up on her seat after the movie and shouted "Let's
go have a meeting!" A man in San Francisco took his shoe off and
threw it at the screen when Bush appeared at the end. Ladies'
church groups in Tulsa were going to see it, and weeping
afterwards.
It was this last group that gave lie to all the yakking pundits
who, before the movie opened, declared that only the hard-core
"choir" would go to see "Fahrenheit 9/11." They couldn't have
been more wrong. Theaters in the Deep South and the Midwest set
house records for any film they'd ever shown. Yes, it even sold
out in Peoria. And Lubbock, Texas. And Anchorage, Alaska!
Newspaper after newspaper wrote stories in tones of breathless
disbelief about people who called themselves 'Independents' and
'Republicans' walking out of the movie theater shaken and in
tears, proclaiming that they could not, in good conscience, vote
for George W. Bush. The New York Times wrote of a conservative
Republican woman in her 20s in Pensacola, Florida who cried
through the film, and told the reporter: 'It really makes me
question what I feel about the president... it makes me question
his motives'
Newsday reported on a self-described 'ardent Bush/Cheney
supporter' who went to see the film on Long Island, and his
quiet reaction afterwards. He said, "It's really given me pause
to think about what's really going on. There was just too much -
too much to discount." The man then bought three more tickets
for another showing of the film.
The Los Angeles Times found a mother who had 'supported [Bush]
fiercely' at a theater in Des Peres, Missouri:
'Emerging from Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11,' her eyes wet,
Leslie Hanser said she at last understood. My emotions are
just....' She trailed off, waving her hands to show confusion. I
feel like we haven't seen the whole truth before.'"
All of this had to be the absolute worst news for the White
House to wake up to on Monday morning. I guess they were in such
a stupor, they "gave" Iraq back to, um, Iraq two days early!
News editors told us that they were being "bombarded"
with e-mails and calls from the White House (read: Karl Rove),
trying to spin their way out of this mess by attacking it and
attacking me. Bush spokesman Dan Bartlett had told the White
House press corps that the movie was "outrageously false" --
even though he said he hadn't seen the movie. He later told CNN
that "This is a film that doesn't require us to actually view it
to know that it's filled with factual inaccuracies." At least
they're consistent. They never needed to see a single weapon of
mass destruction before sending our kids off to die.
Many news shows were more than eager to buy the White House
spin. After all, that is a big part of what "Fahrenheit" is
about -- how the lazy, compliant media bought all the lies from
the Bush administration about the need to invade Iraq. They took
the Kool-Aid offered by the White House and rarely, if ever, did
our media ask the hard questions that needed to be asked before
the war started.
Because the movie "outs" the mainstream media for their failures
and their complicity with the Bush administration -- who can
ever forget their incessant, embarrassing cheerleading as the
troops went off to war, as though it was all just a game -- the
media was not about to let me get away with anything now
resembling a cultural phenomenon. On show after show, they went
after me with the kind of viciousness you would have hoped they
had had for those who were lying about the necessity for
invading a sovereign nation that was no threat to us. I don't
blame our well-paid celebrity journalists -- they look like a
bunch of ass-kissing dopes in my movie, and I guess I'd be
pretty mad at me, too. After all, once the NASCAR fans see
"Fahrenheit 9/11," will they ever believe a single thing they
see on ABC/NBC/CBS news again?
In the next week or so, I will recount my adventures through the
media this past month (I will also be posting a full FAQ on my
website soon so that you can have all the necessary backup and
evidence from the film when you find yourself in heated debate
with your conservative brother-in-law!). For now, please know
the following: Every single fact I state in "Fahrenheit 9/11" is
the absolute and irrefutable truth. This movie is perhaps the
most thoroughly researched and vetted documentary of our time.
No fewer than a dozen people, including three teams of lawyers
and the venerable one- time fact-checkers from The New Yorker
went through this movie with a fine-tooth comb so that we can
make this guarantee to you. Do not let anyone say this or that
isn't true. If they say that, they are lying. Let them know that
the OPINIONS in the film are mine, and anyone certainly has a
right to disagree with them. And the questions I pose in the
movie, based on these irrefutable facts, are also mine. And I
have a right to ask them. And I will continue to ask them until
they are answered.
In closing, let me say that the most heartening response to the
film has come from our soldiers and their families. Theaters in
military towns across the country reported packed houses. Our
troops know the truth. They have seen it first-hand. And many of
them could not believe that here was a movie that was TRULY on
their side -- the side of bringing them home alive and never
sending them into harms way again unless it's the absolute last
resort. Please take a moment to read this wonderful story from
the daily paper in Fayetteville, NC, where Fort Bragg is
located. It broke my heart to read this, the reactions of
military families and the comments of an infantryman's wife
publicly backing my movie -- and it gave me the resolve to make
sure as many Americans as possible see this film in the coming
weeks.
Thank you again, all of you, for your support. Together we did
something for the history books. My apologies to "Return of the
Jedi." We'll make it up by producing "Return of the Texan to
Crawford" in November.
May the farce be with you, but not for long,
Michael Moore www.michaelmoore.com mmflint@aol.com
P.S. You can read letters from people around the country
recounting their own experiences at the theater, and their
reactions to the film by going here.
P.P.S. Also, I'm going to start blogging! Tonight! Come on over
and check it out.
This message has been brought to you by ZNet
(http://www.zmag.org).
https://www.alainet.org/en/articulo/110216?language=en
Del mismo autor
- Wikileaks y la libertad de expresión 20/08/2012
- Miami: Los “heroícos” combatientes por la libertad de Cuba 31/05/2012
- Si la mezquita no se construye, esto no es Estados Unidos 12/09/2010
- Los ricos están orquestando un golpe esta mañana 28/09/2008
- Exijo a la administración Bush que detenga la investigación sobre mi viaje a Cuba 18/05/2007
- Carta a todos los que votaron por George W. Bush 12/09/2005
- Carta de Michael Moore ao Mr. Bush 07/09/2005
- Carta abierta de Michael Moore 01/09/2005
- Open letter to George W. Bush 01/09/2005
- 17 razones para no cortarse las venas 06/11/2004
Clasificado en
Clasificado en:
![Subscribe to America Latina en Movimiento - RSS](https://www.alainet.org/misc/feed.png)