"Fahrenheit 9/11" generates heat in D.C. debut

By Ron Hutcheson
Knight Ridder Newspapers

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Related stories "Fahrenheit 9/11" morphs into hot political property

Conservatives are calling for a boycott of the movie when it opens nationally tomorrow. Liberals hope viewers will emerge determined to defeat Bush in the November election.

The 110-minute movie, a relentless assault on Bush and other top administration officials, portrays the president as an inept tool of corporate interests that led the nation into an immoral war on Iraq by grossly exaggerating the need for action.

The film is labeled a documentary, but Moore uses facts selectively, emphasizing points that fit his premise and discarding information that doesn't. He says his movie is "an op-ed piece," like opinion articles that appear in newspapers on the page opposite the editorials.

"It's my opinion about the last four years of the Bush administration," he told ABC. "I'm not trying to pretend that this is some sort of fair and balanced work of journalism."

Some scenes are embarrassing to Bush and his aides in any context. One of the most awkward moments comes on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, immediately after the president was told about the attacks on the World Trade Center. Moore replays a seven-minute video showing a bewildered-looking Bush reading "My Pet Goat" with a group of Florida schoolchildren.

The president has said he wanted to avoid a show of panic. In another scene, a vacationing Bush takes time from his golf game to express outrage over terrorist attacks and then blithely tells reporters: "Now watch this drive."

Moore also explores indirect business links between the Bush family and Osama bin Laden's extended family in Saudi Arabia. He suggests the Bush administration tried to protect some bin Laden family members by letting them leave the United States shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks.

The independent commission that's investigating the attacks reported recently that the FBI had approved the departures. It has been widely reported that most of bin Laden's relatives have nothing to do with him.

Former President Bush has dismissed Moore as a "slimeball" and told the New York Daily News the movie is "a vicious attack on our son." Move America Forward, a conservative group, has tried, without much success, to persuade theater owners to shun the film.

At the other end of the political spectrum, MoveOn.org, a liberal political-action committee, is promoting the movie aggressively.

More than 110,000 MoveOn.org activists have agreed to see it on its opening weekend. Others will stand outside theaters in an attempt to channel viewers' anger into political action against Bush.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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