The power of propaganda
I just watched Fahrenheit 9/11. It was classic Michael Moore, but on steroids. The first half of the movie (I was going to call it a film, but let’s face it, we all know it’s really a movie) was so well crafted and assembled I was completely held captive. I couldn’t do anything.
The second half seemed to have a bit too much combat-in-Iraq/grieving-US-and-Iraqi-families but by the end it was all back on track and very tightly wrapped up as a very powerful propaganda package. Talk about precision guided weapons!
Initially, I feared it was going to be a “Republicans are bad, Democrats are good” type of message that was to be incessantly drilled home, but it was not. Republicans are bad, Bush is bad, war is bad and ignorance is bad were the main points (and make no doubt that they certainly were hammered home)- but given that this movie is going to be seen by your average Joe Walmart-shopper, I am not so sure that that they will be able to draw any conclusions and figure out what they should do. Maybe that’s what I like about this movie- it doesn’t condescend to tell you what to do, or what to think. It makes you sick, it makes you sad, it makes you really angry and then just fades away leaving you and your conscience to work out what to do.
Everyone should see it. At the very least, every US citizen should see it.