Its been quite some time between my first and the second works here.
As I was basking in the warmth of home during my Sankranthi break,I happened to see HBO on 16th Jan morning.And to my surprise Michael Moore's much talked Fahrenheit 9/11 was on air.Surprised I was as its too recent a release to be on TV on a non prime time monday morning.Like what is expected of a non TV guide follower i had already missed what I presume the first few minutes of the documentary.But owing to its theme of hot politics and thanks to my meager updations through news,I could follow the story.As a matter of fact any of us would easily catch up with it.This - comprehensibility - is the best part of recent movies/documentaries.
Coming to the point of view this 90 plus minute documentary presents,its a total deprecative of President George Bush.The level of personal opinions presented in the documentary go to an extent as to calling the PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES a fool(Ouch!!!).Too daring of the maker isn't it?
The maker has ensured a lot of credibility to the message he wants to proliferate by choosing people,who are not afraid of revealing their identity when they are commenting somebodyin the shoes of the President of teh US of A, amongst commoners as a medium.Such is the case when we see a man who talks abt the discussions they had abt Bush and Iraq in their gym.The not-so-democratic behaviour of USA comes out when this man is approached by the FBI to enquire about his remarks, thanks to the Patriot act.And the director has brought out very interesting and surprising facts - for ex. the Patriot Act was brought out overnight.Not even most of the senators have themselves read it fully.
After taking a look at the people's view in US,the shift is now to the war scene in Iraq.They have got their hands on these live shots of innocent people being attacked by US troops.And the troops,did u ever think of what goes thru them.U will see various prespectives , those of the soldiers humiliating war prisoners and of kids who feel bad abt fighting for a a cause they don't beleive in.And the paradox is the story of this particular woman who supports Bush and has sent her son to the war-zone and lost him in Iraq.What does she do now,of course she supports the governments decisions, though deep inside she feels that her son lost his life for a meaningless war which he himself believed was a fake all through.
The exploitation of poverty in America can be witnessed through the scences wherein the poor(not quite unnaturally the non-caucasians) kids(literally kids)are approached by fancily dresses US Lt.s and are lured into the army because nobosy else is ready to go to this war front.And here Micheal moore goes and asks a few senators if they are willing to send their kids to the war zone and without a hesitation they say NO(mind you, all these are real life scenes and not dramatised ones).
The songs chosen to be played in the background add to the effect and irony.This documentary for sure is going to make one think that all reasoning behind the US invasion of Iraq is inexcusable and absolutely selfish.
As for me the only feeling that remained after the documentary was that of moroseness owing to the painful scenes.The one where the Us troops(most of them very young) were to attack an Iraqi home on Christmas eve was too much to take.
4 comments:
Good job Anjani...dis review o urs is much better than spirits review...wherein u had unnecessarily got into minute details. I havent watched d documentry yet...but after readin ur xpert comments..I would :))
As they say, there is a thin line between Reality and Imagination, you never know which side you are in.
I dont know how true is the documentary, because there always two sides of a coin.
To give an analogy, in a family, the big brother always tries to corrects and helps his younger brothers in their things and on his way he sacrifices many things. Similarly had Bush done to the world, thinking that his brothers Iraq, Afghanistan etc needs some help.
Afghanistan really needed help and he did it. The thing that went wrong was that, the WTC bombing for which he wanted to take a revenge on all the terrorists in the world.
Things went on and then on his dominance his headweight too grew. Which resulted in some of the wrong things for the US. Then came the presidential elections.
And the result was that he got another term as it was the voice of the people and it being a democratic society he gets his support and rule.
The whole war was a farce, WMD was never there. The US main purpose was to acquire the huge oil reserves in control of Iraq and to prove its dominance and curtail its oil dependence. WMD and the dictatorship became the scapegoats for the war. The biggest irony was that, though the film portrayed the darker side of the war and became a blockbuster the intelligent Americans still voted him to power.
As for the review, i liked the fact that you have never put your own views while describing the war and about Bush.Gr8 job mate coz its never easy to find a neutral stance in such sensitive issues. The description of the story was gud, but you have not delved much into the technical issues. The ending was esp a touchy 1. Gr8 work MAK
This is well articulated blog, throwing perspective on a political movie without being too political....well who knows who might be watching………after all spying is a part of Patriotic Act. After I saw the movie, the feeling I had was one of Helplessness and Hopelessness......I knew War was a farce, indulged on false pretences, totally immoral but what can I do other than jumping on Michael Moore’s Anti –Bush, Anti-War Bandwagon and just having a critical view without any actions to back it up.
Using the movie, Moore bought a great attention to what was happening in Iraq. I agree the movie was a little exaggerated but that was needed to grip the audience and emphasize the point of illegal invasion……..moreover exaggeration is not new to Hollywood or America……….
I really like your view that it’s is not only the Iraqi’s who got affected but also the impoverished Americans who got pushed into the War……not many people saw It this way.
Good one….keep going.
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