Christopher Hitchens unleashes his trademark rhetorical barrage against Michael Moore’s latest drivel. As always, Hitch is mercilous in his intellectual deconstruction, and does not suffer fools lightly – or at all.
To describe this film as dishonest and demagogic would almost be to promote those terms to the level of respectability. To describe this film as a piece of crap would be to run the risk of a discourse that would never again rise above the excremental. To describe it as an exercise in facile crowd-pleasing would be too obvious. Fahrenheit 9/11 is a sinister exercise in moral frivolity, crudely disguised as an exercise in seriousness. It is also a spectacle of abject political cowardice masking itself as a demonstration of “dissenting” bravery.
It gets even harsher from there – another reason why being in the crosshairs of Christopher Hitchens is not a good place to be.
Hitchens nails it. Moore is simply an anti-American propagandist.
If he is so anti-american, how come so many americans do like him and agree with his views?
Maybe only the right wing can call itself America; The rest is just a band of non-patriotic communists, aren’t they?
Interesting review… he says everything except the only thing that’s actually relevant – whether or not Moore’s facts are correct.
They aren’t – for example, his whole thesis is that Bush authorized flights of bin Laden family members out of the country to cover up the real reason for 9/11 – that Bush and the Saudis wanted to build an oil pipeline through Afghanistan. (Which itself doesn’t make sense).
Of course, A:) Bush didn’t order the flights, Richard Clarke personally took responsibility for them B:) the bin Laden family isn’t connected to al-Qaeda and disowned Osama years ago and C:) The FBI did have a chance to interrogate the Saudis.
In other words, the thesis of Moore’s film is based on an outright lie.
(Snopes.com has more on the particular subject as well)