Give Us Moore: Braving the Firestorm From Fahrenheit 9/11

Think of the event as “Michael and Me.” The man the neocons and chicken hawks would love to see in Guantánamo (Rummy’s country club for alleged terrorists), the ubiquitous, unlikely, in-your-face poster child for populist politics, Michael Moore takes the stage to tell us all about the different firestorms that have broken around Fahrenheit 9/11 since its release. As the nation slouches toward the uncertainties of Election Day, and a frazzled center attempts to regain its tenuous hold, the lucrative documentary has become a flash point in debates on whether Dick & George are leading us to perdition or not. The film may not earn points for subtlety, but on the other hand it persuasively damns current government mendacity with a final, heart-wrenching segment. Besides, subtlety in American politics stands as much chance of being noticed as a sleeping man in a room full of the newly dead. Moore will be Moore, and we won’t be the less for it. Stoke yourself up by watching the equally relevant, preceding work (separate admission) on the Vietnam War, Peter Davis’s classic Hearts and Minds.