| Overall Grade: |
A |
|
| Story: |
A |
|
|
| Acting: |
A |
|
|
| Direction: |
A+ |
|
|
| Visuals: |
A |
|
|
Much better than Fahrenheit 911
by LelandV (movies profile)
Sep 26, 2007
13
of
17 people found this review helpful
I just got back from a special screening of this film in Washington, D.C., with a Q and A period with the director. A broad range of people were in attendance, from very liberal to very conservative, and the general consensus seemed to be that this was very well done.
The unifying thread is a retired NYC police officer whose son was killed on 9/11. He began as unabashedly in favor of the Iraq war, even asking that his son's name be inscribed on a bomb to be used in the war, and getting confirmation that this had been done. He ended, after the President told us that no, there was no evidence that Iraq had anything to do with 9/11, explaining how he felt used.
The film traces our history from Dwight D. Eisenhower's farewell address as President, in which he warned of the dangers of creating a powerful military-industrial complex, through various misadventures, to our war in Iraq.
The film doesn't contain any of the cheap tricks of Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 911, which I thought diminished the seriousness of that film. The only exception, and it was a jarring one that distracted from an otherwise excellent film, was the seemingly inexplicable inclusion of Gore Vidal among a group of people interviewed in the film. So far as I could tell, he was the only person interviewed who had no real substantive expertise in either policy (in most instances) or the news media (one or two instances). To me at least, he added nothing to a film that I would otherwise rate overall as an A+. |
My Public Profile 
