FAHRENHEIT 11/9

Ultra-liberal left-wing activist filmmaker Michael Moore is at it again in FAHRENHEIT 11/9, with a leftist pastiche of grievances, visions of a crumbling America, and dark predictions of a calamitous future that more often than not amounts to so much hot air. The two-hour long diatribe features four main topics highlighting some of Moore’s most strongly held complaints about the state of affairs in America following the election of Donald Trump on November 8, 2016. Although Moore doesn’t limit his attacks solely to Republicans and right-wing political philosophy so as to give his movie a semblance of balance, his sights are squarely set on Donald Trump and Republican officials. The few and far between potshots he takes at current Democrat leaders in Congress, such as Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Hoyer, President Barack Obama, and even Hillary Clinton for losing the election, are well taken, but emanate from an even more radical point of view than these leaders purportedly have, so Moore hardly moves the needle toward a balanced presentation in his newest movie.

To begin, Moore goes wholeheartedly after President Donald Trump, thoroughly demonizing him as a pervert guilty of multiple sins, crimes and basically general depravity. In Moore’s eyes, Trump is a man who’s so openly evil that people simply accept his behavior as normal.

The second thing Moore focuses on is subjecting viewers to a depressing recap of the water crisis debacle that took place in Flint, Michigan a few years ago under Governor Rick Snyder. Moore, and a Muslim activist running for Congress who joins him in the exposé, build a case against Governor Snyder, showing that the water was so dirty and contaminated with lead that it was physically damaging to the mostly poor African American population of Flint and caused many others to come down with Legionnaires Disease. The movie claims Snyder was too slow to fix the problem while he was giving favorite treatment to his corporate buddies.

Moore then explores life in the poorest counties of West Virginia, where Moore laments that the teacher unions are shrinking. This effectively prevents them from helping the underpaid teachers who are forced to wear Fitbit watches to monitor their physical activity or be fiscally penalized, Moore asserts.

Continuing his righteous indignation tour of the nation, Moore goes to Florida, where he lionizes anti-gun activist David Hogg for his attempt to insert his teenage wisdom, or lack thereof, into the aftermath of the Garland High School massacre. To round out his outrage, Moore goes back to his favorite culprit in the whipping post, where he accuses Donald Trump of being Anti-Muslim and insinuates that the man is probably trying to become the “king of the world” and a dictator for life. To support his point, another one of the several “expert” talking heads in the movie soberly and outrageously contends that many of the off-the-cuff jokes that Trump often makes at political rallies, such as continuing in office more than 8 years or executing journalists, are really “trial balloons” to see if they will fly in real life.

Moore doesn’t stop there. In what is probably one of the more outrageous scenes in the movie, he tries to draw parallels between Trump and Adolf Hitler, topping it off by lip-syncing Trump’s words over an old filmed speech by Adolph Hitler. Moore concludes his Trump/Hitler Axis conspiracy theory by making an impassioned plea for the audience to get off their easy chairs and do something before it’s too late and democracy is gone forever (never mind that, in the beginning of the movie, Moore agrees with another so-called expert that we never had a democracy to in America). So, which is it Michael? Also, if you truly are so concerned with our democracy’s potential demise, how about making a movie investigating the last Democratic Administration, Mr. Obama’s, that surreptitiously, and illegally, allegedly used all the most powerful resources of the federal government to investigate and destroy the opposing party’s campaign? Now, if those actions don’t threaten democracy, very few other things can.

FAHRENHEIT 11/9 is professionally made, and Michael Moore can weave an occasionally interesting documentary while some, albeit very few, of his points can be entertained as valid. On the other hand, at a two-hour running time, FAHRENHEIT 11/9 is way too long, and even fervent Moore fans may find themselves impatiently looking at their watches. It’s been said that the good thing about Michael Moore is that he doesn’t mince words and that he seems to believe what he says in his political philosophy he advocates. That is certainly commendable, and not without a redemptive quality. No doubt there is possibly a very noble Michael Moore below all the bluster. However, if his intentions are truly good, and he truly wishes the best for all Americans, which of necessity requires communication, love and understanding, it doesn’t help when he demonizes the president of the United States by calling him an “admitted racist” and likening him to Adolf Hitler. Nor does it help when Moore builds issue after issue with imaginary straw men and advances his radical ideology without regard for opposing views, or when he shows violent demonstrators at Trump rallies but fails to mention that, for the most part, these demonstrators were anti-Trump. It also doesn’t help when Moore only presents one side of the gun violence argument and completely ignores the other side. Finally, it certainly doesn’t help when a tax cut across the board somehow becomes in this movie only a tax cut for the rich. On and on it goes, for two long hours.

In conclusion, FAHRENHEIT 11/9 breaks no barriers, presents nothing new, and regrettably plays fast and loose with the truth. It also includes a slew of obscenities and some brief, occasionally intense, violent scenes which may not be suitable for young children. Michael Moore’s movie will most likely be welcomed and enjoyed by those who follow and agree with Michael Moore’s positions, political and otherwise. However, it probably will not be enjoyed very much at all by those who adhere to a center, much less a right of center, political perspective, especially those who are well informed about the issues brought forth in this movie. Ultimately, FAHRENHEIT 11/9 ensures that the polarization between the left and the right continues, and perhaps Michael Moore is just fine with that.