The Michael Moore movie:

We watched the film yesterday and frankly, weren't impressed. For example, in the movie there is no mention whatsoever of PNAC (Project for the New American Century). The decision to invade Iraq pretty much "just happens". Also, Moore wastes valuable time with Oregon state troopers and folks in a tiny Virginia town - to make the point that the domestic security program of the administration is a mess. Also, despite critics raving about Moore's segment of Bush in a Florida elementary school on the day of the attack - it was poorly presented. In the film, all the viewers see are clips of Bush reading along with the class while timestamps appear on the bottom of the screen (e.g. 9:05, 9:09, ...) and that takes up a total of about 45 seconds. What Moore should have done is split the screen, run the entire seven minute period while the other half is footage of what was happening in New York at the same time. A truly missed opportunity.

Then there were the cheap shots of Bush, Cheney, Rice, and others getting made-up for the television cameras.

Finally, there was no solid thread throughout the movie. Or rather, there was a flimsy one: It's all about money and oil. While those are certainly elements in the mix of why the U.S. went to war, it misses the core reason for the policy: A revolutionary, radical ideology - one that disdains diplomacy and believes that brute force is all that's needed to transform the world.

Now that we've expressed our view, we still think that given the hopeless situation with the media, Moore's efforts are overall beneficial to the public discourse.

posted by Quiddity at 6/27/2004 09:03:00 AM