Post by StevePulaski on Mar 19, 2019 14:56:31 GMT -5
Fahrenheit 11/9 (2018)
Directed by: Michael Moore
Directed by: Michael Moore
Rating: ★★½
Marketed as the most anti-Trump project since any of the number of protests that have swept the busy streets of America, Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 11/9 is more valuable and far-reaching than its paratext suggested. Perhaps in my skepticism, I should've paid more attention to the film's poster as opposed to the sloppy, familiar trailer that felt more like a compilation of clips you'd find on YouTube if you were to search "impeach Trump." Moore, however, is not new to the documentary nor the political game, therefore, he knows one can't thoughtfully condemn Donald Trump unless one takes an honest look at the system that enabled and elected him. That's what he does in an exhausting, occasionally sensationalist, but otherwise damning new film that thankfully goes beyond whatever shortsightedness I feared it'd have.
In fact, for large chunks of Fahrenheit 11/9, it isn't about Trump as much as it is surrounding political events that have not-so-subtly spelled out the chaotic state of our American democracy. The opening scenes recount the hectic, unpredictable events that transpired on November 8th, 2016, a date that saw optimistic, cocksure Hillary Clinton voters turned into disillusioned souls as they watched their worst nightmare win the presidency. It's shortly after this sequence that Moore asks a key question that serves as a credible thesis: "How the f*** did we get here?"
One of Moore's focal points throughout the film is the Flint water crisis, a catastrophic, self-serving miscalculation enacted by Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, former CEO of Gateway 2000. Snyder's order to construct a pipeline that would source Flint's water supply from the Flint River instead from Lake Huron, where the existing pipeline ran, resulted in lead and bacterial contamination of the town's water supply. Several died from legionnaire's disease, and the contents of lead in children and adults are at troubling levels. Moore asserts that Snyder's lack of experience in government, which culminated with him staging a coup and declaring a State of Emergency in the town of Flint in order to appoint his lackeys to power, mirrors that of what Trump has done in the White House: a businessman rising to power in his own pond and then leaping to another for a totally new challenge with even more power.
Another topic of Moore's is the rudderless Democratic Party, which I'd argue is to blame for Trump's presidency more than anyone or anything. Thankfully, Moore doesn't absolve Clinton for her own poor campaigning in swing states, where she spent little time compared to making stops along the coasts, which were flooded with her adoring supporters and annoyingly ambiguous "H" bumper stickers. But beyond Clinton's own out-of-touch nature with working class Americans is the Democrats' own crisis of faith, as they've all but abandoned the working class in favor of the party that happily accepts kickbacks and campaign donations from the same organizations that Republicans do. Furthermore, the Democrats well-documented smothering of Senator Bernie Sanders' hard-fought, wholly legitimate campaign in favor of a compromising, centrist Democrat whose victory would've been more symbolic than impacting shows the lack of seriousness on part of the Democrats, who — don't forget — regarded Trump as a joke until he was impossible to ignore and his campaign too momentous to stop.
Moore, too, looks at the grassroots campaign of students and teachers alike, largely in West Virginia, a state still raw from being labeled as "for Hillary" when Sanders won all 55 counties in the state during the primaries. From the teacher walkouts to the impressive band of blue collar, proud redneck neighbors turned populist local politicians, some hopefulness is restored simply by Moore devoting time to letting these voices be heard. He even looks at the admirable students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, who survived the horrific shooting back in February 2018 and sparked a national movement of student-led protests and endlessly watchable debates with congressional leaders and politicians, which worked to expose how little these men and women were willing to do besides offer empty "thoughts and prayers." Also featured in the documentary: Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, and Michael Hepburn, all passionate young people in the midst of feisty, tireless congressional campaigns. Postscript: the charismatic Ocasio-Cortez was elected to New York's 14th district, Tlaib elected to Michigan's 13th very recently.
If you couldn't already tell, Fahrenheit 11/9 is a loaded film. Structurally, it's one of Moore's least cogent movies, as it's essentially him doing a running commentary over news footage, Trump rallies, and an occasional publicity stunt (IE: going to Snyder's "mansion" and spraying a truckload of Flint water on his gate and driveway. As with any Moore movie, it wouldn't be complete without a little sensationalism, and that's exactly how certain snippets devoted to showing Trump's uncomfortable frankness and suggestive behavior around his daughter, Ivanka, come off — in addition to a brief sequence where a Trump speech plays over archival footage of a rally led by Adolf Hitler. These moments are why Moore has the reputation he has, and they do work to diminish what is otherwise a compelling documentary that should piss you off if you have a pulse or the slightest grasp of the political world around you. But when your last film, Welcome to TrumpLand, was a solid but largely unseen effort that was about as effective the last Fahrenheit film from an "ultimate goal" standpoint, wouldn't you be a little enraged too?
Directed by: Michael Moore.