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Fahrenheit 9/11 is a documentary motion picture by American filmmaker Michael Moore, which had a general release in the United States and Canada on June 25, 2004. The film has since been released (or is about to be released) in 42 more countries (see link below). It presents a critical look at the administration of George W. Bush and the War on Terrorism. The Los Angeles Times described the film as "an alternate history of the last four years on the U.S. political scene."
The film has been denounced by some critics as misleading propaganda, and praised by others as a valuable perspective on the Bush administration's response to 9/11. Moore himself has called it an "op-ed piece" while vehemently defending its factual accuracy..
The film debuted at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival in the documentary film category and was awarded the Palme d'Or (Golden Palm), the festival's highest award, by an international jury (four Americans, four Europeans, and one Asian).
Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.
The film deals with the causes and aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, with the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and with the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq. In the film, Moore also describes the links between the Bush family and associated persons, such as prominent Saudi Arabian families (including that of Osama bin Laden). The links form a relationship spanning three decades, worth $1.4 billion to the Bush family and its friends and associates.
While these business links are not disputed, they are not widely known, and Moore has previously alleged that the Bush administration turned a blind eye to Saudi links to terrorist groups (most of the September 11 hijackers were Saudis). In this vein, he also examines the government-sponsored evacuation of relatives of Osama bin Laden after the attacks. One of his primary sources for these claims is the book House of Bush, House of Saud by Craig Unger, which Moore also advertises on his website.
The film contains numerous clips of graphic footage of military and civilian casualties from the Iraq war, including dead and mutilated bodies, aswell as footage of American soldiers deployed to Iraq who use music as a Soundtrack To War. Another portion of the film shows US solders with amputations or nerve damage. One brief clip shows a public beheading filmed in Jidda, Saudi Arabia. By contrast, Moore refrained from using the familiar footage of the September 11 attacks, but instead had a blank screen with only the sounds of the incident, then cutting to the reaction of onlookers of the attacks.
In April 2004, Moore posted a note on his web site regarding the progress of the film. In it, he stated that he was obtaining footage directly from Iraq:
The film begins with George W. Bush's accession to power and alleges a 42 percent vacation rate before September 11, 2001. The figure comes from a Washington Post article that concludes Bush spent "a whopping 54 days at his Texas ranch, 38 days at the presidential retreat at Camp David and four more at his parents' place in Kennebunkport, Maine." Critics dispute this figure as misleading, remarking that it includes visits by foreign dignitaries as vacation time.
The next scene is of Bush sitting in a Florida classroom, ostensibly reading The Pet Goat, for seven minutes after being told there was a second airplane crash at the World Trade Center.
Moore shows a Vietnam war-era document of George W. Bush's Air National Guard service record — first the censored copy produced by the White House, then an uncensored copy that Moore had obtained a few years earlier. The difference between the versions is that the White House blacked out the name of James R. Bath, a Guard friend of Bush's who went on to work as a financial agent for the Saudis and helped channel Saudi money to one of Bush's businesses. (The point has been raised that this may have been due to HIPAA restrictions on the release of medical data. Because Bath, like Bush, did not fulfill his obligation to take the examination, however, the document contained no examination results.) Moore contends that Bush's dry-hole oil well attempts were partially funded by the Saudis and, in fact, by bin Laden family money.
Moore obtained footage of the preparation for the televised announcement of the Iraq war, where Bush mugs for the camera, seconds before uttering "My fellow Americans,...".
A strong war supporter, Lila Lipscomb, from Moore's home town Flint, Michigan with a daughter in the First Gulf War, and a son in Iraq, appears anguished and questions the war's purpose upon the death of her son on April 2, 2003, in Karbala. Lipscomb later travels to Washington, DC where she confronts a woman near the White House who says that "this is all staged." Lipscomb asks her if her son's death was staged also.
As in Moore's other movies, he uses puckish humor to enliven his argument. Upon learning that most members of Congress had not read the USA Patriot Act before passing it, Moore drives around the Capitol in an ice cream truck, reading the statute over the loudspeaker. He also comments that only a few Congressmen have children serving in Iraq. He accosts Congressmen on the sidewalk to give them United States armed forces pamphlets and urges them to have their children enlist.
In the beginning of the movie, Moore focuses on the 2000 election with footage of a hypothetical Gore victory and in the process states his opinion that the public was fooled. The film ends with a clip of George W. Bush stumbling through the saying: "There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, it's probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. You fool me you can't get fooled again." He was presumably trying to say, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." What he came up with combined part of that maxim with the title of The Who song "Won't Get Fooled Again." In the context of the film, Moore is tying the clip back to the beginning of the film to imply Moore's hope that the American public will not be "fooled again."
The movie is dedicated to Moore's friend who was killed in the World Trade Center attacks on September 11, 2001, and to those servicemen and women from Flint, Michigan, who have been killed in Iraq.
In April 2004 the film was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 57th Cannes Film Festival. After its first showing in Cannes in May of 2004, the film received a 20-minute standing ovation, which Cannes artistic director Thierry Frémaux declared "the longest standing ovation in the history of the festival." (According to French news the standing ovation was over 23 minutes long).
On May 22, 2004, the film was awarded the Palme d'Or. It was the first documentary to win that award since Jacques Cousteau and Louis Malle's The Silent World in 1956. Just like his much publicized Oscar acceptance speech, Moore's speech in Cannes included some opinionated statements:
Some conservatives in the United States, such as Jon Alvarez of Anti-Americanism, Anti-French sentiment in the United States); Moore responded: "There was only one French citizen on the jury. Four out of nine were American. [...] This is not a French award, it was given by an international jury dominated by Americans."
He also responded to claims that the award was political: "Quentin [Tarantino] whispered in my ear, 'we want you to know that it was not the politics of your film that won you this award. We are not here to give a political award. Some of us have no politics. We awarded the art of cinema, that is what won you this award and we wanted you to know that as a fellow filmmaker.'"
The following comments were made at the Palme d'Or jury press conference.
On the politics of the film:
On awarding the prize to a documentary:
Originally planned for distribution by Mel Gibson's Icon Productions, Fahrenheit 9/11 was later picked up by Miramax after Icon released claims to the movie in May 2003, citing image conflicts while claiming the decision to be apolitical. Miramax had earlier distributed another film for Moore, The Big One, in 1997.
In May 2004, Moore announced that Disney (the parent company of Miramax) was blocking the distribution of Fahrenheit 9/11 in North America, citing a contractual clause expressly permitting it to do so in such cases as a prohibitive budget or explicit movie rating. However, Miramax executives indicated this was not the case. Disney stated that both Moore's agent, Ari Emanuel, and Miramax were advised in May 2003 that Miramax would not be permitted to distribute the film. Disney representatives claim that Disney has the right to veto any Miramax film if it appears that their distribution would be counterproductive to the interests of the company.
An unnamed Disney executive said that the film is against Disney's interests not because of government business dealings, but because releasing it would risk being "dragged into a highly charged partisan political battle" and alienating customers. Emanuel stated that Disney chief executive Michael Eisner requested he back out of the Miramax deal, expressing concerns about political fallout from conservative politicians, especially regarding tax breaks given to Disney properties in Florida (e.g., Walt Disney World), where Jeb Bush is governor. Moore acknowledged in a later CNN interview that Disney had told him they did not want the film the previous year. Despite that, Disney continued to fund Fahrenheit 9/11 throughout the remaining year of production.
Due to these difficulties, distribution for the film was first secured in numerous countries other than the U.S. On May 28, 2004, after more than a week of talks, Disney announced that Miramax film studio founders Harvey and Bob Weinstein had personally acquired the rights to the documentary from Walt Disney Co., after Disney declined to distribute it. The film was released under the newly-formed company Fellowship Adventure Group, which will take care of its home video distribution. Furthermore, a settlement was reached so that any profits from the film's distribution that go to Miramax or Disney will be donated to charity. The Weinsteins repaid their parent company for all costs of the film to date, estimated at around $6 million. They will also be responsible for all costs to finish the film and all marketing costs not paid by any third-party film distributors. Moore called the deal a "fair and equitable solution" and added that he was "grateful to them now that everyone who wants to see it will now have the chance to do so."
After being informed that the film had been rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America, Moore appealed the decision, hoping to obtain a PG-13 rating for the movie instead (the R rating requires anyone under the age of 17 to be accompanied by a parent or adult guardian, otherwise they will not be admitted). Moore's lawyer, former Governor of New York, Mario Cuomo was not allowed at the hearing. The appeal was denied on June 22, 2004, and Gov. Cuomo contends it was because he was banned from the hearing, but some theaters chose to defy the MPAA and allow unchaperoned teenagers to attend anyway. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' Office For Film And Broadcasting gave the film its A-III rating, meaning that it is, in their judgment, "morally unobjectionable for adults" (this is the mildest rating typically given by the organization to motion pictures that are rated R by the MPAA). Moore has commented that he is willing to "sneak anyone in."
Eventually, in June 2004, U.S. distribution of the film was secured as well, jointly arranged by Lions Gate Films, IFC Films and the Fellowship Adventure Group. The U.S. thus still became the first country to see the film's actual theatrical release, despite the fact that the arrangements for international distribution were finalized earlier. Lions Gate will lose the theatrical distribution rights when the film hits home video (via Columbia/Tri-Star Home Entertainment).
On its opening weekend of June 25–June 27, this film generated a box office revenue of $23.9 million in the U.S. and Canada, the top grossing film of that weekend, despite having been screened in only 868 theaters (many of the weekend's other top movies played on over 2,500 screens). In that weekend it earned more than any other feature-length documentary (including Moore's previous film, Bowling for Columbine) did in its entire U.S. theatrical run. The film was released in France on July 7, 2004 and in the UK on July 9, 2004.
During the weekend of July 24, 2004, the film passed the $100 million mark in box office receipts, again an unprecedented amount for a feature length political documentary.
Moore credited in part the efforts of conservative groups to convince theaters to not run the film, conjecturing that these efforts backfired by creating publicity. There were also efforts by liberal groups such as MoveOn.org to encourage attendance in order to defy their political opponents' contrary efforts.
Partly because of this success, it is widely debated what effect this film will have on George W. Bush's chances of reelection. Critics of President Bush have also expressed hope that this film can encourage more open debate on his administration's policies on account that the film's success can be seen as evidence that expressing political dissent in the United States has wide public support.
The film was a major success in most European countries.
The film has been banned in Kuwait. In Lebanon, some student members of the terrorist group Hezbollah have asked if there was any way they could support the film. Gianluca Chacra, the managing director of Front Row Entertainment, the Middle East distributor for Fahrenheit 9/11, has stated, ?We can't go against these organizations, as they could strongly boycott the film in Lebanon and Syria. Having the support of such an entity in Lebanon is quite significant for that market and not at all controversial. I think it's quite natural."
In Cuba bootlegged versions of the movie were shown at 120 theaters, later followed by a prime-time television showing by the leading state-run network. It had been widely reported that this might affect its Oscar eligibility. However, soon after that story had been published, the Ray Bradbury's novel Fahrenheit 451 and the September 11 attacks of 2001. The Fahrenheit 451 reference is emphasized by the film's tagline "The temperature where freedom burns" (compare with Fahrenheit 451's tagline, "The temperature at which books burn"). Moore has stated that the title came from the subject of an e-mail he received shortly after September 11th.
Ray Bradbury was upset by what he considered the appropriation of his title, saying of Moore, "he stole my title and changed the numbers without ever asking me for permission", and calling Moore a "horrible human being" (both quotes occurred in an interview with the Swedish daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter. ). He also reportedly is demanding an apology from Moore and wants the film renamed . However, since Bradbury has not trademarked the title, legal action is unlikely.
When Dagens Nyheter asked him about his own political position, Bradbury replied: "That has nothing to do with it. He copied my title; that is what happened. That has nothing to do with my political opinions." It is not unusual for titles to allude to or quote familiar works of literature. Several of Bradbury's own titles are quotations, although from dead authors: "Something Wicked This Way Comes" (Shakespeare); "I Sing the Body Electric!" (Whitman) and "Golden Apples of the Sun" (Yeats).
The group Move America Forward, which has ties to Sacramento, California PR firm Russo, Marsh and Rogers, the campaign to prevent CBS from showing The Reagans, and the campaign to unseat California Governor Gray Davis, mounted a letter-writing campaign to ask theaters not to show the film, which it compared to "an al-Qaeda training video" . "We've been causing them [the cinemas] an enormous amount of aggravation." said talk radio host Citizens United, a group run by David Bossie, a critic of Bill Clinton, has filed a complaint before the Federal Election Commission charging that ads for the film constitute political advertising and thus may not be aired 60 days before an election or 30 days before a party convention. On August 5, the FEC unanimously dismissed the complaint finding no evidence that the movie's ads had broken the law.
Some critics contend that Fahrenheit 9/11 contains distortions and untruth. Some say that the movie is "propaganda." In response, Moore has published both an extensive list of facts and sources for Fahrenheit 9/11 and a document establishing agreements between the points made in his film and the findings of the September 11 Commission. Both on his personal website as well as several others.
The introduction to the movie includes a collage of video footage depicting the events surrounding the U.S. 2000 presidential election, particularly those involving the contested Florida recount. This fragment of the movie is presented to convey the illegitimacy of Bush as a president. It includes a newspaper headline reporting that Gore actually received more votes in Florida than Bush did and a quote by Michael Moore expressing his opinion that Gore would have won if the Supreme Court had not interfered with the recount process. This assertion has been criticized because there are differing views of what would have happened. The movie shows a clip of CNN legal analyst The New York Times, and the Washington Post concluded that Gore would have won if there had been a statewide recount of all disputed ballots. The study also concluded that Bush would have won the election under the recount system in place at the time the US Supreme Court intervened to halt the recount, and that Bush would have won under a partial-recount scheme suggested by Gore. For more information, refer to the Florida Ballot Project recounts.
Moore's description of media reports of the poll results has also been criticized. Moore states that John Prescott Ellis, a full cousin of George W. Bush, was a consultant to FOX News that night. He attributes the retractions of the call that Gore won Florida to FOX News, saying ?Then something called the Fox News Channel called the election in favor of the other guy.... All of a sudden the other networks said, ?Hey, if Fox said it, it must be true.?" However, FOX had called Florida for Gore at 7:52 pm EST, just like the other networks, and did not retract this call until 2:16 am, whereas CNN and CBS had both retracted their claims at 10 pm, four hours before FOX. FOX was the first network to call the state for Bush, at 2:16 am, and all other networks had done so within four minutes. To imply, as Moore does, that this retraction was because of FOX has been disputed, as all networks were receiving the same data from the Voter News Service at about the same time. By that time, most networks were not relying primarily on VNS, due to known malfunctions in the service. All the networks later retracted the call for Bush between 3:59 am and 4:07 am.
Moore implicates the Bush administration in allowing relatives of Osama bin Laden to leave the United States without being thoroughly interviewed by the FBI. In his narration in the movie, Moore states that "At least six private jets and nearly two dozen commercial planes carried the Saudis and the Bin Ladens out of the US after September 13th." While private flights were still generally banned at this time, the movie does not mention that the ban on commercial flights was lifted on September 13. Moore has based this on a book by Craig Unger called House of Bush, House of Saud. Passengerlists can be found .
Critics point to various statements and testimony by former counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke, which they contend indicates that Clarke had the initial responsibility which he then passed off to Dale Watson who was the agent in charge of investigating the September 11, 2001 attacks at the FBI.
However, Clarke's statements about the flights and how they were approved have varied over time. The following is a chronological summary:
Critics of Moore have, on the basis of Clarke's statements about the flights, attacked the fact that Moore does not mention Clarke's testimony or the FBI's role in the approval of the flights. Moore's supporters contend that Clarke's statements on the matter have been inconsistent, and that his statement in March that the "request for approval" may have originated in the White House may have been an executive decision passed down for approval by inferiors.
On May 18, 2004, Washington newspaper The Hill quoted FBI spokesman on counterterrorism Donna Spiser, in the May 26, 2004 article. She is quoted as saying "We haven?t had anything to do with arranging and clearing the flights." She states that the FBI's involvement was limited to interviewing those people on the flight it thought were of interest: "We did know who was on the flights and interviewed anyone we thought we needed to".
The May 18 article in The Hill, which was published prior to Clarke's May 25 claim of full responsibility, quoted 9/11 Commission vice-chair Lee Hamilton as saying: "We don't know who authorized [the flights]. We?ve asked that question 50 times."
The May 26 article in The Hill another Commission member, Tim Roemer, as being unconvinced by Clarke's claim of sole responsibility for approving the flights: "It doesn't seem that Richard Clarke had enough information to clear it... I just don't think that the questions are resolved, and we need to dig deeper... Clarke sure didn't seem to say that he was the final decisionmaker. I believe we need to continue to look for some more answers."
Since leaving his White House position, Clarke has become a prominent critic of the Bush administration's war on terrorism and the movie includes footage of many of Clarke's statements.
Allegations concerning the Bush administration's refusal to provide information to the 9/11 Commission about the Saudi flights are disputed. The May 18, 2004 article in The Hill says that Democratic Commission member Lee Hamilton "disclosed the administration?s refusal to answer questions on the sensitive subject during a recent closed-door meeting with a group of Democratic senators, according to several Democratic sources." However it also says that Republican Commission member John Lehman "said... that he told the senators the White House has been fully cooperative."
Moore also claims that the bin Laden relatives were not seriously interviewed by the FBI before being allowed to leave. However, the September 11 Commission has found that 22 of the 26 people on the "bin Laden" flight were interviewed before being allowed to leave the country with many being asked "detailed questions". (section The Saudi Flights p. 12)
Members of the Taliban are shown visiting Texas during George W. Bush's term as governor. Critics allege that Moore mentions this in order to imply that Bush invited the Taliban. They counter that the Taliban contingent was hosted by oil company Unocal, and their visit to the US was authorized by the Clinton administration, which also met with Taliban members (although the Clinton administration later imposed economic sanctions against the Taliban ), and that the Bush governorship did not meet with the Taliban during that time. In the United States, state governors have no authority with respect to the hosting of foreigners in their state.
Moore also links the Bush Presidential Administration with the Taliban by reporting that this Administration met with Taliban representatives in the United States in early 2001. The Bush administration contends that its primary goal in these meetings was to encourage the Taliban to extradite Osama bin Laden.
The film presents the war on Iraq as an attack on a sovereign nation that has never murdered a single American citizen. The film makes a case against components of the Bush Doctrine, specifically against the concepts of pre-emptive war combined with American unilateralism. The film also contends that the focus of the United States should have been directed elsewhere - that the primary aim of United States' military and foreign policy should have continued undistracted on its efforts to find, capture and destroy Al-Qaida, their leader Osama bin Laden, their close allies and influential sympathizers, rather than attacking, invading and occupying Iraq.
Critics point out that the film does not mention the history of repression, aggression, and alleged war crimes under the rule of Saddam Hussein, nor Iraq's reported noncompliance with numerous United Nations resolutions (). On the other hand, Moore has frequently stated his opinion that Hussein was a "bad man" and a tyrant, though this opinion is not mentioned in the film. Moore has stated that noting Saddam's crimes was unnecessary considering that mainstream media have continually pressed this point themselves, making it public knowledge.
Moore alleges connections between George W. Bush's decision to begin the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and Unocal's desire to build a gas pipeline in the country. Moore asks: "Was the war in Afghanistan really about something else? Perhaps the answer was in Houston, Texas. In 1997, while George W. Bush was governor of Texas, a delegation of Taliban leaders from Afghanistan flew to Houston to meet with Unocal executives to discuss the building of a pipeline through Afghanistan bringing natural gas from the Caspian Sea. And who got a Caspian Sea drilling contract the same day Unocal signed the pipeline deal? A company headed by a man named Dick Cheney. Halliburton." Moore goes on to say that "When the invasion of Afghanistan was complete, we installed its new president, Hamid Karzai ... Who was Hamid Karzai? He was a former adviser to Unocal."
However, when Bush took office in 2000, Unocal had already withdrawn plans for the proposed pipeline in Afghanistan. Unocal formally its support from the project after the U.S. missile strikes against Afghanistan in August 1998 , reiterated its position in 1999 after several inaccurate media reports, and reiterated its position again in 2002. The United States Energy Information Administration reports that no major Western companies have expressed interest in reviving the Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline plan . However, in 2002 Hamid Karzai and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf plans of a trans-Afghan gas pipeline; Alim Razim, Afghanistan's minister for Mines and Industries, described UNOCAL as the "lead company" in the revived plans, although they continue to deny renewed involvement.
Furthermore, both Unocal and Karzai have denied through spokesmen that they ever had a business relationship of any kind; this claim appears to have originated in the French newspaper Le Monde and resurfaced in the American Christian Science Monitor. The allegations have also been widely repeated in European newspapers, although UNOCAL has consistently denied them.
During a scene filmed outside of the Saudi Embassy in which Moore is discussing the level of Saudi investment in the U.S. economy with Craig Unger, they are approached by uniformed Secret Service officer Steve Kimbell. Kimbell explains that he is just ascertaining information, and asks Moore if he is doing a documentary regarding the Saudi Arabian embassy. In voiceover narration, Moore notes that "Even though we were nowhere near the White House, for some reason the Secret Service had shown up to ask us what we were doing standing across the street from the Saudi Embassy." Moore responds to the officer by saying, "I didn't realize the Secret Service guards foreign embassies," to which the officer replies, "Uh, not usually. No, sir." Moore continues in voiceover: "It turns out that Saudi Prince Bandar is perhaps the best protected ambassador in the U.S. The U.S. State Department provides him with a six man security detail."
Critics contend that the movie leaves viewers with an inaccurate impression that the Secret Service plays no role in protecting any other embassy. That statement is not made in the movie, but the critics claim that Officer Kimbell's comment, which is an explicit part of the movie, is wrong and should have been corrected by Moore.
Under Public Law 91-217 section 202, passed in 1970, the uniformed division of the Secret Service plays a role in protecting "foreign diplomatic missions located in the metropolitan area of the District of Columbia" (among other things) , . However, this does not mean that all embassies receive full-time on-site Secret Service protection (as opposed to area patrols), nor that all the embassies so protected receive the same number of personnel. Neither side has offered a conclusive comparison of the level of security attention given to the different embassies to shed light on Officer Kimbell's statement (that other embassies are "not usually" treated this way) or on Moore's speculation that Prince Bandar might be the best-protected ambassador in the United States.
Fahrenheit 9/11 will be released to DVD on October 5, 2004, an unusually short turnaround time after theatrical release, and, in fact, early enough that some commercial theatres may still be running the film. This is not expected, however, to deter 2004 U.S. presidential election, in order to maximize its impact. A companion book, The Official Fahrenheit 9/11 Reader is scheduled for a parallel release.
On September 6, 2004, Moore announced that, because he was seeking a television airing of Fahrenheit 9/11 prior to the November presidential election, the film would not be submited for consideration for a Best Documentary Oscar (a television broadcast within nine months of the release would disqualify the film in the documentary category under Oscar rules). Moore instead planned to submit and promote his film for the Best Picture Oscar, but noted: "For me the real Oscar would be Bush's defeat on Nov. 2." Moore already holds a Best Documentary Oscar for his film Bowling for Columbine and noted that in the current situation, the above priorities take precedence to winning a second Oscar and as such, he would prefer his compatriot documentarians have a fair chance to win the Oscar themselves.
Michael Moore has stated that he disagrees with copyright laws and doesn't mind if his movie is freely distributed over the Internet.
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