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by Josh Baltzell.
Original Post: Another blogger reviews Farenheit 9/11 (I did some research at least)
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I don't delusion myself and think that this review matters at all, but I think there is value in writing out an opinion and doing a little research after seeing a movie like Fahrenheit 9/11. I'm going to warm you right now there are some "spoilers" for those of you that have not seen the movie, but I don't know if you can spoil a movie like this or not.
First of all I have to admit I am a liberal. I have an overall policy of not screwing with what other people do and treating people as fairly as possible. So yes that means I believe in gay marriage. Yes I believe there are a lot of situations where abortion is totally up to the woman. Yes I think the way we handled Iraq was not the way it should have been done. But that does not make me blindly believe everything.
I saw Fahrenheit 9/11 on Saturday and it did as I was promised. I laughed out loud quite a few times, I had a tear in my eye here and there and I got angry in some parts. All that considered I think that made for a powerful and entertaining movie. Now with that out of the way let me think about what I saw critically without letting the emotion of the movie sweep me away.
There is no denying that the information was presented in a way that benefited the overall movie. I don't even think that was the wrong thing to do. When have you ever gotten information without a spin of some sort? We should all be used to it and we should all be aware of where the information is coming from. It is just a part of being an individual that actually thinks. That said let's look at some things that had a spin on them to give an impression.
1: Michael Moore showed that after planes were grounded on 9/11 there were only a few planes allowed to take off. These were planes carrying family members of Osama Bin Laden and other Saudi Arabian Royals.
Here is a blurb from the ABC new interview about what was actually happening:
STEPHANOPOULOS: Take the issue of the Saudi planes. You make a big issue, a big chunk in the film about this issue where a few days after Sept. 11, many members of the Osama bin Laden family, Saudi nationals, were taken out of the country. It was helped, arranged by the White House. You suggest it was done when the airspace was closed. You suggest that these people were not screened. And you also [suggest] there's a whole sinister subtext there that this was because of the Bush family ties to the bin Laden family. But the 9/11 commission report found that they didn't fly until the airspace was open, that they were screened by the FBI. In fact—
MOORE: That's not true. That's not true. And in fact … there's an FBI agent who was on the al Qaeda task force who's in my movie, who says quite bluntly, "No, proper police procedures were not followed."
STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, wait. But what wasn't true? Because it says here in the 9/11 commission report that these flights didn't take off until after the airspace reopened. That is true, correct?
MOORE: No, they were on charter flights. Once the airspace opened for commercial flights, they hadn't opened for the charter flights. And so the charter flights that picked up the bin Ladens around the country, that went to the various cities — this was all assisted by the White House, which really should be the real focus of this.
So what actually happen was that after commercial flights left the ground the Saudis were on the first charter plane out of here. Not all that surprising really since a press release with the names of the hijackers came out on the 14th of September [READ] I would want out of the states too.
2: The movie acted as if none of the people on these flights were given an interview by the FBI (I apologise if this wasn't shown exactly this way, someone please leave a comment if I am wrong.)
The 9/11 Commission had this to say (Please look at where I got the quote and always consider your sources.)
"No commercial planes, including chartered flights, were permitted to fly into, out of, or within the United States until September 13, 2001. After the airspace reopened, six chartered flights with 142 people, mostly Saudi Arabian nationals, departed from the United States between September 14 and 24. One flight, the so-called bin Laden flight, departed the United States on September 20 with 26 passengers, most of them relatives of Osama bin Laden. We have found no credible evidence that any chartered flights of Saudi Arabian nationals departed the United States before the reopening of national airspace.
"The Saudi flights were screened by law enforcement officials, primarily the FBI, to ensure that people on these flights did not pose a threat to national security, and that nobody of interest to the FBI with regard to the 9/11 investigation was allowed to leave the country. Thirty of the 142 people on these flights were interviewed by the FBI, including 22 of the 26 people (23 passengers and 3 private security guards) on the bin Laden flight. Many were asked detailed questions. None of the passengers stated that they had any recent contact with Osama bin Laden or knew anything about terrorist activity.[READ]
The movie never mentioned the fact that the infamous plane full of Bin Ladins didn't leave until September 20th. Fully 6 days after airspace reopened for commercial traffic (I can't find the date that charter traffic reopened.) It also didn't mention that 22 of 26 people onboard (3 of them were body guards) were interviewed by the FBI. Now I don't know what that means, they could have just asked each of them if they have seen Osama and then they were let go for all I know.
3: The footage used of Iraq before the war shows a country full of life with happy children playing.
I can tell you for sure that I have never been overseas let alone to Iraq, but I didn't really get that impression of Iraq ever. The numbers I have seen seem to tell me that things weren't going all that well there [READ]. They seem to tell me that maybe those kids should have been in school instead of playing with kites. But really the also tell me that this is the case in most of the region [READ][READ][READ] and it is much worse in other parts of the world [READ][READ][READ][READ] (I am mostly looking at Domestic product per capita, literacy and life expectancy.)
Now that I have made it look like I didn't like the movie let me tell you what I did like. I liked that it had a talk with a military family from middle America. It shows that war is not something you decide on easily. Real people lose their lives every day. I'm not just talking about American lives, I am talking about all the lives lost. There is no doubt that a lot of civilians were killed even if these missles were so precise like we were told. That doesn't mean thousands of people are not dead. Currently the Iraq Body Count website reports at least 9436 civilians dead. That is easily more people than most of us have ever even met in our lives (again, consider the source.)
Beyond civilians we have to consider those soldiers that have lost their lives. Below is a cart I copied from this site detailing the 970 dead coalition troops by month (PS: Can you honestly tell me the war is over now by looking at these numbers? How about that April?)
I encourage anyone to see the movie, just please watch it like you would watch anything political and THINK FOR YOURSELVES. Then take a look at this website [READ] because the name alone sums up how I feel about the upcoming elections.
Overall rating: 9/10 (You have to give it points because it ran the gamut of emotions and made me go home and do research)
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