Movie Review: Fahrenheit 11/9

Fahrenheit 11/9 *** ½ / *****

Directed by: Michael Moore.

Written by: Michael Moore.

 

I didn’t see Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 11/9 at TIFF when it premiered there a couple weeks ago – but I did see Errol Morris’ documentary, American Dharma, about Steve Bannon there. I mention this because when I did see Fahrenheit 11/9 this week, when the film got to the end, I couldn’t help but think of Bannon at the end of Morris’ documentary. In many way, what Bannon and Moore argue is basically the same damn thing – a revolution is coming because the powerful and the elite have forgotten about the poor and middle class, and they aren’t going to take it anymore. Of course, what Bannon and Moore think those revolutions will look like are completely different, and ideologically, they could be more different, but the point remains the same.

 

I think people assumed that Fahrenheit 11/9 would basically be Moore doing to Trump what he did to George W. Bush in Fahrenheit 9/11 – which is basically lay out the case against him for two hours, in the hope of swinging the upcoming election away from him (here, of course, it’s the midterms, not a Presidential election, but still). But that really isn’t the point of Moore’s film – at least not entirely. He spends sometime in the beginning of the movie on Trump – but it’s basically the same rapid fire points against Trump we’ve heard time and again for years now, and didn’t do anything about – from his ego, to his creepy obsession with his daughter Ivanka, to his business ties, to his racism, etc. Moore’s point here is basically this – none of this is secret, and America still elected this guy President. Why?

 

In Fahrenheit 11/9 Moore basically argues that the fundamental system in America is broken – that any democracy has more people staying home on election day than who voted for either candidate for President is a broken system – one where people think that it doesn’t matter who they vote for, because no one cares about them anyway. And then Moore makes the case for why that may well be true.

 

The strongest parts of Moore’s latest are when he isn’t talking about Trump at all – nor about Hilary Clinton or Barack Obama – both of whom he takes shots at as well. It’s when Moore revisits his hometown of Flint, Michigan, and documents the water crisis there where he’s at his best. He lays out what Rick Snyder did, what he knew, when he knew it, and how he lied and kept right on poisoning the people of Flint, even after he knew the water was bad. When he can do all that, and get away with it, can you blame people for becoming disenfranchised – especially when they see Obama come there, and tow the company line about the water. Moore does this twice more in the film as well – recounting the West Virginia teachers strike, where the teachers there, many of whom live below the poverty line, went out in the hopes for better wages, against the wishes of their own union. And when their union told them they worked out a deal, but left out the support workers who supported the teachers strike, they stay out even longer – inspiring more teachers across the country to do the same. Finally, he focuses on the Parkland students, who in the wake of their tragic school shooting, stood up, got angry, and fought.

 

Moore’s point here is simple – get angry, and do something about it. He clearly hates Trump, but he sees him as the symptom of the disease, not just the disease itself. The system set everything up for someone like Trump, so it’s not just his fault that things have gotten this bad. He does call out Democrats for the way things went in 2016 (he’s on some far shakier ground when he seems to imply that Bernie Sanders got more votes than Hillary Clinton in the primaries, which he did not) – and basically makes the point that he wants Democrats to start being the same type of assholes Republicans are – compromise on nothing and push harder.

 

Overall, I think Fahrenheit 11/9 is an effective film when its focusing on getting pissed, and trying to shock people out of their apathy – far less so when it’s about Trump (the Ivanka stuff was in poor taste I thought, and I wasn’t thrilled with the Nazi stuff in the final moments either). But here, Moore is trying to shock his audience.

 

Speaking of which, let’s be honest, that audience isn’t what it once was. Fahrenheit 9/11 remains the highest grossing documentary of all time, but since then his influence seems to have dwindled. It’s likely his message here will fall on deaf ears – but one can hope that’s not true. Because regardless of whether you agree with Moore or not – the basic message here is a good one.