Posted on 06/09/2004 6:15:46 PM PDT by Pikamax
Fahrenheit 9/11 Debuts in Beverly Hills Cinemocracy There to Cover Event Cinemocracy attended the 10:00 screening of Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 last night at the Laemle Music Hall Theater on Wilshire last night. Never mind how we got in. Quickly noticing a friend from high school (we’re everywhere), we sat down just in front of the reserved aisles in the back. A legion of celebrities, fresh from the Laker game and Kobe Bryant’s last second heroics, filled in around us. To satisfy the salacious appetite of Defamer readers, we’ll mention them here.
Leonardo DiCaprio, trying hard to look incognito, sat just behind us. Nearby were Billy Crystal, Matthew Perry, Sharon Stone and date. Chris Rock snagged an aisle seat far to the left, and Ashton Kutcher grabbed the right aisle next to escort Demi Moore. Jack Black arrived a little late and had to sit way up front. At one point we temporarily escaped to grab a pen, and on the way back into the theater we overheard Harvey Weinstein express his pleasure at the attendance, then lament the lack of seating. “I’m sure they’ll save a seat for you,” we told him as if we knew the guy, to which he responded, “No matter – I’ve already seen it a few times.”
Once the audience settled, Weinstein took the microphone in the front of the room and offered his condolences to the family of Ronald Reagan. He then introduced Ari Emmanuel, Michael Moore’s agent from Endeavor, who made a few laudatory comments about the film and pointed to Michael Moore, standing off to the right side in the aisle. Emmanuel spoke briefly, ending his introduction by mentioning Moore’s birthplace of Michigan and then raising his fist, taunting, “Go Lakers!”
It’s easy to see how Fahrenheit 9/11 so sharply divided the critics, not over its political message, but over its cinematic qualities. The film alternates between long periods of slow, boring dialogue with incredibly insightful and well-crafted montages that dumbfound the viewer. We heard many sighs of exasperation around us and heard quite a few jaws dropping and knocking over bags of popcorn. A critic might easy focus on either the tedious aspects or the engaging aspects to support his opinion that the documentary deserved its Palm D’Or or did not. The slower bits suffered mainly because Moore tried to pack in colossal amounts of evidence of Bush administration deception. These portions had an almost academic quality, well-intentioned to educate the American people, but coming off with all the excitement of a Ph.D. dissertation on military history. Moore clearly did his homework - as best he could given that most of the information he truly would have liked to get his hands on remain classified or locked somewhere in a corporate safe.
Some of the more fluid portions of the film include archival news footage strung together to tell the compelling story of the President’s relationship with domestic terrorism. One of the most absorbing segments details the lackadaisical nature in which Bush approached his early days in office. Bush spent 42% of the time before September 11th on vacation, digging up the soil of his ranch looking for bugs and then going fishing, and the picture highlights the intelligence reports regarding Al Qaeda that Bush and his administration simply ignored during this time off. Moore does not argue that the Bush administration knew about or caused the attacks on the World Trade Center, but when viewed in this fashion the President himself appears guilty of gross, intolerable negligence. That was our first jaw-dropping moment.
Another impacting section featured roughly forty-five minutes of video from the Iraq war, the vast majority of which we had never seen before, and we consider ourselves information junkies. Such clips are not for the faint of heart - several shots feature bloodied and mangled Iraqi children (spliced with Donald Rumsfeld calling it a “humane” war), as well as the charred remains of U.S. soldiers dragged from the back of a jeep and hanging from wooden posts. The culture of modern warfare and the personality of the American military does not appear to have changed much since Vietnam, and much of the footage bears a striking resemblance to scenes from Apocalypse Now. More than half of Fahrenheit deals with the Iraq war, and Moore spends a good deal of time with the family of a serviceman killed in action. The soldier’s mother makes a heart-wrenching journey to Washington near the end of the film in order to vent her devastated frustration at the White House. Sequence such as this are a favorite theatrical device of Moore’s; he did something similar in Bowling for Columbine, bringing victims of the school shooting to K-Mart to protest their selling of bullets. Unlike the K-Mart mission, however, in Fahrenheit, there is no resolution to be found for the victim’s pain.
The audience gave Moore a partial standing ovation at the close of the film, not quite matching the one he received in Cannes - roughly half of the theatergoers rose to their feet at the Laemmle. Michael Moore took the microphone and thanked Harvey and Bob Weinstein, to whom he offered apologies for possibly causing them to lose their company. Harvey Weinstein yelled out, “It was worth it.” Moore then began to field questions from the audience, but by this time it was close to 1:00 a.m. and people were tired. The only interesting revelation to be heard was that Moore had been surprised to hear Ray Bradbury’s comments about the title of the film and that he intended to call the author on Wednesday. We all left the theater and congregated outside for a few minutes, then Moore and Harvey Weinstein departed for a late-night snack at Kate Mantilini’s.
On our way back to the car, we discovered that Jack Black had parked, illegally, next to us in the rear unlit lot of a Wilshire Boulevard retail store. “Hey Jack,” we asked. “Can I get a picture?” “No way, scary dark alley guy!” he replied.
“Quick, get in the car!”
[ The pictures displayed above show, in the order from top to bottom, the following: (1) the Laemme Music Hall Theater Marquee, (2) Harvey Weinsein and Chris Rock, (3) Michael Moore, (4) Harvey Weinstein, (5) Jack Black and fans ]
[ We apologize for the blurriness of some photos - having sneaked our Olympus C-700 digital camera into the theater, we promptly sat on it and busted the zoom lens so that it stayed totally extended ]
Yup
Naturally I haven't seen the movie, but it sounds remarkably similar to "Columbine" in that it is sold as answering a question, but does nothing but repeat platitudes.
I'll bet the movie does nothing to explain why 9/11 happened, or the decade long context of Iraq. Columbine was strange - it posed the question why gun violence is prevalent in America, a good question, but does little to answer it.
I disagree. I think Moore once again has impeccably poor timing to be releasing this film the week President Reagan died. I sure don't think you will see 150,000 people standing in line for 8 hours to see it. ;-) Moore is going to get the ultimate insult, nobody cares.
I was talking to a co-worker who went to see 'Bowling for Columbine' way back when. He said he could see through the BS, the selective editing, etc. He's somewhat of a film afficianado and wanted to see what kind of a filmmaker Moore was, etc.
He did, however, show some concern that the friend he went to the movie with swallowed Moore's bilge hook, line and sinker. This buddy of his was college educated (I suppose that doesn't mean anything these days), but still bought Moore's line without any skepticism.
That's what really scares me about the absolute garbage that infects the media -- print, television, cable, and internet -- many, many people don't have the critical thinking skills necessary to filter out the crap. They soak it all up as gospel. I've personally seen otherwise rational and decent people turn into absolute zombies and start spouting MoveOn.org propaganda verbatim. It's gotten so bad that I truly believe that GW will have at least one assassination attempt on his life if he gets re-elected.
Remember, you and I read the news. Most of the people in that 16-25 year old group do not.. I know, I trying teaching them fo eight years. I was amazed at how so many of my students could not name (and I am not making this up):
A senator from their state
A member of the Supreme Court
Who freed the slaves.
Who were the Beatles or the Rolling Stones (After asking the first three I thought this one would strike some thought process).
A student told me that watergate had something to do with building the atomic bomb.
Remember, most of the college students today do not remember a time without the Internet, cell phones, or cable TV, gas below $1.25 a gallon, Or the Fox network.
For the record, some of these students were very intelligent (above 1500 on their SATs), just ignorant of current events.
Like what PT Barnum said, ""There's a sucker born every minute." Or did Bailey say that - whoever?
I saw Bowling for Columbine. It was terrible, as much for its (lack of style) and sophmoric scripting as for its "message." Not only is Michael Moo astonishingly wrong on everything politically, he really does suck as a director - at least if Columbine is any measure. No matter your politics, this cow's fare simply ain't worth watching.
This movie is totally gonna backfire on this turd, especially since it`s coming out so soon to Reagans death and has been praised by the Weasels. He may have gotten a standing ovation by the Weasels, but this is America pal. Different story here Jack. I like that one guy who writes "I am so sick of this martyr act by Moore" which is the basic feeling I`m getting from people around me no matter what their political affiliation is. Everyone is just sick to death of the negative BS and this idiot is just gonna stick the left into a hole..NOBODY I know who is a democrat likes this Kerry, NOBODY, and to me this flick is just going to make it worse for him, this whole "Bush is evil" sh*t which is their basic message. "Why should we vote for Kerry?- Because Bush is evil" Yeah, okay wacko. People ain`t buying it anymore because they are sick of it, so keep it up Mikey! I have no doubt Bush will be up in the polls after this turd flick is released.
Oh, really???
First of all these pot heads will sleep all day election day and won't even vote so who cares what they believe.
Secondly: We're going to have our own movie come out in late August / early September. It will debut at the GOP Convention. It will star Ronald Reagan, the man to whose legacy President George W. Bush is the heir apparent. At the conclusion of that film which will be viewed by millions more than Michael Moore's cheesy flick, I hope that The Prez says: "Let's win one more for the Gipper."
http://www.mtv.com/movies/news/articles/1488275/06092004/story.jhtml
Chris Rock, Jack Black, Demi Moore At 'Fahrenheit' Premiere
Jodie Foster, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matthew Perry also on hand.
Michael Moore at the "Fahrenheit 9/11" premiere Tuesday (June 8)
BEVERLY HILLS, California — Michael Moore is convinced "Fahrenheit 9/11" is the perfect summer movie for the MTV audience to check out.
"The film is full of Butt-heads," the director boasted Tuesday outside the premiere of the
Photos, audio and video from this story
Leo, Alba, More At 'Fahrenheit 9/11' Premiere
controversial documentary. "It's like invasion of the Butt-heads. They all go to D.C. and then another Butt-head, me, comes to try and save the day. And there's a tender love story somewhere in the midst of that."
That tender love story turned out to be a farce, but the film community, which turned out in droves for back-to-back screenings, was more than satisfied with the Butt-heads — Moore received standing ovations for the film, which is intensely critical of President Bush and his administration.
A staggering number of celebrities came out to support the Oscar-winning director, including the Osbournes (minus Ozzy), Drew Barrymore, Ellen DeGeneres, Larry David, Jodie Foster, Viggo Mortensen, Diane Lane, Spike Jonze, John Singleton, Michael Bay and David Duchovny and Téa Leoni, who attended the early screening and reception at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Some (presumably those with Lakers tickets), including Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore, Matthew Perry, Jack Black, Leonardo DiCaprio, Chris Rock, Jessica Alba, Sharon Stone and Billy Crystal, caught a later screening at the Laemmle Music Hall across the street.
"I like his stuff, and a chance to see it early and see it for free? Count me in," said director Kevin Smith ("Mallrats," "Clerks"), one of the few who talked to reporters, adding that the film is being released at a bad time for Bush. "It seems like so many people are waiting to see an administration change that you don't even need this film to push it over the edge."
Marisa Tomei, who attended the early screening, said she hopes the film will impact the election, an opinion seemingly shared by many of her peers.
Moore, however, said that was never his intention.
"I'm hoping I'll have an impact on people going out and voting, but that's not why I made the movie," he said. "I made the movie because I want people to go to the movie and have a good time. If they decide to see my movie, I want them to leave going, 'Holy moly, that was something!' "
Part of the entertainment of "Fahrenheit 9/11," of course, is in the ridiculing of Bush. "This film displaces all authority," Moore said, laughing. "So if you're one of those people with a healthy disrespect for authority, this is your movie."
Moore would be more than happy, though, if the documentary did change the minds of Bush supporters or those on the fence. "I read one review where a critic said any swing voter who enters the theater swinging will leave the theater having swung," he said. "I kind of like that."
Before both screenings, Miramax co-founder Harvey Weinstein introduced the movie and commented on Disney backing out of releasing the film, joking that by putting it out themselves, he and brother Bob Weinstein could be looking for new jobs soon (see "Disney Blocks Michael Moore's Anti-Bush Flick").
After the long ovation that followed the film, Moore told the audience he was optimistic about the election in the wake of a recent book tour that took him to several dozen cities. "There has been a shift in this country. The average American is finally beginning to figure it out. We were duped [into supporting the invasion of Iraq]," he said.
"Fahrenheit 9/11" opens in theaters June 25 and is expected to reach 500 to 1,000 theatres nationwide, a high number for a documentary (see "Michael Moore's Embattled 'Fahrenheit 9/11' To Be Released In June").
by Corey Moss
must be counting 8 hours of sleep a day as 'vacation time'.
Bush spent 42% of the time before September 11th on vacation, digging up the soil of his ranch looking for bugs and then going fishing, and the picture highlights the intelligence reports regarding Al Qaeda that Bush and his administration simply ignored during this time off.
42% of 9 months would be what, maybe 4 months give or take ?
Slick willy spent 8 years in the same office and did NOTHING about that same intelligence.
Don't guess mikey mentioned that though did he ?
I doubt many people will watch this movie. And those who do will mainly be in California, NY and the New England states, which are not battleground states.
The film will not change minds, because those who watch it will be closed minded.
That 42% number is Million Mom Math -- I think Moore is counting any time not sleeping or in the Oval Office as "vacation time". I've seen several critics report that "fact" without using any critical thinking to analyze it.
>>Columbine was strange
I agree. It started off mocking the US gun culture, then implicated the media for its incessant alarmism and depictions of violence. Then it seemed to veer into blaming racism and lack of socialized medicine for gun violence. It was a disorganized movie that didn't seem to make a real point.
I won't see F911. Not because it's anti-Bush, but rather because Moore's documentary talents have diminished as he has become more strident and eager to persuade. "Roger and Me" was funny and interesting even though it was anti-business. But BFC was just ham-handed agitprop, and I expect F911 to be the same.
>>she hopes the film will impact the election, an opinion seemingly shared by many of her peers.
This is kind of like ace trader Barbra Streisand still hoping that her theglobe.com stock will go back up.
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