Posted on 08/06/2004 10:58:01 AM PDT by presidio9
When it opened last weekend in Beirut, "Fahrenheit 9/11" achieved the almost impossible: It silenced a movie audience. Although Beirut is the one capital in the region where almost all American films are shown with no censorship, screenings are somewhat more social affairs than elsewhere in the world, with people chattering on their cellphones or with their friends in the audience.
But the unheard of happened during the initial showings of the film, Michael Moore's angry documentary about President Bush. A cellphone began ringing, and the rest of the audience hissed loudly that the owner should shut it off, prompting virtually all the people in the rapt theater to whip out their phones and silence them, too.
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Also unusual for an American documentary, the film is expected to receive wide play in the Arab world. It has already been in theaters for several weeks in the Persian Gulf, and censors in Syria and Egypt have approved the film, although no screenings have been scheduled in those countries.
A few critics have weighed in, arguing that Arabs should not be so gleeful about the movie's Bush bashing, given that the image of the region and its people that "Fahrenheit: 9/11" presents is not so positive.
Mamoun Fandy, an expert on Saudi Arabia based in Washington, wrote an op-ed article in Asharq Al Awsat, the Arabic newspaper in London, blasting the movie as racist and making faulty generalizations about Arabs, who, he argued, should not hail it as supporting their cause.
Kuwait barred the movie as offensive to its Saudi neighbors, and the Saudi ambassador to London, Prince Turki al-Faisal, was quoted in the London-based Arabic daily daily Al Hayat as saying the movie twisted the truth and was inadequately researched. (There are no movie theaters in Saudi Arabia, out of concern they would allow the forbidden mingling of the sexes, but the film is said to be widely circulated there via DVD.)
At the packed Beirut screenings many in the audience glued to the film said it showed them a way that America works with which they were unfamiliar. "What really struck me is how the American administration was able to manipulate the American people," said Leila Kanso, a 59-year-old social worker. "How can a government do that?"
Many said they wanted to know more about the reaction to the movie among Americans, who have bought more than $103 million in tickets.
The Sheep will read, and The Sheep will believe.
Moore is a traitor providing comfort to the enemy and undermining his own government. He should be treated as such.
F911 is NOT a documentary.
I guess the NYT is intent of foisting that lie on us until people stop challenging it.
Great.
If this is representative of the average raghead interpretation of this work of fiction presented as fact, then it may reaffirm their belief that they are fighting a just cause against the puppets of a corrupt government (ours)...
Which could result in more deaths on both sides (preferable theirs) that would otherwise not occur.
Michael Moore and his friends on the left are perpetrators of literal, not figurative, death and destruction.
F911 can be shown world wide with Kerry cheering it on and it's fine. The Swift Boat Vets are threatened with a Dem lawsuit for voicing their opinions. Is the conclusion that the country is letting the Dems decide what is the definition of free speech?
"...His lawyer, Qaidar Faisal, later delivered an official defence submission. It argued about the real meaning of the jihad struggle, how Afghanistan under Taliban rile had been a pure nation, as its laws had been crafted by God and not humans.Mr Faisal also quoted from American satirist Michael Moore's book Stupid White Men and other anti-western texts.
An Australian victim, Ben Tullipan, who lost both legs in the tragedy and part of his hearing, was at court. "It is hard to be in the same room as the bloke who did this," he told reporters. "It's all bullshit [what Samudra said] . . . it all takes a bit to sink in. I'm glad I came." ...
The Arab mindset has always been open to Nazi styled, Anri American propaganda.
If Kerry does win(God Forebid)Johnny boy will have to reap the fruits of hatred that this Moore-onic movie has sown in the Middle East as well as the world.
Thanks a heap, you Creep, Mike
No mention that Hezbollah offered to do promotion for this film or that the Canadian distributor said that it would be alright because it was only the American government that flagged Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, if I recall the studio's position.
One can only hope that beyond the gleeful reporting of the NYT, et. al., there are real people who live in the M.E. (particularly, but also anywhere in the world) that will see his work for what it is. That goes for our soldiers too, and I hope and believe they at least will be too smart to buy into this (expletive deleted).
Is "Leila Kanso" a Lebanese name?
Do sedition laws apply any more?
Not to mention how ironic it is of the Gov'ts there in the middle east and how they represent themselves to their people.
In another time, not so long ago really..Mr Moore and Mr Kerry..along with their minions.. would no longer be alive, having been hung from the gallows in the public square long ago...
Six words: "Aid and comfort to our enemies." Moore ought to be a dead man.
In many ways I wish that the Attorney General would take a stand and just do that. We need to rid our country of this anti-Americanism and restore REAL patriotism to the people. I think that hanging a couple high-profile traitors would go a LONG way.
If the Poodle wins, we're ALL going to pay the price for this brand of traitorous poison. We're going to be very sorry we've forgotten the lessons of history.
Well, if it's inflaming anti-US hatred and getting US citizens killed, he'll certainly achieve it.
Still making money on the backs of the dead. There are no words that I can type on this forum that would describe the absolute hatred I have for this piece of human refuse.
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