Fahrenheit 9/11 wins Palme d’Or at Cannes

[erik_kosberg]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3739325.stm

The critical reaction to the film has generally been positive, with praise coming from The Washington Post, Time Magazine and British newspapers including the Independent and the Telegraph.

However, others have been more critical of the film. The Hollywood Reporter said Moore was "pioneering a reality film as an election device."

And trade paper Variety described it as "rather less incendiary than expected" and said it was "a blatant cinematic 2004 campaign pamphlet".

[lambchops]

Woo-hoo! I can't wait to see it. Then again, those words are oozing from out a woman's keyboard who has loved Michael Moore since his beginning with Roger & Me. Plus, it doesn't hurt that he has a vested interest in Michigan...

[lambchops]

http://www.rte.ie/arts/2004/0601/moorem.html

Looks like the rights were purchased by the Weinstein's of Miramax. They are setting up a new company to distribute the film for a July release.

[frazzledspice]

Make that June 25th.

http://www.indielondon.co.uk/film/fa...lease_reac.htm

Leading the accolades, is Time Magazine, which declared it to be ‘a brisk and entertaining indictment of the Bush Administration’s middle East policies before and after September 11, 2001’.

While the New York Times referred to it as ‘Moore's most disciplined and powerful movie to date’.

The Washington Post went on to say that ‘what's remarkable here isn't Moore's political animosity, or ticklish wit. It's the well-argued, heartfelt power of his persuasion’.

The NY Post, however, calls it "a lot of hot air."

[lambchops]

Hot air, wit...it all works for me

[erik_kosberg]

http://www.camworld.com/archives/001270.html

Ever since this movie was added to the IMdb database, it has been receiving a 70% to 30% split in people rating it 10 vs 1. A very very small percentage of people are rating it anything between. This clearly shows the hard-line partisanship of political activists trying to use IMdb as an early indicator to the rest of the world about how to react to the movie, which doesn't even hit theatres until June 25. Fascinating...

For a better understanding of what's going on here, read some of the user comments. Remember, probably less than a few hundred people worldwide have seen this movie to-date.

The message boards are full of threads (like this one) from activists saying they're creating multiple fake IMdb user accounts just so they can vote 1 on this movie. Seems a little pathetic.

[frazzledspice]

It's opening on 500 screens. It cost $6 million to make, but $10 million is being spent to promote it (the most ever for a documentary.)

It shows a beheading and gruesome shots of dead Iraqis. Even so, Moore has engaged former NY Governor Mario Cuomo (whom I assume must now be an attorney in private practice) to try to get the "R" rating changed to "PG-13" since it would make the movie more marketable.

I don't know. To me, an actual beheading would definitely put a movie into the "rated R" category, and yet I remember seeing Buddhist monks setting themselves afire on network TV to protest the Vietnam War when I was young, and no one censored it.

The USA Today article:

http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/...arketing_x.htm

I definitely want to see it. Whether the Bush/Bin Laden allegations are true or not, or whether the Republicans win or not in November, I think that the presence of Michael Moore on the media scene keeps politicians on their guard and, hopefully, eliminates some of their most flagrant offenses.

But I will close my eyes during the beheading, as I do during most seriously violent scenes.

[poseidon]

To describe this film as dishonest and demagogic would almost be to promote those terms to the level of respectability. To describe this film as a piece of crap would be to run the risk of a discourse that would never again rise above the excremental.

A commentary by Christopher Hitchens.

[realtraveller]

Ray Bradbury is extremely ticked off that Moore is copycatting the title of his masterpiece. Unfortunately for Bradbury, titles cannot be copyrighted.

[frazzledspice]

Could Michael Moore be more controversial than Mel Gibson?

The vilitication of Gibson's film only amounted to free publicity as it broke box office records and converted hearts.

Maybe the conservatives should just sit this one out.

I'm thinking that, just around the time all the "Fahrenheit 911" hoopla dies down, "The Hunting of the President," a film narrated by Morgan Freeman and directed by Harry Thomason, will be coming out.

It's premiering November 6.

http://www.ultimatedvd.org/en/Traile..._Id=-547140476

There can be no doubt that we live in one of the most tumultuous political climates of the nation's history, a climate where politicians can be toppled on a whim, election results disputed in the country's highest courts, and governors unceremoniously recalled. It's enough to leave even the most cynical voter asking, how did this happen? Harry Thomason and Nickolas Perry's incendiary documentary, based on the best-selling book by Gene Lyons and Joe Conason, offers a glimpse at the genesis of these partisan vendettas and explores the myths and truths behind the nearly 10-year campaign to systematically destroy the political legacy of the Clintons. Using previously unreleased materials, interviews, and shocking revelations from both sides of the beltway, this probing work focuses on the smear campaign against Clinton from his gubernatorial days in Arkansas leading up to and including his impeachment trial. Kenneth Starr fans, beware. Less of an advocacy film and more of an alarming treatise on the political power of the media and personal interests, "The Hunting of the President" offers us a gallery of defeated politicians, disappointed office seekers, right-wing pamphleteers, wealthy eccentrics, zany private detectives, religious fanatics, and die-hard segregationists, all chiming in discord from the tops of their soapboxes.

[frazzledspice]

To describe this film as dishonest and demagogic would almost be to promote those terms to the level of respectability. To describe this film as a piece of crap would be to run the risk of a discourse that would never again rise above the excremental.

A commentary by Christopher Hitchens.

When I lived in St. Louis, a fundamentalist neighbor of mine once invited me to go to the "Living World" exhibit at the zoo with her minister, who would take us through it explaining all the Biblical inaccuracies.

Maybe conservative guides can bring tours of diehard conservatives to Moore's film, explaining all the political inaccuracies along the way.

In lots of places, you can rent movie theatres for 10:30 a.m. performances. Many churches rented out theatres for Gibson's film for senior citizen groups. They watched the film and then had a Bible study/discussion.

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

realtraveller said

Ray Bradbury is extremely ticked off that Moore is copycatting the title of his masterpiece. Unfortunately for Bradbury, titles cannot be copyrighted.

The other half of this story is Angering Ray Bradbury has upset Michael Moore.

[hymie[$]]

realtraveller said

Unfortunately for Bradbury, titles cannot be copyrighted.

But very fortunately for the rest of us. Down with copyright! Down with patents! Down with trademarks!

[AuntieEmma[$]]

Ray Bradbury is extremely ticked off that Moore is copycatting the title of his masterpiece.

Well, then there are Ray Bradbury's titles ...

"Something Wicked This Way Comes" <-- copycatted from Shakespeare

"I Sing The Body Electric" <-- copycatted from Walt Whitman

"The Golden Apples of the Sun" <-- copycatted from Yeats

[drmomentum[$]]

Bradbury is being a nut. Of course the title of this film won't be confused with his title, but it will attract people to read his book (not that his book went unnoticed before).

In any case, I have to think that there has to be some other issue driving his displeasure. Or he's just a nut.

-JP

[eris esoteric]

AuntieEmma said

Well, then there are Ray Bradbury's titles ...

"Something Wicked This Way Comes" <-- copycatted from Shakespeare

"I Sing The Body Electric" <-- copycatted from Walt Whitman

"The Golden Apples of the Sun" <-- copycatted from Yeats

You're absolutely right. Bradbury should have done the polite thing and asked those writers if it was OK for him to steal their lines for his titles...

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

drmomentum said

Bradbury is being a nut. Of course the title of this film won't be confused with his title, but it will attract people to read his book (not that his book went unnoticed before).

In any case, I have to think that there has to be some other issue driving his displeasure. Or he's just a nut.

-JP

Or there's the new edition of the novel coming out in 8 weeks, or there's the new film version in the works... hmmm, in that case, who's riding on whose publicity coattails?

[AuntieEmma[$]]

'Fahrenheit' turns on box office heat

Michael Moore's anti-Bush film breaks the single-day records at the two New York theaters...

The movie ... sold $49,000 worth of tickets at the Loew's Village 7 theater, beating the venue's single-day record of $43,435 held by 1997's "Men in Black," ...

At the Lincoln Plaza theater, "Fahrenheit 9/11" took in more than $30,000 to top the $24,013 set by "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" in 2000....

... the company debuted the movie in the two theaters to help build good word-of- mouth -- friend telling friend -- publicity ahead of the wide debut Friday when it plays in 868 theaters in all 50 states...

Online ticket service Fandango.com reported Wednesday that "Fahrenheit 9/11" was making up 48 percent of advance ticket sales for the weekend ahead, compared to 11 percent for "Dodgeball" and 9 percent for next week's "Spider- Man 2."

http://money.cnn.com/2004/06/24/news...ex.htm?cnn=yes

[poseidon]

Michael Moore's film "Fahrenheit 9/11" criticizes President Bush for listening to Sarasota second-graders read a story for nearly seven minutes after learning the nation was under attack on Sept. 11, 2001.

But Gwendolyn Tose'-Rigell, the principal at Emma E. Booker Elementary School, says Bush handled himself properly.

--snip--

Tose'-Rigell said she plans to publish her account of the morning of Sept. 11 from pages she wrote in her journal following the attack. The principal said she didn't vote for Bush. "But that day I would have voted for him."

[drmomentum[$]]

Of course, without knowing specifically what Moore's criticism is, this quote is rather useless.

I guess people who watch the film of those seven minutes can decide how they feel. Is giving them that opportunity somehow a problem?

-JP

[anderclayton]

Hmm... I think that I read about Bradbury suing someone else about copyright issues. I could be wrong there though so... Shrug.

Ander