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Michael Moore's new film, "Fahrenheit 11/9", aired this week in 1719 movie theaters across the country – a record for a non-fiction film that does not talk about pop icon or wild animals. Cited as the film that will tell us how we got here and how we can get out of it, "Fahrenheit 11/9" made its debut at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 6th. to a great success.
As with all Moore's films, "Fahrenheit 11/9" goes far beyond a moving and aesthetic experience. In my movie show review, I called it a call to action, a call that tells viewers to make history rather than complaining about it. This call to action, however, is reflected in a powerful presentation of the flaws in our democracy. Refusing to simplify a complex crisis, Moore's new film is full of surprises. Here are the first six:
1. Trump is only the tip of the iceberg; but it's a trick that can make us sink.
Long before the premiere of "Fahrenheit 11/9", Moore made it clear that viewers hoping to see the release of "pee tape" would be disappointed. Moore argues convincingly that it was our broken system that allowed Trump to be elected, which means that getting rid of him would simply not be enough. At the same time, however, "Fahrenheit 11/9" highlights the real dangers Trump poses to our country, proposing complex links between the Trump administration and the Nazis.
The film offers a delicate and artistic balance: it makes us stop fantasizing that all our problems will be solved by indictment; and that requires us to take Trump's authoritarian impulses seriously. In a media landscape obsessed with Trump or underestimated, this film offers necessary nuances. This shows how dangerous Trump is for our democracy without allowing him to stay in the story.
2. The dominant media is a misogynist and corporatist oligarchy that Trump played to his advantage.
The film traces a series of interviews between 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and a number of media personalities who have since lost their jobs in the #MeToo movement. Looking back at the types of questions that Charlie Rose and Matt Lauer pose to Clinton is scary. What might have seemed originally as a difficult report now seems to be a misogyny not so subtle.
The series of media appearances with Trump and his daughter, Ivanka, is also troubling. The photo after the photo and the clip after the show reveal the disturbing and public attraction of Trump for his daughter. But what really bites is the media clips where people on the air see Trump hit his daughter and do nothing. Moore suggests that the media has allowed Trump not only to mistreat his daughter, but also to harass several women, as they please. How was it, Moore asks, that Trump could pet his daughter on the air, but Clinton had to be grilled about emails? What kind of media culture allows this divergence?
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Moore also shows how Trump played the media. One of the most unexpected moments in the film is perhaps that where Moore broadcasts a series of clips where TV news broadcast empty podiums at Trump rallies. Trump was in the habit of announcing a rally and starting it late. As the newscasts wanted to air the rally, they held empty podiums, sometimes for over half an hour, while offering free publicity for the Trump campaign and suggesting to the public that even an empty Trump podium was in the news.
The film also highlights the oligarchic nature of traditional media such as the New York Times. He goes after CNN and CBS too. Basically, this film deals as much with the way the media failed us as with the dangers of Trump.
3. The crimes in Flint are worse than we thought.
One of the film's most brilliant features is the way Moore draws parallels between local realities in Flint, Michigan and across the country. Moore's hometown of Flint has long been part of his work. In addition to his personal nostalgia for the city, Flint offers a stern view of the ravages of a system that protects capitalism more than its own citizens.
This time, the crisis in Flint is inspired by Michigan Governor Rick Snyder's decision to replace the Flint Lake Huron water source with the Flint River – a decision that Flint City would be poisoned. by the water supply.
Moore shows how the Snyder administration has covered dangerous lead levels. One of the most disturbing revelations of the film comes from April Cook-Hawkins, a former secretary of the Genesee County Health Department, who says her former boss asked her to falsify blood test results and tell families Flint when they did not do it. These false results meant that Flint's children did not receive health care that could reduce their exposure to lead.
The story of Cook-Hawkins, "Fahrenheit 11/9," suggests that layers of corruption and greed and total disregard for the well-being of Flint residents far exceed the governor's office.
What will probably shock most viewers is the suggestion that President Barack Obama was also an accomplice of the Snyder camp. When Obama came to Flint to deal with the water crisis, the city celebrated, hoping it would bring much needed federal help. Instead, Obama dismissed the city's concerns, even going so far as to drink "Flint" glasses of water in what appeared to be an obvious publicity stunt. In one scene, he even pretends to drink Flint water while sitting at the same table as Snyder. Moore suggests that this may well have been Obama's disregard for the Flint people who kept Michigan voters at home in 2016.
As if all that was not enough, Moore then describes how the US Army did Flint training exercises, but failed to announce them to the residents. These scenes of urban combat training in a city that has already suffered severe trauma must be seen to believe it.
4. Democrats are very responsible for the rise of Trump.
Moore does not just show Obama's worrying behavior to Flint; He also reminded viewers how good he was with Wall Street. In a series of scenes that will likely baffle many viewers, he plunges deep into the way the establishment democrats have sold the ideals of the party and their constituents. From Bill Clinton's pro-corporate policy to the growing power of the prison population, Moore shows how, since Bill Clinton's days, party leaders have alienated voters and moved the party to the right.
Moore raises the issue of super delegates and their role in the 2016 presidential race, but he does so only as part of a broader discussion of how party leaders have suppressed progressive candidates. Rather than focusing solely on Bernie Sanders, Moore makes it clear that what happened in Sanders also went unnoticed. To make the point clear, "Fahrenheit 11/9" includes a recorded conversation where Steny Hoyer (D-MD), who has been stationed since 1981, told Progressive Colorado contender Levi Tillemann to leave the race and give way. to the more centrist candidate. When Tilleman questions Hoyer's interference, Hoyer serenely answers that he has chosen to run for the party several times.
Taken together, these scenes help paint a clear picture of why #DemExit gained momentum in the 2016 election, potentially paving the way for Trump's victory.
5. The left is the majority – but does not act like it.
Moore analyzes the main issues and highlights the fact that the majority of the country adheres to a platform on the left. How is it, he asks, that the left is the majority but does not hold power? And why does the majority feel so politically marginalized? To get to the heart of this question, "Fahrenheit 11/9" explains how a culture of compromise, conciliation and passivity allowed the left to lose.
"Fahrenheit 11/9" then turns to those who direct the progressive movement. Moore shows how a number of these left-wing leaders were literally forced to act. From Parkland, Florida, to the teachers who went on strike in West Virginia to the rise of progressive candidates, Moore draws attention to a movement ready and willing to fight for a political platform really in the interest of people. They will not succeed, according to the film, until the left acts as the national majority.
6. Michael Moore is the most important fiction filmmaker of our time.
It is no exaggeration to say that Moore's work is the only reason the public can see non-fiction films in theaters. This film opened in a record number of theaters once again has the story of the film. Michael Moore has literally transformed non – fiction cinema, not only in this country, but also internationally. "Roger and Me", "Bowling for Columbine", "Fahrenheit 9/11" and "Sicko" proved that it was possible to make films on difficult, visually exciting, intellectually stimulating and politically powerful subjects.
Moore's work as a filmmaker is part of a wider project of activists, which may overlook his innovative cinematic style. His filmmaking work has a unique aesthetic that combines satirical comedy and witty and incisive voiceover with powerful investigative reporting and crosscutting techniques.
"Fahrenheit 11/9" reinforces Moore's role in redefining what a non-fiction film might look like. His mastery of his craft is evident throughout the film, but there are two special moments that really make the difference. The first is the counterpoint between the film's prologue, which shows the shock of Election Night 2016, and the opening sequence, which brilliantly reveals both the materiality and artifice of the Trump presidency.
The second is the scene where Moore presents an educational short film of the 50s and 60s about the difference between a democracy and an authoritarian regime. Moore told viewers that he hated watching these dry films at school, but he now appreciates their valuable information. What he does not say, and what he leaves to the viewer to consider, is the fact that Moore himself has found a way to make films both educational and entertaining. Rather than letting us sleep over the classroom desks, Moore's films ask his viewers to go out into the streets and work for change.
From the use of music to the latest shots designed to engage the public to complacency, it is Moore's most aesthetic film and he is consolidating his role as the most important non-novelist filmmaker of our time.
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