Do We Really Need Another Fahrenheit 9/11?

By Katey Rich

As I wrote in the film news roundup, Michael Moore is working on a new documentary, returning to politics after his take on health care, Sicko, yielded about 10% of the box-office gross of monster hit Fahrenheit 9/11. Apparently the new documentary will use the phrase Fahrenheit 9/11 1/2 somewhere in the title, a phrase made even more meaningless by the fact that Fahrenheit 9/11, as a title, never signified anything to begin with.

When Moore announced that would be the title of his next documentary back in 2003, both the media hound and Ray Bradbury reader in me were excited. It seemed likely that Moore would tackle the rampart censorship within the Bush administration, from secret documents and Scooter Libby to even the global gag rule on AIDS education worldwide. And that seems like it might be where Moore started out, but the movie that emerged was more of a scattered polemic that indicted the administration for having ties to the Saudi family, therefore benefiting greatly from the war in Iraq that has only gotten worse since Moore tried to talk us out of re-electing the guy who started it. Even at the time, when, unbelievably, we didn't know how much worse it would get, it seemed like there were still bigger fish to fry.

So it worried me when I read this quote in the Reporter's write-up on the new film: "Fahrenheit 9/11 was really about one event -- what led up to it and what the consequences were," Overture's Danny Rosett said. "This is much broader." Really? Fahrenheit 9/11 was nothing if not broad, tackling dead soldiers and dastardly recruiters and the hunt for Osama bin Laden and Bush himself in a melange that was powerful but directionless. The bogeyman will be the same in the sequel, but by focusing on the rest of the world, won't Moore just be spreading himself even thinner?

The French were so thrilled with Moore in 2004 that they awarded him the Palme d'Or, and surely they'll be glad to see themselves in his next movie, represented as another bunch that had no reason to hate us until we stomped all over their goodwill. But with the recent flood of documentaries about the Iraq War and the Bush administration, it once again seems as if Moore is trotting off in one direction-- or many directions-- while there are so many issues left to be tackled. He has the power, the clout and the skill to make a truly devastating piece of work about the Bush administration, but he continues to place his target too far away from where it is truly needed.