Anthony's Film Review - Fahrenheit 11/9 (2018)

Michael Moore's documentary about the Trump era is very emotional...

Fourteen years ago, in 2004, documentary filmmaker Michael Moore made the film Fahrenheit 9/11, in which he criticized U.S. President George W. Bush for his actions before, during, and after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, leading up to the Iraq War that liberals like him also criticized. The ultimate purpose was quite obvious: urge people to not reelect Bush as President. The film was one I admired a lot, though the one-sided anti-Bush perspective throughout prevented me from giving it my highest rating. Although Fahrenheit 9/11 can still be fascinating to watch today, its underlying purpose no longer applies. After Barack Obama was elected as the 44th President of the United States in 2008, there was really no reason to expect a documentary from Michael Moore about a sitting U.S. president when America was moving away from Bush 43 and started having a Democrat in the Oval Office once again.

Then came Donald Trump as the 45th President, with all of the numerous controversies associated with him during both his campaign and his presidency. Not too surprisingly, it was announced that Michael Moore would have a documentary film called Fahrenheit 11/9, referring to the day after Election Day in 2016, November 9, when Trump's election victory was announced, a shocking upset that felt like a traumatizing attack to many. Immediately, I expected Fahrenheit 11/9 to follow the formula of Fahrenheit 9/11, with heavy criticisms of the sitting President and a call to action for the audience watching. Then I found that it's not entirely what you'd expect.

The beginning of Fahrenheit 11/9 is a lot like the beginning of Fahrenheit 9/11. Both provide a recap of a presidential election where the Democratic candidate was expected to win, even to the point where some people had premature celebrations, before a stunning development with electoral college votes from at least one key swing state ultimately led to the Republican being elected President. In 2000, it was Al Gore losing to George W. Bush thanks to Florida. In 2016, it was Hillary Clinton losing to Donald Trump thanks to states like Ohio and Michigan. But that's where the similarity between the two films pretty much ends. While Fahrenheit 9/11 criticized Bush for more than half of the film, Fahrenheit 11/9 spent only about 30% of the movie focused on Trump. This is where things get interesting.

In advertising materials for Fahrenheit 11/9, Moore asks us two questions: how did we get here, and how do we get out? (Or more bluntly, how the f*** did we get here, and how the f*** do we get out?) You could look at those two questions as the basis for the structure of this film. The first half explores various factors leading to Trump becoming president, something that is also touched upon in the last part of the film. The rest of it is a hopeful examination of what can be done to counteract the effects of the Trump presidency. But keep in mind that Moore is not an entirely linear writer. Expect transitions from one topic to another topic that seems unrelated at first, but has a logical purpose once Moore explains it. And because of that, expect the narrative of the film to follow a path that is more roundabout than streamlined.

For example, Moore closely examines a serious issue in his hometown of Flint, Michigan. Towards the end of President Obama's term, the actions of Michigan Governor Rick Snyder led to a water contamination crisis. Residents of Flint turning on a faucet were surprised to find brown water coming out, and over time, many cases of lead poisoning were reported and attributed to the water. In addition to these sad revelations, there are also the anger-inducing moments that reveal a selfish disregard for human life by Michigan government officials. If you want a little humor, Moore performs a stunt in which he sprays some of the contaminated water onto the front lawn of Governor Snyder's mansion. So why would Moore explore the Flint water crisis in a film about President Trump? It's not explicitly stated, but there are possibilities. It could be seen as a microcosm of bad government policies harming people, an ominous sign of things to come, or a situation where the victims did not feel they got enough help while Obama was president.

This is where Fahrenheit 11/9 also gets surprising. You would think that Moore, being liberal, would not speak against Obama all that much. But believe it or not, he does exactly that here. Without going into detail, Moore points out two actions by Obama that appear so insensitive that even Obama's biggest supporters ought to be taking a step back and realize that the first African-American president, as great as he is, can still be imperfect. Then there's also criticism of Hillary Clinton. Moore points out several things about her campaign strategy that factored into her election loss, but he especially hones in on the way the Democratic party rigged its primary votes to let Hillary win states that Bernie Sanders, a highly beloved leftist candidate, would win if the votes were counted truthfully. You can clearly see the heartbreak of Bernie supporters seeing Hillary get the Democratic nomination, and the reason why many Bernie supporters did not stand behind Hillary in the general election.

So that's the stuff for the question about how we got the Trump era. Now, for the question of how do we get out of it, Moore highlights three important political news events of 2018. One is a series of teachers' strike occurring in conservative states, proving that economic issues such as fair pay have no political leanings and affect us all. Another is the surge of progressives running for public office in the 2018 midterm elections, many of whom are women. Two prominent candidates are Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, a 28-year-old running as a U.S. congresswoman for New York after achieving a stunning upset in a Democratic primary election, and Rashida Tlaib, who could possibly be the first Muslim woman to be elected for Congress. Then the third issue is the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, prompting a mass movement against gun violence led by many motivated youngsters, including shooting survivor David Hogg. All of this provides the hope and inspiration we all need in these troubling times.

Altogether, Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 11/9 is speaking out against Trump as well as the established Democratic party that can arguably be seen as a mirror image of the Republican party. That means, unlike in Fahrenheit 9/11 where he is primarily anti-Republican, he is taking a stand against the entire U.S. political system at large. That leads to a rather depressing but necessary realization: democracy as we've always known it in America may have been just an illusion, an out-of-reach ideal, all this time. And rather than an overt call to action, Moore leaves it open for us to think about. My takeaway is that it is up to the American people to decide whether democracy can still live on and what actions to take. Perhaps Moore is crowdsourcing ideas for political action rather than be the expert himself on the matter.

Some Michael Moore fans may be disappointed by Fahrenheit 9/11 because it's gloomier, less funny, and less hopeful than his previous works. I can see that. But for me, I was still engrossed and emotionally moved by the content and the way Moore presents it in a compelling manner. I also appreciated the fact that Moore unexpectedly deviated from audience expectations, because I do like being taken by surprise. So I say that Fahrenheit 11/9 is a very good film to watch. As for my rating, it's not a perfect 10, but a 9. It's not because of political bias like with Fahrenheit 9/11, but simply because there may still be a nagging feeling of wanting the film to hold fully together. But putting that aside, Michael Moore has achieved what he set out to do: inform us, appeal to us, and ultimately move us.

Anthony's Rating:

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