Product Description

In the most provocative film of the year, Academy Award-winner Michael Moore presents a searing examination of the role played by greed and oil in the wake of the tragic events of 9/11. From Academy-Award winning director Michael Moore (Bowling for Columbine). WINNER, Palme D’Or Award at the Cannes Film Festival, BEST PICTURE. DVD features:

* "The Release of Fahrenheit 9/11" featurette
* "Iraq, Pre-War" featurette: The people of Iraq on the eve of invasion
* "Homeland security, Miami style" featurette: Footage of the old men who patrol the Florida coast lookng for terrorists as part of the homeland security plan
* "Outside Abu Ghraib Prison"
* Eyewitness account from Samara, Iraq
* "Lila, D.C.": Lila Lipscomb at the Washington, D.C. premiere
* Arab-American comedians: Their acts and experiences after 9/11
* Extended interview: More with Abdul Henderson
* "Condi 9/11": Condoleezza Rice's 9/11 Commission testimony
* "Bush Rose Garden": George W. Bush's full press briefing after 9/11 Commission appearance

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #22134 in DVD
• Brand: Sony
• Released on: 2004-10-05
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: AC-3, Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 122 minutes

Amazon.com
To anyone who truly understands what it means to be an American, Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 should be seen as a triumph of patriotic freedom. Rarely has the First Amendment been exercised with such fervor and forthrightness of purpose: After subjecting himself to charges of factual errors in his gun-lobby exposé Bowling for Columbine, Moore armed himself with a platoon of reputable fact-checkers, an abundance of indisputable film and video footage, and his own ironically comedic sense of righteous indignation, with the singular intention of toppling the war-ravaged administration of President George W. Bush. It's the Bush presidency that Moore, with his provocative array of facts and figures, blames for corporate corruption, senseless death, unnecessary war, and political favoritism toward Osama Bin Laden's family and Saudi oil partners following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Moore's incendiary film earned Palme d'Or honors at Cannes and a predictable legion of detractors, but do yourself a favor: Ignore those who condemn the film without seeing it, and let the facts speak for themselves. By honoring American soldiers and the victims of 9/11 while condemning Bush's rationale for war in Iraq, Fahrenheit 9/11 may actually succeed in turning the tides of history. --Jeff Shannon

DVD features
The supplemental features of Fahrenheit 9/11 offer almost an hour and a half of further manna for Michael Moore's supporters and ammunition for his critics, including appearances by two of the most memorable figures in the film, Michigan mother Lila Lipscomb and Marine corporal Abdul Henderson. "The Release of Fahrenheit 9/11" (11 minutes) collects reactions to the film from celebrities, political leaders, and Quentin Tarantino and Tilda Swinton of the 2004 Cannes Film Festival jury (but no film critics). Lipscomb gives a moving speech at the film's Washington, D.C. premiere (4 minutes), and in an 18-minute sequence, an embedded Swedish journalist recounts his experiences, accompanied by footage of U.S. soldiers raiding an Iraqi home. This provides the context for the scene in the main film in which a soldier gets his picture taken with a bound and hooded Iraqi, which is chillingly similar to the infamous pictures from Abu Ghraib prison. The second part of the DVD features consists of seven new or extended scenes (about 50 minutes total), including more footage of Iraq before the invasion; protesters outside Abu Ghraib and former prisoners showing their injuries; more thoughts from Cpl. Abdul Henderson; National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice trying to squirm off the hook in front of the 9/11 Commission; and President Bush going through the motions of a press appearance after he appeared before the same commission. --David Horiuchi

From The New Yorker
Michael Moore's new documentary is an incendiary and viciously funny attack on the Bush Administration-a whirlwind of political charges, sinister implications, and derision-in which the President comes off as a betrayer and fool who has all the substance of a stuffed doll. Moore accuses Bush of handing part of America's sovereignty over to the Saudis; he implies that the President, after 9/11, was more effective at frightening the electorate than at pursuing the terrorists; he presents America as an oligarchy in which the wealthy control everything while luring the dispossessed to "volunteer" in endless wars. Saying that pieces of this are true, or partly true, or true when joined to counterclaims-isn't the Army mostly a boon for the working class?-doesn't settle the journalistic issue. The movie's more radical allegations, which arrive like a shower of poison darts, are impossible to sort out and evaluate, and Moore often joins facetious narration to highly edited clips in a way that recalls the agit-prop techniques of dictatorial regimes. The movie is sensational entertainment for those already convinced but may repel the uncommitted. There are a number of powerful sections, however, that are impossible to dismiss, particularly the story of Lila Lipscomb, a Flint, Michigan, mother who loses her son in the Iraq war and, giving way to unappeasable grief, makes a half-crazed pilgrimage to the White House. -David Denby
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

"We were duped"
There are many memorable images in Farenheit 9/11, Bush reading "my pet goat" after the second plane hit, the wailing Iraqi mother who lost her family, Gore and Deniro partying after the Democrats short lived win - but the one that really sticks in my mind and manages to sums it all up succinctly is the elderly woman at the bingo hall who saw through the tainted slant of the media and the ever shifting reasons for invading Iraq and exclaims with toal contempt "we were duped"! Its an epiphany many of us are waking up to now, thanks to a fat white guy who currently happens to be more dispised by the religious right then Marylyn Manson or Anton Levay.

To hear it from the naysayers, Michael Moore stands in front of a camera for 2 hours launching vicious slander against righteous George. The truth of the matter is we almost never see Moore, Bush himself is the "star" of Fanrenheit 9/11 and whatever opinion the audience ends up drawing, it is based on Bush's own words and actions. The religious right has us so transfixed we find ourselves saying things like "even if the movie is only 90% true..." Well i went through the exhaustive reference material available on www.michaelmoore.com and every assertion, every statement has been published somewhere before in the mainstream media based on traceable data. Unfortunately with just 5 guys controlling this information an article about the White house flying the Bin Laden family back to Saudi Arabia where 15 of the hijackers originated came from quickly dissapears from print and funnily enough is NOT the lead story on FOX news, I wonder why.

Moore plays his cards just right, I have watched this film with several groups of republican voters and fundamentalist Christians who would typically vote for George the anti-choice pro descrimination conservative. When Lila Liscombe reads the final letter from her son before he died serving in Iraq she breaks down in the point of his letter "Thank you for the Bible". It suddenly begins to dawn on these conservatives that Bush and his republican cohorts have behaved in a decidedly Un-Christian way in sending thousands of innocent men and women to unnecessary deaths, while Osama Bin Forgotton. I have watched every single Christian conservative melt like an ice cube thorugh this section of the film, indeed anyone without a heart of stone could not help but be touched by the Liscombe family. My female friends weep and the men sit in stunned silence "Im flaberghasted" is all one could manage at the conclusion.

This is as heavy handed as the film will get, the documentary itself is incredible not just from the content but in that we almost have a new doco genre here "tragi-comedy". What we witness in Farenheit 9/11 makes you angry enough to jump out of your seat and enrole to vote (even when you live on the other side of the world like me), it makes you want to weep at the injustice, all while you cannot help but laugh a hysterical laugh at the complete absurdity and stupidity we ourselves remain responsible for. I can not imagine a more important film being released this decade.

Ps If you think Michael is in it for the money he is losing millions in DVD sales to rush the release and attempt to have the film shown free on TV. He withdrew his nomination for best documentary Oscar on the chance a network will screen the film before the Election. I have a new American hero

A film that brings out the best and worst in reviewers.
Firstly, I am not from the US. It seems to have become a hobby of Americans to wear their politics rather vocally on their sleeves. Looking up info about his film, if you're any kind of regular net-surfer, you will likely have seen verbal volleys directed back and forth between democratic supporters and republican supporters. What ends up happening is the equivalent of an elementary school name-calling contest rather than any discussion of the film as is. Yes, there are parts of this movie presented out of context. One example: When the Taliban visit Texas in this film, they were there by invitation from the Clinton administration, even though Bush is Texas governor. However, what works in this film is seeing a result of one presidential administration's decisions (and indecisions in one almost tragically comical scene) and its effects on people in two countries. The interspersal of Lila Lipscomb's patriotism to outrage to utter sadness are the most moving parts of this film. Seeing the effects of the war on those who were on the front lines and discovering what is never mentioned on US newscasts is a powerful series of images. The interviews with shell-shocked, amputee soldiers in rehab are frightening to behold, knowing that there are what is nearing 10,000 of these men returning to the USA, and to what kind of reception? Seeing Moore on the streets of DC telling members of congress to sign their adult children up for military service is hilarious to watch, especially seeing the reactions of the congressmen.

For me, all of these changes in mood, from disbelief, to horror, to unbounded laughter are what make this a 4 star film. Taking it in context of just a theater goer, and not a potential voter, make me agree with why this film won the Palm d'Or at the Cannes Festival. There are powerful messages here, despite personal politics and should be seen by anyone who is a citizen of this planet, not just the US.

Definitely A Must-See Movie For The Summer!
This film is a brilliantly-contrived and choreographed emotional roller coaster ride that incites a quite palpable resulting attitude of disgust, dismay, and disdain on the of the viewer. Mr. Moore manipulates the images, voice-overs and antics to both amuse and outrage us all at once, in an obviously outrageously satirical (and sometimes hysterical) look at the war in Iraq and the people who engineered us into invading that country, at terrible cost to ordinary American men and women.

In essence that is the simple message of this pseudo-documentary; that simple, trusting and basically honorable young and patriotic Americans are being badly abused and misled by an administration and a government out of control, a government which, in Mr. Moore's view of the world, serves its people up to slaughter without worry and care. After all, it is not, as he so comically and memorably demonstrates, the sons and daughters of the governing elite who serve and die in God-forsaken places like Iraq and Afghanistan.

Thus, in one chaotic series of vignettes, Moore corners unsuspecting Congressmen and makes a pitch to have them volunteer their kids as potential cannon-fodder for Iraq. Needless to say, the point is well taken, as only one current member of Congress has a son stationed in harm's way in Iraq. He counter-poses such banal images with those of battle casualties and struggling working class mothers crying over their lost sons after the fact. One must hasten to acknowledge that in fact, Michael Moore makes no pretense in the film of attempting to be balanced or fair; on the contrary, he is puzzled by the suggestion that he do so.

After all, as he says, the opinions coming from the environs of the Oval Office have hardly been balanced or fair. And while one may argue that he has sometimes played fast and loose with the sequences of events, or the connections between various elements tied together in the movie, there are few outright falsehoods one can point to as an example of downright misrepresentation.

He also quite cleverly puts the lie to the idea that protest or argument is somehow unpatriotic. This places an enormous burden on those who would argue one must remain silent in solidarity with the troops as a show of respect for their sacrifice. Yet it is hard to argue with Moore's logic that anyone who really cares about the welfare of the troops would take care not to misuse them or continue to place them needlessly or carelessly in harms' way. As James Bovard contends in his new book, suggesting, as Mr. Bush does continually, that by fighting the terrorists in Iraq we will avoid fighting them here, is at best an almost criminally naïve notion, and at worst, a cynical and murderous misrepresentation of what is going down in Iraq.

We are not becessarily there to preserve their freedom or ours, argues Mr. Moore, and any suggestion that such is the case will have a hard time explaining events that now transpire on an almost daily basis. Moore's intent was to ratchet up debate on the policies and practices and rationale of the neo-conservative regime current in power, and to suggest that perhaps Americans begin to question it and its motives much more closely. Thus, despite it dramatic excesses or its willingness to sometimes take liberties in connecting things which may or may not indeed be so tied, I believe in creating public controversy and stirring public debate the movie will be a stunning success, and that it may well lead to having some measurable resulting political impact on the election in the fall. Enjoy!