Fahrenheit 9/11

Fahrenheit 9/11

Michael Moore’s latest film, “Fahrenheit 9/11,” presents a critical look at the administration of George W. Bush and the War on Terrorism. In this film Moore investigates the rapid growth of the United States government and its trend of trampling the rights of individuals, and the corporatism that is spawned out of the close ties between big government and big business during wartime. Michael Moore may not convince all audiences, but is successful for its factual accuracy in which the evidence spoke for itself, and at the same time proclaimed Moore's artistry in transposing and splicing scenes to create impressions that supported his allegations and opinions. Michael Moore has employed two main techniques in an attempt to successfully influence his audience; psychological means of strategy, and cinematic techniques of persuasion. These methods, coupled with how they are presented to the audience, and how the audience react, are what Moore uses to create a scheming effect.

Humor and emotional appeals is what Moore has used in Fahrenheit 9/11 to aid the effect of persuasion. For humor, Moore reaches for an ‘ad populum’ with his audience, looking to exert his opinion as a justification for his claim. An example can be with the Florida election, where Moore has used a fast tempo background piece of music. This sounds much like a stereotypical ‘hillbilly/country’ song; which can be related to Bush’s southern US state background. This music has several functions, including helping Moore’s rapid delivery of facts, but in this case it illustrates Moore’s opinion of the nature of the election – that it can be seen as some sort of ‘joke’. By providing a taunt at Bush’s background, Moore has given the audience humor. Comedy makes these messages more effective as it increases the liking for the source [Moore], and the choice of humor might illustrate a shared sense of hilarity that hints at a similar set of underlying ideas that the audience hold.

In “Fahrenheit 9/11” Moore specifically uses anger as his primary emotion in order to persuade the audience, the anger of Lila Lipscomb, whose son died whilst in combat duty in Iraq. Moore’s interview with Lila Lipscomb provides an insight into the pain felt by families whose children had died during the war in Iraq. Moore presents the audience with the nature of Lipscomb’s anger directed at th...

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...ainst its own subjects and its object is not the victory over either Eurasia or East Asia but to keep the very structure of society intact."

The aim of this is to strengthen Moore’s view of the drive of the ruling class of modern hierarchical society imposing essentially permanent warfare. Moore reads the quote before the end of the movie. This tactic is used by Moore to give a more memorable and powerful statement, leaving the audience his solidarity attempt to question their leader’s action.

Michael Moore brilliantly manipulates the conventions of film to make the audience see and feel these political and moral issues the way he does. Moore, an outspoken loather of the President has shaped his film like a cinematic bullet, with character assassination as his priority. “Fahrenheit 9/11” shows a series of solemn images and sound bites, arranged as a critical history of the President’s actions since he took office, including the abuse of power and use of fear tactics that have been employed for his monetary and narcissistic gains. Regardless of personal political leanings, “Fahrenheit 9/11” is an amazing accomplishment of individual expression and anti-government aggression.