I just saw FAHRENHEIT 9/11 and am still feeling kinda shaken up.

[NightTrain]

As such, I don't really feel like going into great detail right now. If you have any questions, though, ask away!

[cjbuchanan]

1. I felt the same way after I saw it

It really is a very depressing film.

Here's my take on it:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x1855822

I look forward to reading your full take on the movie.

[NightTrain]

6. Some observations before I take a much-needed nap.

This was a very hard film for me to watch. Though I already knew most of what Moore laid out, I found it quite harrowing to see those facts given a human face and presented to me uncensored on a full-sized movie screen.

Some parts made me sick to my stomach, like the footage of the dead, maimed Iraqi infant with a huge chunk missing from her lower arm. Other scenes reduced me to tears, like the one shot at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where Moore interviewed numerous soldiers--all of whom looked much younger than I--who had lost limbs in Iraq. To see those kids with bloodied, bandaged stumps where their arms and legs had once been was disturbing, to say the least.

But the most difficult segment for me to sit through involved Lila Lipscomb, a Michigan native who hated anti-war protesters and rallied around the president without question--until her son, a solider in Iraq, was killed in a helicopter crash. I dare any freeper, especially those with children, not to feel tenderness and compassion for that woman as she tearfully recites the last letter she got from her son before he died.

This ain't your typical smart-ass Michael Moore comedy. In fact, Moore himself rarely appears on screen, except for a segment near the end, in which he accosts random members of Congress to try to get them to have their kids enlist in the military and volunteer for duty in Iraq. But this film is NOT a comedy, because the story it tells is not funny at all!

As the closing credits rolled and a middle-aged couple walked up the aisle past me, I heard the woman say, "And they impeached Clinton over a blowjob."

[historian]

10. quick comment

Havent seen the movie but the part about lila lipscomb mourning her son after he was killed does NOT move in the slightest bit. She was gung ho for war and all for kicking butt etc...and then she weeps? Sorry - you reap what you sow

[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Lars39]

14. What MM did was show her transition

from a gung-ho "I'm from a military family" type, to someone who understands that the war-protesters aren't evil, to a grieving mom who lost her son, to a very determined lady who is going to fight to get bozobush out of office. She also paralleled the Iraqi woman weeping and grieving and calling on God to answer "why my son? He didn't do anything wrong."

[cjbuchanan]

17. The Lila Lipscomb stuff got right to me

Her story was very real. It's the story we all worry about, that the soldiers family think we are against them.

Then she reads the letter and it just hurts.

[Raster]

20. now you can understand why $hrubco is doing all they can....

...to make sure we don't see caskets or crippled soldiers or bloody bodies littering Iraqi streets. Nope. The last thing this junta wants is anyone to wake up and smell the cordite.

[rocktivity]

12. It can't possibly more depressing

than The Passion Of The Christ.

:headbang:
rocknation

[ALago1]

2. I just got back too!

Here's a weird observation I made:

Didn't the movie seem less professionally made than Bowling For Columbine?

BFC was really sleek and had a lot of crystal clear footage and audio. F911 seemed like it had less of that.

The reason I think is because Moore hangs Bushco with their own words and actions, culling from media sources from the public domain. It's VERY hard to call the info presented in this movie false.

[TexasBushwhacker]

5. Donated footage

You are correct. Moore was not quiet at all about making this film and he said that a lot of the footage was given to him, sometimes by members of the mainstream media that knew they had something that would NEVER be aired in the US.

[shockingelk]

3. Does it use the Wilhelm scream?

http://www.fact-index.com/w/wi/wilhelm_scream.html
http://www.filmsound.org/cliche/wilhelmscream.htm

[SW FL Dem]

4. Going tomorrow. Is is appropriate for a mature 13 yr old.? N/t

[NightTrain]

7. Considering that the 13-year-old will be of draft age in a few years...

...I'd definitely take the kid to see it!

[NJCher]

8. yeah, I think so but I'm only a kitty mom

Re the footage, we were astounded at the amount of it. It must have been a staggering task to gather all that and edit what one needed to use.

The footage is very powerful. He damns them with their own actions.


Cher

[HereSince1628]

16. Well, how does your 13 year old react to authentic trauma?

If your teen is an angler and guts fish, or raises chickens and slaughters them then I'm guessing there is nothing in the film that is gonna shake him/her.

But frankly, having just returned from seeing it I'd say the R rating is probably appropriate.

I think the trauma that was shown wasn't gratuitous and contributed greatly to the emotional appeal of the movie.

[seventhson]

23. My kids are 14 and 9 and...

they have marched in protests against this war.

The children dying in Iraq are all ages of young and the fatherless and moth4erless children must live with this killing.

I urge you to take your thirteen year old.

One scene has the marine recrutiers in the malls and kids getting recruited in the school cafeterias.

They need to know what this is all about and what lies the military tells.


I will say that my son, who is very aware of politics and bright, was somewhat disturbed by the violent scenes of death *as we all were) - and my foiurteen year old daughter exclaimed how it was so deserving of the Cannes award and ovation (but the death scenes chilled here to the bone to)


But this is the reality we live in.

We will probably all see it again several times. And we were in hysterics through many parts of it. It IS truly maddeningly hysterical at times.

My wife and I had tears of sorrow and joy at the end.

This was a historic event -- a historic day.

Bush is absolutely finished and the more people who know it and understand why the better.

Bring the kids.

[chookie]

24. I think it is

It shows the realities of war. It is not gratuitous, it is not over the top; it is honest. A mature 13 year old will be able to handle it.

The subject matter is difficult. But ignoring it is FAR worse than opening ones eyes and heart to it.

[historian]

9. any of you live in redneck hell?

If so where any of the local yahoos watching the movie (silly me) and if so what was the general reaction?

[Corgigal]

13. just got home also

I saw it in SC. My husband was sitting next to a nice man and he told my hubby that his wife is currently in Iraq now. He mentioned his wife might be in the movie so he came to see the movie. Now, I didn't know this until the end because I was at the snack bar. However this poor man, who went alone, was looking like a person who has a seizure disorder. I didn't know that he was so upset that he was grabbing my husbands chair and was so upset that his body looked like it was jumping out of the chair. I'm so sorry Mr. Reynolds that you have to actually live this shit.
My husband said he can't go to this movie again, he couldn't do it again.
However at the 5 o'clock show it was 3/4 full. The 7 o'clock is sold out.

[Justpat]

15. Same here

I got home about an hour ago. My husband and I saw it in a little
theatre here on Long Island.

I feel basically stunned.

[Blue Gardener]

18. Me Too

Went with a friend that has two sons who are prime draft material. The letter scene was very powerful, I think it was especially difficult for her to watch. I think everyone had tears in their eyes.

[NightTrain]

19. I wish I were self-employed...

...so I could refuse to pay my federal income tax. I damned sure don't want my money bankrolling the kind of shit that Moore documented in F-911!

[tnlefty]

21. I laughed and teared up a few times, but as a resident of TN the ending

was a special kick in the gut. After the emotions that I had during the film I and a lot of other people in the theater groaned and there was a lot of head shaking going on at the end. I hope that everyone who voted for the Smirker in Chief and made this state a red state is happy with the result. UGH.Where is my real president, Mr. Gore anyway?

[catzies]

22. We laughed. We cried. We cheered. We clapped.

We got PISSED OFF.

/still shaken up too.

But going again tomorrow.