Sometimes it’s easy to forget just how much of a stir Fahrenheit 9/11 caused when
it came out in 2004. A lot has happened in both American and world politics
since then, but this polemical document on the Bush administration, corporate
media and the War on Terror is still a powerful political work. Winning the
Palme d’Or at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, Michael Moore’s film is
challenging and thought-provoking, and in an election year in the United States
was released to a controversy bordering on hysteria. This media storm, along
with the critical acclaim the film received, caused it to end up becoming the
highest-grossing documentary of all time, making over $200 million at the
box-office. Although it did not stop George W. Bush from being re-elected later
that year, it doesn’t change the fact that the film, in the words of the late
Roger Ebert, “is less an expose of George W. Bush than a dramatization of what
Moore sees as a failed and dangerous presidency.” Michael Moore may have his
share of negative criticism, but one cannot deny his pertinence as a filmmaker.
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