Fahrenheit 9/11: Critic Reviews

Potent and infuriating.

It is worth seeing, debating and thinking about, regardless of your political allegiances.

The documentary's scathing attack on the war in Iraq and George W. Bush's presidency is informative, provocative, frightening, compelling, funny, manipulative and, most of all, entertaining.

The best thing about Fahrenheit 9/11 is that viewers can disagree with the filmmaker's own assessment that the war was fought for money and power but still emerge with some healthy questions of their own.

What's remarkable here isn't Moore's political animosity or ticklish wit. It's the well-argued, heartfelt power of his persuasion.

Should be seen because it takes off the gloves and wades into the fray, because it synthesizes the anti-Bush argument like no other work before it, and because it forces you to decide for yourself exactly where passion starts to warp point of view.

If Moore is formidable, it's not because he is a great filmmaker (far from it), but because he infuses his sense of ridicule with the fury of moral indignation. Fahrenheit 9/11 is strongest when that wrath is vented on Bush and his cohorts.

The information here isn't necessarily new, but it is packaged in an acid-tongued way along with powerhouse visuals that drive home the filmmaker's nakedly political views.

One every American should see.

Love it or hate it, Fahrenheit is unprecedented in its relentless and up-to-the- minute attack on a sitting president.

At its best, the film is also a powerful, furious, loving -- and, at times, manipulative -- treatise on family values.

This is the most comprehensive diatribe ever filmed against Bush and his cronies (even though, by necessity, it is focused primarily on Iraq).

This is Moore's most powerful movie -- the largest in scope, the most resourceful and skillful in means -- and the best things in it have little to do with his usual ideological take on American power and George Bush.

The film doesn't go for satirical humor the way Moore's Roger & Me and Bowling for Columbine did. Moore's narration is still often sarcastic, but frequently he lets his footage speak for itself.

Moore's ability to kick off a debate -- even a vicious one -- remains priceless, as do his gifts for ridicule, for wringing laughs, shock and tears from his subjects and for shedding a spotlight on ordinary Americans.

Little of this information is new, but Moore packages what's already known about George W. Bush and his presidency into a piece of rhetoric so persuasive that the Bush reelection campaign could spend the next five months trying to refute it.

Moore's most accomplished, most devastating and most flawed film to date.

Moore states his argument forcefully and effectively, alternating cold, factual data with emotionally wrenching -- and draining -- human episodes.

A film every citizen of voting age in America should see.

Not a film to be ignored.

I urge all my readers to see the film and judge it for yourselves. It is, at the very least, one of the most thought-provoking releases of the year.

Undeniably galvanizing, immensely watchable and damned good filmmaking.

The sporadically effective docu trades far more in emotional appeals than in systematically building an evidence-filled case against the president and his circle.

A lot of hot air.