First Wild Week Fahrenheit 9/11

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http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?messageDate=2004-07-04

 

Sunday, July 4th, 2004

My First Wild Week with " Fahrenheit 9/11 " ... By

Michael Moore

Friends,

 

Where do I begin? This past week has knocked me for a

loop. " Fahrenheit 9/11, " the #1 movie in the country,

the largest grossing documentary ever. My head is

spinning. Didn't we just lose our distributor 8 weeks

ago? Did Karl Rove really fail to stop this? Is Bush

packing?

Each day this week I was given a new piece of

information from the press that covers Hollywood, and

I barely had time to recover from the last tidbit

before the next one smacked me upside the head:

** More people saw " Fahrenheit 9/11 " in one weekend

than all the people who saw " Bowling for Columbine " in

9 months.

** " Fahrenheit 9/11 " broke " Rocky III’s " record for

the biggest box office opening weekend ever for any

film that opened in less than a thousand theaters.

** " Fahrenheit 9/11 " beat the opening weekend of

" Return of the Jedi. "

** " Fahrenheit 9/11 " instantly went to #2 on the

all-time list for largest per-theater average ever for

a film that opened in wide-release.

How can I ever thank all of you who went to see it?

These records are mind-blowing. They have sent shock

waves through Hollywood – and, more importantly,

through the White House.

But it didn't just stop there. The response to the

movie then went into the Twilight Zone. Surfing

through the dial I landed on the Fox broadcasting

network which was airing the NASCAR race live last

Sunday to an audience of millions of Americans -- and

suddenly the announcers were talking about how NASCAR

champ Dale Earnhardt, Jr. took his crew to see

“Fahrenheit 9/11” the night before. FOX sportscaster

Chris Myers delivered Earnhardt’s review straight out

of his mouth and into the heartland of America: “He

said hey, it'll be a good bonding experience no matter

what your political belief. It's a good thing as an

American to go see.” Whoa! NASCAR fans – you can’t go

deeper into George Bush territory than that! White

House moving vans – START YOUR ENGINES!

Then there was Roger Friedman from the Fox News

Channel giving our film an absolutely glowing review,

calling it “a really brilliant piece of work, and a

film that members of all political parties should see

without fail.” Richard Goldstein of the Village Voice

surmised that Bush is already considered a goner so

Rupert Murdoch might be starting to curry favor with

the new administration. I don't know about that, but

I’ve never heard a decent word toward me from Fox. So,

after I was revived, I wondered if a love note to me

from Sean Hannity was next.

How about Letterman’s Top Ten List: “Top Ten George W.

Bush Complaints About " Fahrenheit 9/11 " :

10. That actor who played the President was totally

unconvincing

9. It oversimplified the way I stole the election

8. Too many of them fancy college-boy words

7. If Michael Moore had waited a few months, he could

have included the part where I get him deported

6. Didn't have one of them hilarious monkeys who smoke

cigarettes and gives people the finger

5. Of all Michael Moore's accusations, only 97% are

true

4. Not sure - - I passed out after a piece of popcorn

lodged in my windpipe

3. Where the hell was Spider-man?

2. Couldn't hear most of the movie over Cheney's foul

mouth

1. I thought this was supposed to be about dodgeball

But it was the reactions and reports we received from

theaters around the country that really sent me over

the edge. One theatre manager after another phoned in

to say that the movie was getting standing ovations as

the credits rolled – in places like Greensboro, NC and

Oklahoma City -- and that they were having a hard time

clearing the theater afterwards because people were

either too stunned or they wanted to sit and talk to

their neighbors about what they had just seen. In

Trumbull, CT, one woman got up on her seat after the

movie and shouted " Let's go have a meeting! " A man in

San Francisco took his shoe off and threw it at the

screen when Bush appeared at the end. Ladies’ church

groups in Tulsa were going to see it, and weeping

afterwards.

It was this last group that gave lie to all the

yakking pundits who, before the movie opened, declared

that only the hard-core " choir " would go to see

" Fahrenheit 9/11. " They couldn't have been more wrong.

Theaters in the Deep South and the Midwest set house

records for any film they’d ever shown. Yes, it even

sold out in Peoria. And Lubbock, Texas. And Anchorage,

Alaska!

Newspaper after newspaper wrote stories in tones of

breathless disbelief about people who called

themselves “Independents” and “Republicans” walking

out of the movie theater shaken and in tears,

proclaiming that they could not, in good conscience,

vote for George W. Bush. The New York Times wrote of a

conservative Republican woman in her 20s in Pensacola,

Florida who cried through the film, and told the

reporter: “It really makes me question what I feel

about the president... it makes me question his

motives…”

Newsday reported on a self-described “ardent

Bush/Cheney supporter” who went to see the film on

Long Island, and his quiet reaction afterwards. He

said, " It's really given me pause to think about

what's really going on. There was just too much - too

much to discount. " The man then bought three more

tickets for another showing of the film.

The Los Angeles Times found a mother who had

“supported [bush] fiercely” at a theater in Des Peres,

Missouri: “Emerging from Michael Moore's ‘Fahrenheit

9/11,’ her eyes wet, Leslie Hanser said she at last

understood…. ‘My emotions are just....’ She trailed

off, waving her hands to show confusion. ‘I feel like

we haven't seen the whole truth before.’ "

All of this had to be the absolute worst news for the

White House to wake up to on Monday morning. I guess

they were in such a stupor, they " gave " Iraq back to,

um, Iraq two days early!

News editors told us that they were being " bombarded "

with e-mails and calls from the White House (read:

Karl Rove), trying to spin their way out of this mess

by attacking it and attacking me. Bush spokesman Dan

Bartlett had told the White House press corps that the

movie was " outrageously false " -- even though he said

he hadn't seen the movie. He later told CNN that " This

is a film that doesn't require us to actually view it

to know that it's filled with factual inaccuracies. "

At least they're consistent. They never needed to see

a single weapon of mass destruction before sending our

kids off to die.

Many news shows were more than eager to buy the White

House spin. After all, that is a big part of what

" Fahrenheit " is about -- how the lazy, compliant media

bought all the lies from the Bush administration about

the need to invade Iraq. They took the Kool-Aid

offered by the White House and rarely, if ever, did

our media ask the hard questions that needed to be

asked before the war started.

Because the movie " outs " the mainstream media for

their failures and their complicity with the Bush

administration -- who can ever forget their incessant,

embarrassing cheerleading as the troops went off to

war, as though it was all just a game -- the media was

not about to let me get away with anything now

resembling a cultural phenomenon. On show after show,

they went after me with the kind of viciousness you

would have hoped they had had for those who were lying

about the necessity for invading a sovereign nation

that was no threat to us. I don't blame our well-paid

celebrity journalists -- they look like a bunch of

ass-kissing dopes in my movie, and I guess I'd be

pretty mad at me, too. After all, once the NASCAR fans

see " Fahrenheit 9/11, " will they ever believe a single

thing they see on ABC/NBC/CBS news again?

In the next week or so, I will recount my adventures

through the media this past month (I will also be

posting a full FAQ on my website soon so that you can

have all the necessary backup and evidence from the

film when you find yourself in heated debate with your

conservative brother-in-law!). For now, please know

the following: Every single fact I state in

" Fahrenheit 9/11 " is the absolute and irrefutable

truth. This movie is perhaps the most thoroughly

researched and vetted documentary of our time. No

fewer than a dozen people, including three teams of

lawyers and the venerable one-time fact-checkers from

The New Yorker went through this movie with a

fine-tooth comb so that we can make this guarantee to

you. Do not let anyone say this or that isn't true. If

they say that, they are lying. Let them know that the

OPINIONS in the film are mine, and anyone certainly

has a right to disagree with them. And the questions I

pose in the movie, based on these irrefutable facts,

are also mine. And I have a right to ask them. And I

will continue to ask them until they are answered.

In closing, let me say that the most heartening

response to the film has come from our soldiers and

their families. Theaters in military towns across the

country reported packed houses. Our troops know the

truth. They have seen it first-hand. And many of them

could not believe that here was a movie that was TRULY

on their side -- the side of bringing them home alive

and never sending them into harms way again unless

it's the absolute last resort. Please take a moment to

read this wonderful story from the daily paper in

Fayetteville, NC, where Fort Bragg is located. It

broke my heart to read this, the reactions of military

families and the comments of an infantryman’s wife

publicly backing my movie -- and it gave me the

resolve to make sure as many Americans as possible see

this film in the coming weeks.

Thank you again, all of you, for your support.

Together we did something for the history books. My

apologies to " Return of the Jedi. " We'll make it up by

producing " Return of the Texan to Crawford " in

November.

May the farce be with you, but not for long,

Michael Moore www.michaelmoore.com

mmflint

P.S. You can read letters from people around the

country recounting their own experiences at the

theater, and their reactions to the film by going

here.

P.P.S. Also, I’m going to start blogging! Tonight!

Come on over and check it out.