Heit and Hype

Finally caught the fantastic double bill of Fahrenheit and FahrenHype 911, thanks to Young Liberals (!) at Sydney Uni.

I don't want to give a blow-by-blow analysis of the movies, but I will say what issues stuck out, for me:

The tenuous connections between Clinton, George Bush Sr, Carlyle, Halliburton - and freakin' Bin Laden!

Moore's failure to obtain consent from (some of) the people he featured

The factual errors in Fahrenheit as claimed by FahrenHype

It was also mortifying to see the horrendous civilian suffering resulting from the decision to wage the Iraqi war - regardless of why it happened, or who was to blame. There is so much way to go, in peacebuilding.

I found it difficult to piece together a cogent picture of the events and politics in the lead-up to, and continuing in, the war, since both films were obviously highly biased. Still, I thought Moore's version offered more in the way of analysis than did the counter-Hype, a lot of which was personal mudslinging at Moore. But, Mike - you really should've gotten consent first. The various accounts of people upset that you didn't portray them fairly just broke the credibility of anything that might actually have been, in 911.

The complexities of this topic will demand revisiting, for sure.

For now, a question for the floor: Was it about the oil (and money), political jousting - or something else?


Technorati: 911, Iraq, Michael Moore