What a bullshit movie, first of all. The whole first half was ridiculous, and pretty much DIDN’T PROVE ANYTHING. It was shadow boxing mainly, and of the worst kind: shadow boxing at shadows of your own creation.

The second part about the war in Iraq I agreed with mainly, but for more obvious critiques on that, I will point you to Christopher Hitchens excellent article, UnFahrenheit 9/11:The Lies of Michael Moore. In it, Hitchens offers a fairly good idea of what kind of ridiculous statements Moore is making.

I will here offer some points, gleaned from Time Magazine, about the so-called ties with the Saudis, and the preferential treatment given them.

MOORE LIE #1: Moore suggests that 142 Saudis were allowed to leave before the 13th of Sept. without questioning.
REAL TRUTH #1: One plane was permitted to leave before the 13th, but almost all saudis left afterwards. Of the 142, 30 were questioned by the FBI. About a fifth of them, disproving Moore’s claim of free ticket out of here.

MOORE LIE #2: Saudis invested $1.4 billion in firms connected to Bush Family & Friends, and may be the reason Bush diverted attention away from the involvement of the Saudis in the tragedy of the plane crashes.
REAL TRUTH #2: $1.18 Billion of that was awarded to BDM, a US Defense contractor, for training the Saudi Military. BDM WAS owned by the Carlyle group. But before Bush SR. served on the board, Carlyle had sold BDM. So, in other words, Bush had about $32 million involved in these investment groups, NOT IN THE INDIVIDUALS I MIGHT POINT OUT. Moore, as he did in Bowling for Columbine, has indeed fucked around with dates for his shadow boxing.

MOORE LIE #3: Bush’s desire for the pipeline through afghanistan caused him to favor the Taliban at first.
REAL TRUTH #3: The pipeline was conceived during CLINTON’S presidency, and the taliban visited texas in 1997, but THERE IS NO PROOF ANYWHERE that the leaders visited Bush!

Those are just three that the Hitchens article didn’t mention much of.

Now, where did Moore get the pictures and video of the kids playing and having fun? Some saddam propaganda film? Sure looked like it to me.

One other thing: The camera was there for the supposed ‘confrontation’ of the mother of the dead soldier, and some citizen saying it all was staged. I found this ironic, because it seemed to me that that part was EXTREMELY staged. If it wasn’t, why’d Moore need to ask her what the lady had said to her afterwards? The camera was there. We were supposedly ‘there’, also the mother seemed rather calm in the confrontation. Staged was it, or no? I don’t know, but pulling a Michael Moore Tactic, I’m going to say it was staged for our benefit. I’ll know for sure when I view the tape on video and can see where the sun is in the sky. After or before the fact, Moore’s editing techniques have led us astray before, and I don’t want it to happen to me this time.

Now here’s my take on the film: Moore was extremely scattershot when he’s trying to make his case. In this instance, the movie is basically made non-sequitor in its sections because of Moore’s rabid hatred of GW Bush. No problem there, of course, but when I pay $4.75 I expect the movie to at least follow a logical series of points. And anyone who says that documentaries don’t need to do that, they should realize that the documentary is in and of itself a story, and its points are lost when it doesn’t make sense.

Secondly: Moore accuses Bush, The media, america’s armed forces recruiters, almost everyone, of dealing in lies, half truths, and inaccurate information fed to the american people. This is probably why so many people are upset with this film, because it is so highly hypocritical. Moore does the exact same thing, perhaps more so, in his fudging of details, confusing dates, and outright lying to get people to understand his point.

A message to Michael Moore: Laugh at President Bush, and we’ll laugh with you(as I did many times during the film), but lie about what’s going on to add some basis to your irrational hatred, and you’ll lose any support you may have garnered.

So, in closing, Michael Moore you owe me $4.75. Also, jsut so you know: to get your point across you don’t have to lie, or creatively edit, or make false assumptions. Tell us the truth, as you so aptly did in the last MOSTLY 45 minutes of the film. We’ll believe and agree with you in these points, but you shouldn’t surround them with lies.