Trump under the spotlight in Fahrenheit 11/9
Anyone who has seen the Michael Moore movie Fahrenheit 9/11, which came out 14 years ago, will relate to his latest film Fahrenheit 11/9.
The new film, by no means a ‘reboot’ of the old one, does share some similar characteristics.
For example, it once again explores the ‘the war on terror’ – although not in nearly as much detail.
Trump and his surprise election in 2016 is of course, the main basis of the film.
But it is the highly improbable way Trump got to be President that is one of the most staggering revelations of this film.
Who would have thought it was all because of Trump’s narcissistic need to be more popular than Gwen Stefani who, it appears, was earning more money than him at NBC?
Indeed, Moore asserts that Trump’s very first, much-hyped announcement to run for the Presidency was in fact, merely his own version of ‘fake news’ – and only intended to raise his profile in the popularity stakes in a bid to outdo Ms Stefani!
According to Moore, Trump never really intended to be President – at first anyway – but once the idea was out there, of course, the concept soon gained traction.
Whether you are a Trump supporter or not, this film is worth seeing as it has some other much more serious sides to it.
Apart from Moore’s caustic and acerbic take on the Trump election, it also examines the systematic poisoning of the town of Flint in Michigan.
In an appalling act of ‘racial cleansing’, Moore asserts that the Governor of Michigan, Republican Richard Snyder, was directly responsible for diverting dirty, lead-contaminated water from the Flint River to the residents.
Moore says the Governor did this by cutting off the town’s previous access to clean drinking water, which came by pipeline from Lake Huron.
Indeed, Moore asserts this was a deliberate act to ‘poison’ the mainly black residents of the Flint township.
In another scathing indictment of the ‘American dream’ – so-called, Moore says, ‘because it is just a dream’ – he explores the West Virginia teachers’ strike and how their demands for equal pay were eventually so successful they spread across America.
However, the real sticking point for the teachers was that their claim for better pay should also apply to bus drivers and cleaning staff.
Moore outlines how, despite the authorities railing against this claim for a long time, they eventually relented and acceded to the teachers’ demands.
Fahrenheit 11/9 (so-called because November 9, 2016 was the day Trump won the US election) also delves into the implications of the Parkland school shooting in Florida in a similar way that Bowling for Columbine did in 2002.
There are no punches pulled on the terrible effect the shooting had on the school, the victims and surviving students, not to mention the families.
If anything, Fahrenheit 11/9 is a rambling indictment of corporate, gun-toting America.
It portrays the US as a place where money is king and capitalism rules supreme.
If anything, the film is worth seeing just for that.
Also, regardless of whether you are a Trump supporter or not, you will come out of the cinema with a new perspective on the man who currently rules America.
By Mike Peeters