[subject redacted to forestall violence from wisn]

[rone]

Christopher Hitchens brutalizes Fahrenheit 9/11.

Comments

[blarglefiend.livejournal.com]

Then there's this (http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/review/2004/06/23/911_nay/index.html), from Salon. Not what I'd call a glowing endorsement.

from the article

[denshi.livejournal.com]

"However, I think we can agree that the film is so flat-out phony that "fact-checking" is beside the point."

So.... he didn't bother fact-checking?

That article is a collection of straw-man and ad hominem attacks while Hitchens masturbates with his thesaurus. Not very convincing.

[rjray.livejournal.com]

I gotta agree. I'm still very peeved that after I wrote a glowing review of _Bowling_, I later learned MM had played fast and loose with the editing techniques and details. That having been said, I got an overwhelming feeling from this review that the writer had most of it drafted out in his head before he saw the film. He doesn't like Moore, and probably nothing short of a pro-Bush fluff piece would have gotten him to write a kind word. This movie will be very partisan by nature, and I think the odds of people being able to have a balanced, dispassionate discussion of it are rought the same as those of a snowball's survival in the Ninth Circle.

(Of course, I plan on seeing it this weekend anyway. I mean, by Monday all the cool kids will have seen it, and I'll be the only uncool one if I don't.)

After seeing the film,

[vardissakheli.livejournal.com]

I have to wonder what movie Hitchens was watching. The one I saw was mostly about the domination of the American people through fear, not any kind of whodunit regarding the specifics of the 9/11 attack.

[erikred.livejournal.com]

Here we glimpse a possible fusion between the turgid routines of MoveOn.org and the filmic standards, if not exactly the filmic skills, of Sergei Eisenstein or Leni Riefenstahl.

Leni Riefenstahl? This is the silliest attempt to invoke Godwin's Law (http://www.faqs.org/faqs/usenet/legends/godwin/) I've seen in print. Why bother with the director of Triumph of the Will (http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0025913/) when you can just say "Hitler! Hitler! Hitler!" and save us all the trouble of reading the rest of the article?

This is not a review. This is, as Randy noted, a continuation of a personal vendetta against Moore.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Hey, i think comparing Moore to Riefenstahl is more of a compliment than Moore deserves.

[erikred.livejournal.com]

Let it never be said that the man does not generate strong feelings.

Technique-wise, I'd say you're right. He's not so down with the fascist thing, though. And no, this is no Alexander Nevsky we're talking about here.

[vspope.livejournal.com]

Moore must've spilled Hitchens' liquor bottle or something.

[lots42.livejournal.com]

Out of the entire movie, the one bit they show in previews is Bush daring to talk about golf during a golf game

[boutell.livejournal.com]

That does sounds a bit strange out of context. The preview I saw, though, showed Bush congratulating the "haves and the have-mores" and informing them that "some people call you the elite... I call you my base." Which I found rather effective. And rather hard to explain away, too.

[lots42.livejournal.com]

I thought Bush was talking about S'mores, the campfire snack. Seriously.

[mrbalihai.livejournal.com]

Christopher Hitchens' gig is tearing down figures that other people idolize (e.g. Mother Theresa), and he's widely considered to be a neo-con chickenhawk, so that's going to disqualify this article automatically in the minds of a lot of people.

Based on his previous films, I've come to expect Moore to contradict himself and play fast and loose with the facts, what bothers me more is the fraudulent way he has promoted this film, claiming censorship by Miramax and Disney when in fact, there was none.

Bottom line for me: I just think it's sad that someone as obnoxious, cheap, hysterical, and smug as Moore has become an elder spokesman for progressive politics.

[erikred.livejournal.com]

Studs Terkel wrote a fascinating letter to The Nation on Hitchens. (http://users.rcn.com/peterk.enteract/studsletter.html)

[bebopmonkey.livejournal.com]

I would welcome a better spokesman. However, for whatever reason (perhaps because of his faults), he hasnt been totally discredited yet. He is persistent, and he gets the issues out there, however gracelessly.

The bottom line is, you can criticize his style, but he gets it out there, much the same as the right's propaganda machine gets their message out.

[gailg.livejournal.com]

I actually found his thing on Mother Teresa very interesting and revealing.

[palecur.livejournal.com]

Chris Hitchens is the columnist you'd grow up to be if you had more cigarettes and booze and less sweet love in your life.

Heh

[arian1.livejournal.com]

Funny thing, the St Louis Dispatch, here in Ashcroft-central. Redneck Ground Zero. Hell on Earth, gave the movie a glowing review and four stars.

Wierd