After Bowling For Columbine, ursine agitator Michael Moore goes Gunning For Bush in the must-see flick of 2004. It's bold, broad and occasionally brilliant (check out the sound-only Twin Towers attack), but America's Oaf Savant doesn't score a direct hit.
Where Columbine's sprawling, episodic narrative served the intractable nature of the USA's gun culture, here the writer/director's attention-deficient eye wanders down blind alleys (homeland security, Al Gore's defeat) when it should focus on Iraq. It's in that cluster-bombed country that Fahrenheit really burns, nowhere more so than in the immensely powerful footage of charred children and grieving mothers. The rest of the picture lacks this impact, changing an Iraqi tragedy into an American one in its determination to undo Dubya.
DVD Extras:
With no commentary, no Making Of and not much Moore, the extras give little insight into the filmmaking process. Still, a featurette ably illustrates 9/11's US impact, while the footage of Iraq pre-invasion and post-occupation is engrossing.Another piece on prisoner abuse seems tame compared to the Abu Ghraib horrors. Of the other bits, the Arab-American stand-ups short is excellent - - as funny as watching Bush bluff his way through a press conference, though not half as scary.
