The Documentary Fahrenheit 11 of September by Michael Moore - Research Paper Example

Michael Moore, Fahrenheit 9/11 The documentary, Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore is an autonomously creative work that that dispenses its views at the expense of any predicament, but without fear. The film captures all facets of impunity in the American society. The documentary highlights on the public perceptions on what the media poses compared to the president’s malice. The documentary avails its contents to the main facets of the society such as people, events and the contemporary issues. The movie mainly criticizes the American presidential systems that are perceived by the citizens and the general world as superb. Generally, the movie emphasizes on the political drawbacks of the American systems. The movie intends to base its arguments in a way to qualify them as undisputable. There are numerous relations incorporated in the movie and through the videos from the actual scenes and profound reasoning to qualify the occurrences (Moore, p. 100). The people The documentary addresses the American people with intentions of enlightening them and offering different views of the political matters. Imperatively, the documentary addresses the economic classes of the Americans and the majority involved in wars. For instance, majority of the lower class members of the American society serve as the servicemen in the military. The filmmaker identifies that only one member of congress has a child operating in Iraq during the war (Nichols, p. 88). The documentary also stresses on the unfairness of actions of the president George Bush to the Iraq people. The movie outlines that the media are in support of the US invasion to Iraq but do not highlight the underlining motives. Many people are against the Iraq invasion but the media would wish to conceal the fundamental gist that would expose the reality. The filmmaker exposes the American government and George W Bush’s reign as threatening to the Islamic society and targeting grab of their wealth such as oil and natural gas. The documentary also addresses on suppressed options of the [population on their political rights. There is a controversial elections outcome that showed some areas in favour of George W Bush coming into power. The documentary poses the elections as rigged and flawed with concrete evidence in Florida. The inauguration of the president before the stipulated time manifested impunity of the people’s rights. The people engaged in to street demonstrations to express their anger on the actions taken by the state on their rights. People dedicated their lives to the state but only to be rewarded by forceful denial of rights. The documentary even indicatives the president’s limo pelted by eggs (Moore, p. 99). The Events The first event highlighted in the film is the 2000 election that led to the premature declaration of George W Bush as the winner. The movie outlines the election as composed of extensive fraud against Bush’s competitor. Consequentially, this event sets the president’s reign under controversy and disrespect. The event acts as a dawn of the president’s exposition of malice throughout his era. George W Bush indulges in little focus on democracy and suppresses people’s democratic rights especially in Iraq (Moore, p. 84). The September 11 bombing of the World Trade Center is another event mentioned in the film. The filmmaker utilizes sounds only to depict the horrific occurrence at the moment of bombing process. The aftermath of the event is a common situation of falling remains of the building, the witnesses’ views and the survivors. The film indicates that the president is informed of the first attack on the building on his way to a function in a pre school, the president continues his speech for sometime even when infirmed of the declaration of the nation’s attack by the second plane. The perception of this scenario is the president’s belief on the American supremacy and less audience to probability (Nichols, p. 74). Moore outlines the next event of the Iraq Invasion of 2003 as a revenge of the American government. The occurrence entailed a full-force of the American forces attacking the Iraq through its headquarters in Bangladesh. People are humiliated, harassed and attacked by numerous machineries. There is a total rampage min Iraq with its president declared wanted. The filmmaker tosses on people’s psychology that Bush wanted to win the American’s confidence on security. Nonetheless, the film exposes the condition to be propelled by personal and family issues of Bush and the Asians (Moore, p. 92). The Issue Moore emphasizes that Bush does not serve the Americans honestly but has personal problems with Asia. This conclusion is based on the analysis of the records of Air National Guard service. The findings outline that the Saudis and Osama’s family partly funded the dry hole oil well attempts of George Bush through James Bath (Kress & Leuwen, p. 106). The film also predicts more reasons for war in Afghanistan due to the pipeline of the natural gas that ;passes via Afghanistan leading to the Indian Ocean. President Bush is triggered by personal opinions and pursues self vengeance at the expense of the Americans. The film attains honesty through exposition of incredible scenes (Moore, p. 101). However, there is a highlight on the Iraq views and their welfare before and after the war. The Iraqis state that they lead a better life than that they had in the previous times. The Viewpoint The filmmaker intends to achieve an inclusive objective of fostering awareness amongst the American population and the rest of the world on the events and their actual causes. The film passively informs the people to forces beyond what the media provides. People have to think of the realistic attributes of the American relations to the Asian countries especially Iraq and Afghanistan (Moore, p. 104). The filmmaker views the American domestic problems as results of the president who also misuses the media. There are atrocities in the country but the media is used to spread misconceptions of the status. The movie views fear among the Americans to have been caused by the media. For instance, the film shows the media bias of the actual situation in Iraq and Afghanistan (Orvel, p. 48). Moore has other different intentions through the movies apart from education. Moore intends to inform the authority of knowledge on their mischief. The documentary encourages rationality in every event intended by the government. The citizens are lobbied to understand their rights and criticize information critical matters such as politics and wars (Jewitt, p. 149). The filmmaker’s motive is to highlight on the dangers caused by poor governance with malicious notions. Moore also alludes on the future status of America as a nation with the inclusion of such governance. He intends to inform the citizens on the effects of involving personal intentions in leadership and rationality of the nation (Orvel, p. 48). According to Rhoads, the left wing and the right wing are real factors in Moore’s documentary and the overall scenario of the nation. Moore views the government as careless and irresponsible, though has several virtual branches. The situation poses the CNN as a virtual branch of the government that is used to shape up the information before airing to the public. There is aversion of reality from the American population and the rest of the world. The subject bias shaping the documentary is the media. The media has influenced the of documentary trough posting information to the public that exposes Moore’s work as jokes. The media has developed camera tricks to brainwash the populations and restoring their minds beyond tolerating the film. The effect of the media bias shapes the film through its receptions and effects. The media attains this through the provision of several allegations on the film as a non-realistic situation that should be treated lightly. The media has achieved the intention of shunning the film contents among the population and its treatment as rumours hence; restoring some peoples thoughts to the previous state (Moore, p. 206). Therefore, some people omit the documentary alleging that it is a real form of deception concerning the current issues. The Form of the Movie Fahrenheit 9/11 is a documentary film. This documentary entails a film genre and other conventions. In its style, the film presents factual information about real people, places and situations. The filmmaker intends to provide reality through the manifested situation though people may accept that the scenes in the movie might not be true. The filmmaker employs an amalgamation of several styles. The Style The documentary is a hybrid of forms since it employs several features in a single item. The movie consists of interviews of the public in different instances. The movie incorporate docudrama in its presentation for instances, the sections exposing the presidential speech in comparison to the dangerous situation of the country. Conventions The film incorporates footage of events from scenes in real life situations such as the September 11 attacks in US and the scenes of war in Afghanistan. People feel that the information is realistic and should be offered critical attention. The film retains several facets that show that it is real and factual in nature despite the entertainment involved. The film includes elements such as; statistics, interviews, staged sequences of real events, clipping from newspapers and clits from previous television shows (Plantiga, p. 136). Engaging the Audience The film captures everyone during its auditorium regardless of social status or age successfully. The movie appeals to the public’s intelligence and emotions through the scenes involved and the sound system (Plantiga, p. 139). The filmmaker has formed central emphasis on narrative through various scenes, mostly understood by the public and the audience. There is a sequence of tragic occurrences such as bombings in US, Afghanistan and Iraq. An imperative story in the documentary that forces engagement of the audience is Lila Lipscombe whose son gets killed in Iraq wars and begins to blame the purpose of the war. From this scene, people begin to question the purpose of the wars and when it will end through anxiety. After meeting Lila in the two scenes of the documentary the audience begin to question for the absence of congressmen’s children in the forces sent to Iraq. The movie relate to other Hollywood movies because of the themes emphasized on. Hollywood has several other movies highlighting on politics and specific mistakes performed by the government. The commonness of the two [productions is attributed by the government’s actions that would like to correct their mistakes in different indirect ways facilitated by the media. The movie is also relevant to other Hollywood productions that highlight on the real disasters affecting nations. For instance, The Pearl produced by the Hollywood bases on real life disasters that have been viewed as realistic ion the society (Ponech. P. 218). Changing the Tone Moore is serious on the situation about the American government’s perceptions about the war. The images incorporated in this documentary have been vetted and keenly selected. Moore employs his real voice in the commentary of the movie to depict seriousness and intent on an explicit subject. For instance, when bush delivers speech about the Twin Towers in Florida, Moore criticizes Bush of maintaining a neutral position on the matter and inability to act faster about the attack. Moore intends to break the monotony of seriousness amongst the audience during the presentation (Moore, p. 188). The audience are capable of refreshing their minds and continuing with the rest of the film. The Method Dramatic visual sequence Moore employs the dramatic visual sequence as the baseline of his disagreement. There is a need for understanding the deontic modals in the initial sentences that permit the speaker authority over the individual addressed. Moore advises the audience through these sentences. Simultaneously, the weakening the power of a person who, challenge d, made the mistaken decisions and shoed to be insufficient for the vital institutional function he has. The manner ion which Moore proposes his critique and the images he uses for the illustration background imitate the ideological square in theory (Kress & Leuwen, p. 114). Production Techniques Direct Address Moore incorporates instances of direct address to the audience. Through this means, there are confessions through the characters and implication of the real situation. The citizens view the situations such as the September 11 bombing and provide their opinions before the camera directly. Verite (True) The filmmaker exposes real instances of event occurrence. Moore shows the war proceedings in Afghanistan and Iraq at the time of their occurrence. This depicts a real situation in the instances. Therefore, the film stands out as truth, and that the events actually occurred (Moore, p. 210). Jump Cuts The technique has been used by the filmmaker to edit slower moments and fix a time frame. Moore jumps in the subsequent events in the documentary, without maintaining a proper transition to cover vast information within fewer scenes. Long Shots In some instances, Moore has provided detailed information of scenes to impart a proper understanding of the situation among the audience. The technique involves emphasizing on some events and scenes during movie production. Close Ups Moore has utilized this technique to set the audience to a visual context of the events and introduce them to the scenes. The technique involves visualization of larger areas surrounding the scenes. How the Images were Shot Moore makes extreme long shots to show vast areas in the county and depict numerous crowds of people effectively. Close up shots are used to depict events into details for instance, the rescuing scenes during bomb disasters. Medium shots have been employed to depict normal situations and avail actual sizes of objects and people. The extremely close up images have also been used by the filmmaker to show finer details such as injuries inflicted on people during the accidents and shootings (Moore, p. 206). The remains of destroyed property and the dead have also been displayed through extreme close up images. The images in the movie are shot from different angles. Moore has employed a slanted shot style in most of the scenes. The skill involves the camera tilted at an angle that portrays the resultant picture uniquely. The slanted shots prompt feelings among the viewers. Images are also shot at eye level to record the information on public opinions and the interviewees. There are high angle images taken at elevated locations to capture wider sections of and around the scenes. Low angle shots were used by the filmmaker to capture the military planes and bombers in action. There are camera movements meant to improve the quality of the images and the moving objects. There are spans that evaluate the scenes horizontally. The tilts examine the scenes vertically for instance, the walls of tall buildings in the cities (Moore, p. 219). There are dolly shots that capture scenes in motion. Moore has used the zoom lens to regulate the exposition of the distances from the objects and the screen. Sound recorded and Type of Editing The sounds were recorded through microphones such as the camera microphones and hand held microphones. The scenes also include the sound recordings from the primary storage sources. Moore records the sounds from a headphone microphone in his commentary activity. Throughout the movie, the main method for sound edition method employed is the reduction of noise. Most of the scenes in Moore’s movie is located in noisy scenes accompanied by bombings noise from people and vehicles. Sound disruptions were also avoided initially through alleviating objects that could make noise during the time of capture of the video (Jewitt, p. 155). Audience Experience The aesthetic Experience The audience feels profound beauty from watching Moore’s movie through the humour involved and some of the scenes. The audience get extensive entertainment since the documentary entail the capturing of significant scenes during the occurrences. The audience appreciate the emphasis on the situations that transpired in the past and that led to loss of lives and dignity of the citizens. Imperatively, the audience are able to realize the realize some of the government’s lurking differences. The film concludes with a simple quest to determine the necessity for complicating issues in life. The audience gets to understand the need for a simpler approach to matters, to avoid modification of information released to the public (Jewitt, p. 141). The documentary is functional among the audience since it enlightens besides entertaining. The functional significance is the availability of the factual information based on real occurrences. Through the few highlights, the citizens realized the extent of casualty and conditions of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The audience get to understand and question why there is impunity and involvement of personal issues in national matters. The president utilizes the America’s machinery to harm Laden and Sadam’s families at the expense of national affair. The audience gains confidence in the information from the documentary since they begin to think beyond the media and the presidential preference. The citizens and the viewers around the globe develop lack of confidence from the state systems due to their inability to present the truth. The audience can shun the media information on the extremities on the missions executed by the US troops. The audience relate the subject matter to the truth because; there is clear evidence that the president neglected the threats in spite of the intelligence briefing. President George W Bush flawed the elections of the year 2000 and performed premature inauguration. The Americans lost confidence in their mew president. Consequently, George R Bush wanted to restore people’s confidence. George W Bush also wanted to square his scores with the Asians such as the Laden family. Therefore he escalated the enmity which resulted into a war between the states. The media ensured that vetted information reached the public to convince them that the action was right (Ponech. P. 216). Work Cited Jewitt, C. (eds.) Handbook of Visual Analysis. London: Sage, 2001. 134-156. Kress, G. & van Leeuwen, T. Reading Images: The Grammar of Graphic Design. London: Routledge, 1996. Moore, M. 2004. The Official Fahrenheit 9/11 Reader. London: Penguin Books. Nichols, B. Introduction to Documentary. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001. Orvel, M. Documentary film and the power of interrogation: American Dream & Roger and Me, Film Quarterly, 1994-1995 48 (2), 10-18. Plantiga, C. The limits of appropriation. Subjectivist account of the fiction/nonfiction film distinction. In Bondebjerg, I. (ed.), Moving Images, Culture and the Mind. Luton: University of Luton Press, 2000. 133-141 Ponech, T. What is non-fiction cinema? In Allen, R. & Smith, M. (eds.), Film Theory and Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997. 203-220. Rhoads, K. 2004. Propagandatactics and Fahrenheit 9/11. Retrieved on April 27th 2012 http://www.workingpsychology.com/fahrenheit.html Read More