Both political parties take heat in Fahrenheit 11/9

Fort Lauderdale, FL – Award-winning documentary filmmaker Michael Moore has never been one to hold his tongue or shy away from even the most powerful figures. His films and articles often offer illuminating and entertaining critiques of American society, economics, and politics. Fahrenheit 11/9 is no exception. Moore’s newest film takes viewers on an exciting yet terrifying ride through the current American political landscape, and ends by placing viewers behind the wheel.

Fahrenheit 11/9 is 90-minute indictment of American political and economic institutions. It starts by demonstrating the obvious: Trump is a racist, homophobic, misogynist who loves big bombs and explosions almost as much as he loves diving into his morning Big Mac. From there, Moore launches into a critical examination of how this man came to be president of the United States and what this means for our future.

The film provides blood-boiling audio recordings of the major media moguls (from MSNBC, CNN, to FOX) in which they explain how any press on Trump was good for their bottom dollar. The one-percenters who control the entire mainstream media are filmed admitting that Trump was great for ratings, so they gave him thousands of hours of free screen time. And Trump (having produced and starred in TV shows himself) knew how to play those media companies like fiddles in order to win.

Moore also dives into the Democratic Party’s undeniably anti-democratic decision to snatch the primaries from social democrat Bernie Sanders. The movie mocks Hillary Clinton’s inability to relate to average people and admonishes her entire party for their smugness in assuming they were entitled to the presidency.

The film is ripe with traditional Michael Moore humor, awkward interviews and encounters, and satisfying, over-the-top tricks being played against those who deserve it most. But coupled with these comical scenes and antics is the somber reality the movie is trying to convey: the entire system is not only rigged against us, but is actually killing us. And it’s up to us to stop it.

Perhaps the most tragic part of Fahrenheit 11/9 is Moore’s close examination of the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. He conducts interviews and provides government data which show that the governor of Michigan knowingly poisoned the people of Flint when he made the decision to switch their water supply from Lake Huron to the toxic Flint River. Yet neither establishment Democrats (including President Obama) nor Republicans investigated the governor for committing this crime, and both parties dismissed claims that the water was (and still is) toxic. Moore shows us that the poisoning of Flint’s water was not a mistake or an oversite: it was biological warfare against the people of Flint.

Despite the grim realities Moore illustrates for us, he places hope in average people fighting back against the system. He highlights the teachers’ strikes that took place in states across the country in the last year and how they were able to win their demands by not giving in to the typical divide-and-conquer tactics of the state. He also shows the rise in leftists and socialists running for local and state offices and the growing number of high school students taking part in activism. The film ends by concluding that the only way to ‘fix’ this rotten system is to burn the whole thing down and start over again. And that is a job for we, the people.