Just got back from Farenheit 9/11
 

Crazy scene...the theater here is showing it on two screens every hour and a half from 1:30 on...and every showing's been sold out 2-3 hours in advance. Two different news stations had crews down at the theater interviewing folks. According to the manager, every screening has ended with the audience applauding (ours ended this way as well). Folks were handing out bumper stickers ("Defend America: Defeat Bush") and flyers. First time I've felt that seeing a film was a political act...wild.

Since I don't think I've posted anything above that will get criticized, I'll quit while I'm ahead. ;)

did you go to the terrace? thats like the only place thats playing it.

I wanted to go, but I had to go out of town for the weekend so I could get my modem.

We should have seen it together... it could have been a liberal date :p

Yup. 8:30 showing. Was wondering when I'd hear from you about Chucktown...we ought to grab a beer sometime.

Saw it here in Avondale. 18 theaters in the Phoenix area are showing it. It was filled up, but not too backed up. I know local Democratic loyalists were planning big get togethers downtown.

Great film. Far above Moore's previous work. I look forward to his acceptance speech at next year's Academy Awards ceremony, because this is a far better film than Bowling for Columbine.

I will give Moore this... as much as he plays the left-wing anti-capitalist card, the man knows how to promote a movie. This thing is going to be huge.

Great. Every liberal on the board posting in one thread. :)

The sad thing is your right.

I know, I feel so lonely...:(;)

I plan on seeing it pretty soon.

I guess I'm not sure why people are clapping? I'd be bummed to see something so damning, if indeed it is...ya know?

:claps: Wow that is awesome! The U.S. in shambles! :clap clap:

Yeah, the lines at the Regal 24 in Atlanta were pretty popular last night... we were at the theatre watchingthenotebook and the lines for F911 were backed up nearly as bad as they were for the Harry Potter release.

It is very damning...but the thing is, it's a great piece of filmmaking, regardless of whether you are a liberal, conservative, or crypto-fascist, er, neoconservative. I think the fact that it is so moving is why it gathers applause at the end. Personally, I walked out of it angry, and I knew most of the stuff covered in the film. :)

The thing that sticks this head and shoulders above Moore's other work is that he spends a whole lot less time in front of the camera, and a lot more behind. This is particularly true in the last half, when he starts to follow the trials of Lila Lipscomb from his hometown of Flint, MI. She goes through the motions, proud of her children, talking about the opportunities provided by the military, proud to be an American, proud that her son Michael is in Iraq. Then she learns about his disillusionment, and shortly after, his death. The grief of this woman had me blinking back tears. It was far more authentic, and far more real than anything you'll see in a work of fiction.

Like I said, the Academy might as well hand Michael Moore another gold statuette for Best Documentary right now, because this film is *that* good. Wouldn't surprise me if it got a nod as a Best Picture nominee.

How is this a documentary?

All it documents is HIS personal hated for Bush.

In my book thats propaganda above all else.

It was far more authentic, and far more real than anything you'll see in a work of fiction.


So how about when that senator tells him his nephew is on his way to Afghanistan? Oh .. wait .. that was edited out. Hmm.. sounds like this movie has a lot of fiction.

Looks like its on pace to make 20-30 million the 1st weekend on less than 900 screens. I think it should break the record for the highst grossing "documentary" in only 3 days.

Fridays numbers (with White Chicks close behind):

1	FAHRENHEIT 9/11 868	$8,200,000 10921.5% / $9,447 $8,358,000 / 3	N/A	N/A	N/A
2	WHITE CHICKS 2,726	$6,760,000 105.6% / $2,480 $14,263,000 / 3	N/A	N/A	N/A
3	DODGEBALL: A TRUE UNDERDOG STORY 3,020	$6,436,000 69.1% / $2,131 $55,107,000 / 8	N/A	N/A	N/A
4	THE NOTEBOOK 2,303	$5,220,000 -- / $2,267 $5,220,000 / -6	N/A	N/A	N/A
5	THE TERMINAL 2,914	$4,138,000 97.9% / $1,420 $32,043,000 / 8	N/A	N/A	N/A
6	HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN 3,404	$3,379,000 51% / $993 $203,669,000 / 22	N/A	N/A	N/A
7	SHREK 2 2,937	$3,187,000 62.8% / $1,085 $389,753,000 / 38	N/A	N/A	N/A
8	GARFIELD: THE MOVIE 2,880	$2,401,000 53% / $834 $51,171,000 / 15	N/A	N/A	N/A
9	TWO BROTHERS 2,175	$2,070,000 -- / $952 $2,070,000 / 1	N/A	N/A	N/A
10	THE STEPFORD WIVES 2,437	$1,649,000 46.2% / $677 $45,454,000 / 15	N/A	N/A	N/A
11	THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW 2,212	$1,363,000 69.8% / $616 $172,234,000 / 29	N/A	N/A	N/A
12	THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK 2,443	$1,283,000 45.4% / $525 $47,903,000 / 15	N/A	N/A	N/A
13	AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS 2,801	$1,270,000 44.1% / $453 $15,277,000 / 10	N/A	N/A	N/A
14	TROY 711	$291,000 33.4% / $409 $130,240,000 / 43	N/A	N/A	N/A

That is one hell of a per-screen average.

We are ignoring the more important issue here. People are actually going to see "Garfield:The Movie."

See, that's where I take issue.

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/ThisW...-5.html#anchor

Moore was interviewed by George Stehpanopoulos, and had this to say:

STEPHANOPOULOS: You say this is an op-ed … and that this is not just straight journalism. What responsibility do you feel you have in this post-9/11 environment—

MOORE: Did I mention it's a comedy too?

He can't have it both ways, IMO. Either he's trying to make a joke out of it, or he's trying to document events.

Someone said on either this board or another the other day, that they used to laugh when he had the show TV Nation on Fox...how he would park outside of rich peoples houses and badger them...funny, he's now one of those people. He railed on car companies for leaving Flint...yet he's done the same exact thing, living in a multi-million dollar home in NYC.

The guy is a propogandist in the worst form. I don't need his twist of facts to decide I do/don't like George Bush.

That's all :)

There are some dangerous leaps of logic being made in this thread.

I think Jesus made like 25 or 30K in his first weekend, so Moore is only 1/3 as popular as Jesus.

Of course he can. Have you never heard of satire? A lot of people are missing the point of what Moore really does by falling into the false documentary/propaganda dichotomy. Moore is really a satirist, and he's not doing anything that other great satirists haven't done in the past. All of the techniques he's using are well-established, honored techniques in the genre.

yeah, it is a mockumentary isn't it.

christopher guest must be proud.

Don't be dissing satire. It is one of the great art forms. Quite a few of the greatest writers who ever lived were satirists - Swift, Voltaire, Dickens, Twain, Vonnegut. It has a honored tradition, and has made enormous contributions to literary and political discourse.

Yeah, but that would be for the whole weekend. Moore is on pace to be more popular than Jesus per screen right now.

i have no problems with satires. catch-22 is one of my favorite books.

I meant 25-30K per screen. Moore's only got about 10K.

It took Jesus 3 weeks to drop to Moore's level.

Feb 27–29	1	$83,848,082	-	3,043	-	$27,554	$125,185,971	1
Mar 5–7	1	$53,246,801	-36.5%	3,170	+127	$16,797	$213,888,740	2
Mar 12–14	1	$32,130,978	-39.7%	3,221	+51	$9,975	$264,510,209	3

I still want to see Dodgeball.

You know, I think this sort of thinking (and I'm not attacking you, believe me) that documentaries or for that matter, media sources, have to be fair and balanced is exactly what is wrong with the mainstream media in this country. You don't see Limbaugh or Franken trying to be fair and balanced. Even though they claim to be fair and balanced, Fox News is anything but that. So why do useless networks like CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC, who never take a stand on anything that might endanger their credentials for the next White House Press Briefing pretend it?

I have watched a lot of documentaries over the years, and they *all* look at things with a point of view. There'd be little reason for a writer-director to fight for the shoestring financing that these usually get if he or she didn't have pretty strong feelings on the subject of the film. Truthfully, the only difference between Moore and the others is that he picks topics that piss off the establishment (GM, the gun lobby, the Saud, er, Bush administration) which makes him a higher profile target.

Now if somebody doesn't want to go, or wants to question things in such a film, go for it. FWIW, even Michael Moore has referred to his film as an "op-ed" piece.

Viewed in that context, decisions such as omitting 1 of 435 Congressmen whose son is going to Afghanistan means little. The whole sequence in the film that Moore leaves in amounts to about 2 minutes of film time (out of 2 hours), and basically acts as some much needed comic relief after the heartwrenching scene where Lila Lipscomb talks about the death of her son. It's a throwaway bit, and it takes up so little volume of the film that it's a ringing indictment of the right that this is the only thing they seem to be able to nitpick.

Did you see the film?

How do you KNOW what it's about? Because Rush and Hannity told you?

Well, there are a lot of kids out of school is the only thing I can figure. :D

A Day After Tomorrow grossed $173 million? And Garfield $52 million? People will see anything.

And Moore himself has said this isn't a documentary, so that debate should be dead.

Actually, this has been a terrible summer for movies so far. Really the only things I've seen that I've enjoyed were the Harry Potter flick and F:9/11

If you can't even see that a network like CNN is biased at all, it's probably hopeless, but a documentary records a real event/storyline, then presents it to the viewer and lets the viewer draw a conclusion. While the storyline following the woman from Michigan would fit this, the rest of the film doesn't.

EDIT - And Dodgeball was hilarious.

Not in his mind.

I went to see the film last night. It was really great, and Michael Moore seemed to tone things down a bit, in terms of his sense of humor and irony being the main things in his movies.
A couple of high school kids showed up wearing homemade shirts that said stuff like "I hate Moore and Kerry and Gore and Iraq," and "A liberal America isn't America." They tried to applaude during stuff that didn't merit it, like when Bush tells Michael Moore to find real work and the Navy recruiters trying to recruit people. Of course, this sort of seemed to backfire when the entire packed theatre (aside from them) exploded in applause not only at the end of the film, but when the solidier said he wouldn't go back to Iraq to kill other poor people that are no threat to him at all, as well as when another solidier said he would no longer be a republican.
It was crazy, though. We had to drive a half an hour to see it, cause by the afternoon all the showings for the night in Kalamazoo were sold out.

I think the Lacey Peterson News Network, er, CNN is fast becoming bread and circuses for the masses. If they are left leaning (and I'm not sure they are all that much now), they are far too mealy mouthed and tentative for those of us on the left to view them with anything but scorn. I think CBS, ABC, and NBC's news divisions were dumbed down a long time ago.

60 Minutes still shows guts, but the rest of them are basically worthless.

EDIT: I'll probably wait until DVD on Dodgeball. I don't tend to get out to a ton of movies, so I generally save them for things that I feel are going to lose something going from the big screen to the 50" Plasma.

Last I checked, most categorize Limbaugh and Franken as blowhards, no?


I don't mind him going against the grain, but don't be a child about it. He sounds more like a jilted lover than anything resembling a journalist.


...and a comedy (he said so in his interview w/ Stephanopolous).


I can't say I understand that whole "will you volunteer your son to go to Iraq" thing...last I checked, it was up to each individual person whether or not they serve in the military, not their parents.

In summary, I want to see REAL news. Not, "hey, Bush is friends with the bin Ladens!!" That's almost as weak as saying, "hey, George Bush is friends with Tim McVeigh's dad"...the other bin Laden's are in no way responsible for their psycopath brother, and by most accounts, there are 50+ siblings of Osama.

It's just ridiculous, IMO. Mountain of out of a molehill.

I'll be interested to see how much of this movie looks at Cheney and Wolfowitz...those two seem like the biggest reason we went to Iraq.

Yeah, but that 30K for Jesus is for the whole entire weekend. Figuring 9,477 for Friday, 10,500 for Saturday and 8,500 for sunday, Moore would do the same opening tallies as jesus did......you would add Sat and Sundays totals to get the weekend per screen average. Putting Moore pretty close to Jesus.


Daily perscreen breakdowns of the Passions opening weekend.

7,529
10,870
9,156

Tried to go see it today... went to a theater a little before noon and every show up until the 10pm one was already sold out. Saw Supersize Me instead. I haven't had that kind of experience (getting sold out of a noon showing!) since the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Let's get ready for the election this is going to be one hyped matchup! :)

Wait since Bush is on a EA cover, will that mean he's going to get injured this year?

I'm seeing this movie tomorrow. It's sold out today, all day. Tomorrow it probably will sell out again. Also, the people who posted before arent the only ones who are liberals. I'm as liberal as they come, maybe not NoMyths liberal, but liberal none the less.

He gets injured every year, doesn't he... he's fallen off a segway, chocked on a pretzel, fallen off a bike...

Anyway, I'm going to see dodgeball one of these days with my girl, but she wants to see Farenheit but doesn't want to get offended (she's a republican). She said the name of the movie offended her, and I tried to explain the significance of the name, but she never caught on... maybe I'll go see it after work some day.

Sounds like your girl wouldn't like the film at all if she's put off just by the title. But she should see it.

Sharpie: I'm not sure that I'm "NoMyths liberal" either...don't believe the hype. ;) Rely on the posts.

Well then if your not the most liberal on the board, I wonder who is.

Not sure I've posted enough of my own beliefs for you to make that call, but I'd guess there are plenty of folks more liberal than I. I'm pretty liberal in a lot of ways, but you wouldn't find me working a commune. :)

this is a lot like the supersize thread where no one had actually seen it but were making judgements about it anyway. this has always been a pretty judgemental board, but at least see the damn thing before you call it something it isn't

Someone remind me... how long does Bush sit reading to the children after being told of the second plane hitting the WTC?

I've only seen the trailer. The smirky "now watch this drive" line at his golf course press conference discussing war is sickening.

I think the main thing F-911 has in common with The Passion is all the reviews that start out with "I have not seen the movie, but"

The "Documentary" argument is also pretty fun to watch.

Around seven minutes, although he's listening to the children read.

That's cool... you don't want to scare the children after all by standing up, excusing yourself and saying there is urgent business relatiing to national interests to attend to.

Good on him for putting literacy before terrorism.