Finally Fahrenheit
WEDNESDAY, JULY 21, 2004 9:19 PM
This past weekend I finally saw Fahrenheit 9/11 this weekend. I'm actually glad I read Christopher Hitchens' Unfairenheit 9/11 first. I was expecting to be disappointed, but instead I was pleasantly surprised. There was a fair amount of thinly drawn guilt by association that Hitchens and other critics have railed about, but there are definitely legitimate questions and issues the movie brings up. Regardless of those issues, the most powerful parts were the scenes in Iraq, from showing experiences of Iraqis, the words and experiences of the troops, and the story of the woman whose son was in Iraq. A lot of it was very intense. If the news was like that everyday, people might not be as comfortable or as complacent as they are or were about the war. Eventually, of course, people would be desensitized to the violence, so that wouldn't really be the best thing. But if people aren't confronted with the reality of war, it's so much easier to endorse it and then to ignore it. Everyone should see the film for at least that part of it.

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