WA2: Fahrenheit 911

Michael Moore’s “Fahrentheit 9-11” portrays the events leading up to and during the Iraq war in a humorous fashion. One question I had after watching the movie was what kind of relationship does President Bush have with the Bin Ladens, assuming they have one at all? To find a relationship the first thing I would do is compose a list of the businesses the Bin Laden family and President Bush have been involved in, then I would compare the list to see if they have interacted with one another. I would also go through the donations made to Bush’s political campaigns to see if any of those companies owned by the Bin Ladens, have donated to his campaign. It would also be important to find out if the Bin Laden family really was allowed to leave without being questioned during the days of no flying after 9-11 and if they were the only people allowed to leave. I would also look into the current relationship that President Bush has with the Bin Laden family, assuming they have a relationship, and the details of their interactions with one another.
There are three narrative elements I would focus on from this story, which are character, plot, and conflict. First, the characters of the narrative are President Bush, the Bin Laden family, and some other possible characters, whose involvement might become more apparent after researching, are the former President George Bush senior and Dick Cheney. Second I would focus on the portion of the plot where Moore explains how all flights were grounded after 9-11, but several planes flew around the United States picking up members of the Bin Laden family and flying them to Saudi Arabia. Third, the conflict of the story involves the massacre of several thousands of Americans on 9-11 and the family members of the man responsible, Osama Bin Laden, being allowed to leave the country without being questioned first.
The movie has a mystery-documentary-comedy theme to it by how it provides several questions without stating the answers directly. The only answers provided are implied through a composition of video clips and photographs which are out of context and chronological order. Some of the photos and video clips are of both of the President Bushs smiling while they stand next too, converse, and shake the hands of, which Moore leads you to believe, members of the Bin Laden family. There is no way of telling that they are in fact Bin Laden family members, but Moore discusses the family in a voice over while they are shown so you assume they are. The video footage is real but without knowing the context it is impossible to determine what is really going on and because of Moore’s indirect style and chronologically scattered video footage the film looses any real fidelity or probability.