Fahrenheit 11/9

Synopsis: Travelling across the country, well-known documentarian Michael Moore tries to get a sense of the social, economic and political realities for ordinary Americans under President Donald Trump.

The title of Michael Moore’s latest film is a play on his 2004 G.W. Bush/Iraq war documentary, Fahrenheit 9/11 and refers to Donald Trump's surprise election as US President on the 9th of November, 2016.  In one sense it's an irresistibly obvious segue but it’s also a little glib and doesn’t augur well.  Unfortunately one’s fears are confirmed by what follows, a rather piecemeal account of Trump’s America that will probably underwhelm anyone looking forward to a bitingly critical insight into the 45th President.

Fahrenheit 11/9 looks at Trump’s surprise victory (on the eve of the election the pundits were giving him a 15% chance although Moore himself predicted the win); the cooking of the books by the Democrat’s old guard in order to make Hillary Clinton their candidate over Bernie Sanders, a candidate highly regarded by enlightened American voters.  He gives us a few swipes at Trump’s historically-confirmed racism and his creepy sexism,  then switches his attention to Flint, Michigan (Moore’s home town), where a Trump crony took over the town’s water supply and managed to poison the largely black population, children especially, in the process (in one of the film’s most scathing observations it calls out Barack Obama for “whitewashing” the incident).  Moore then changes tack with some more positive stories, covering teachers in West Virginia striking for better pay and conditions before engaging with students in Portland, Florida who began a nationwide protest against gun laws after a mass shooting at their school. A champion of grass roots activism he also looks at younger. committed citizens making their presence felt in the lower echelons of the political system. He then tops things off by making a frighteningly successful comparison of Trump’s demagogic style with that of Adolf Hitler. The net result is a disturbing picture of a society that seems to be approaching collapse.  

The downside with Fahrenheit 11/9 however, is that the scare-mongering seems too easy. Surely, we say to ourselves, there must be more to it than this. Of course the topic is huge but some more depth and breadth would have helped Moore's arguments. Partly the problem is that the film assumes an audience familiar with the American political system, meaning that the Clinton/Sanders business, and the mechanics of Trump's election, fascinating though it is, will be largely opaque to a non-domestic audience. Partly the problem is that Moore is now such an iconic figure that he tends to come across more as a celebrity propagandist (albeit one who looks more like a denizen of a shelter for homeless men) than an investigative journalist. 

Fahrenheit 11/9 will appeal to Moore fans. Everyone else will probably wish for a less ad hoc approach.

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