Analysis Of Fahrenheit 9/11

Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) is a feature film length documentary that presents a critical look into the Bush administration and the allegedly poor decisions that they made, including waging war on Iraq for the wrong reasons. These reasons include to profit from the oil present in Iraq for the ‘elite’ of America. The documentary follows the Bush administration’s alleged decisions after the devastating attack 9/11. Moore carefully constructs the documentary by using clever mise en scene, selection of detail and post production features to position the audience to challenge their ideas of the Bush administration and their uniformed and corrupt government.
The opening scene of Fahrenheit 9/11 implies that president Bush manipulated his

His selection of detail into the character construction of Lila Lipscomb, and how her portrayal, affected by omission of detail to encourage the audience to feel compassion. By showing the drastic Change in outlook by Lila from before to after her son dies, Moore effectively is able to show her distrust in decisions made by the Bush administration. This is then used to encourage the audience by using juxtaposition to see that after the Lila Lipscomb scene, when bush and his administration are talking about the need and success of the war, that they were talking about a war that should never have happened, and was started for the wrong reasons. This effective use of juxtaposition and selection of detail positions the audience to see the Bush administration as poor decision

Initially, Bush states that during a congratulatory speech to the ‘elite’ of America, that he does not ‘think of them as the elite, but instead he thinks of them as his base’, and furthermore when he states ‘there’s the haves and the have-mores.’ These to diegetic sounds in the form of speaking from Bush in a snobbish tone undermines the working-class population and states he cares more about the ‘elite’ of America. This can also be seen in the fact that recruitment for the U.S Military was done purposely in poor towns who don’t have a choice, therefore taking advantage of the poor to fight for the rich. Moore then takes this message further when he approaches the congressmen with a soldier from the army asking for their children to enlist to fight in Iraq, and they all look at him like he is crazy, and waves him off. The connotation of this is that the Bush administration were prepared to ask others to fight in a war, but not their own children. Through careful construction and portrayal of the Bush administration using selection of detail, Moore can position the audience to perceive Bush as a selfish and corrupt