Bowling for 'Fahrenheit': The 411

Bowling for 'Fahrenheit': The 411:

BY ROGER EBERT FILM CRITIC

Michael Moore's 'Fahrenheit 9/11' is designed to promote his personal political agenda. On CNN, he said he hoped the movie would get out the anti-Bush vote. Did Moore give even lip service to views opposite his own?

You reported on the reception his film received in Cannes. Given the location, France, and the crowd, journalists, Hollywood movie types and Frenchmen mostly, what did you expect? By praising an obviously politically motivated film, are you simply being a pawn of Moore's own political agenda?
Mark Pachankis,
Shreveport, La.

A. Well of course it's a politically motivated film. That's allowed. President Bush's speeches are politically motivated, and he doesn't give lip service to views opposite his own. That's allowed, too.

I must decide if a movie is good or bad, despite whether I agree or disagree with its politics. I oppose the death penalty, but gave 'The Life of David Gale' zero stars. 'Birth of a Nation' is in my next book, The Great Movies II, even though it reeks of racism. Many film historians rank Leni Riefenstahl's 'The Triumph of the Will' as a cinematic milestone, although it glorifies the Third Reich.