Guardian Unlimited Film: 'I think he's a big jerk'

Guardian Unlimited Film | Features | 'I think he's a big jerk': "Michael Moore's anti-Bush documentary has wowed liberals the world over - but how do Republicans feel about it? Suzanne Goldenberg takes a few to see Fahrenheit 9/11 in Texas and Washington.

It's a rare and brave Republican who ventures across the garishly lit lobby of a 16-screen multiplex and plonks his money down for Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 - and nowhere more so than in Texas. This stretch of west Houston suburb, a land of strip malls and unspooling freeways, is rock solid conservative terrain, the adopted home of the Bush family dynasty. The radio in the rental car, hired from the George Bush Intercontinental airport - named for the father, not the son - is tuned to a station playing Christian rock.

Michael Moore is definitely not to the average Texan's taste. At this cinema, the managers have not seen fit to remove the military recruitment ads from the previews. The theatre is less than half full, and it's difficult even to give away tickets.

Ordinarily, Fahrenheit 9/11 would not be on Larry Forrester's to-see list. No one he knows has seen it - or wants to. White, male, middle-aged professional, solid Republican supporter, regular church-goer, and proud father of three - all being raised with Christian values - his movie tastes run more to The Passion of the Christ, which he pronounces "excellent". Nor is Forrester likely to prove susceptible to Moore's broadside against Bush, or give way to weepy self-criticism of America's invasion of Iraq."


Suzanne Goldenberg
Guardian Unlimited