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Propaganda (noun): the spreading of ideas or information to further or damage a cause. So, is this movie propaganda? Of course. It's information peppered with opinion to further the cause of damaging George W. Bush's. Now we can get over that and review a 99% brilliantly done movie that EVERY American should see if they want to know what they're talking about when they praise or bash people who speak out against the president.

For those of you who don't like to look at fat people, don't worry -- Mike himself is hardly on camera for this one. His narration accompanies plenty, but no one of any political party can deny that brains aren't required for wit. Like him or not, Moore is a pretty funny guy.

For those of you who have already decided they hate Michael Moore and refuse to participate in anything he does, GET OVER IT. This movie has already outdone the opening weekend gross of "Return of the Jedi", broken records all over the country (even conservative little hick towns) for per-screen ticket sales, and broken the record for top grossing documentary of all time within a week. Your movement to stand up for what you believe in (anything Michael Moore doesn't) and not partake here is a lost battle, and only makes those people who might have not seen it had they not met you all the more willing to go see what the fuss is about.

If your worry is helping to fund Moore's next project, stop worrying -- he's funded just fine. Sneak in, for God's sake. Go see some really good movie worth dishing out money for like "White Chicks" or "Garfield" and theater hop, you pighead.

The sad fact is, Moore had teams of fact checkers and lawyers alike gut this movie for "lies" out of fear he'd be sued or shut down for good. The footage he shows here is not computer generated (well, except for one pretty damn funny sequence with GW's head on an old cowboy show character's body), it was filmed by an actual camera man, and the stats he mentions are actual stats.

What was least impressive was a sequence in which "the sovereign nation of Iraq" is shown as a land of happy people enjoying public meals and playing with kites just before the American bombing of Baghdad, as if America had gone in and blown up the Garden of Eden instead of... well, Baghdad (whose sovereign leader Saddo, known as... oh yeah, The Butcher of Baghdad, is not paid much attention to). The whole "he's gonna strike if we don't" thing from Bush may have been a disgusting lie that has led to unnecessary deaths, but it's not as if our soldiers were there to take out the ice cream man.

What was most impressive was Moore's ability to keep this a human story all the way through. As Castro said, one death is a tragedy, 10,000 is a statistic. When we see numbers flash on the TV screen for how many American soldiers were "killed/wounded," many of us tend to see it as "sad/oh-they're-fine."

Without shoving it down the throat, Moore shows what "wounded" can look like and what "killed" means to the loved ones left behind. Before someone can say a war is worth fighting, they should know first-hand what its outcome can look like. If that can't happen, they should at least see proper video footage of it. A highlight of "Fahrenheit 9/11" is when the twin towers get hit, because we don't see them get hit. We've all seen it. We know what it looked like. What made it out of Moore's editing room were the clips of the people on the street looking up in horror to the sky that rained down flaming human beings. In the end, watching the survivors' reactions is almost more haunting than the departure of the actual victims.

All in all, every American who plans to vote, whether it be for Bush or Kerry, should feel no less than absolute obligation to see this movie. It may have an artistic spin, but it is not about gentle hobbits fighting off evil orcs -- it is about the people WE elect to lead a place that people risk their lives to sneak into every day by the thousands, and the fact that it made it to a movie screen to begin with is an absolute testament to the name "Land of the Free." (four bongs)

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