6.8 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Michael Moore's view on what happened to the United States after September 11; and how the Bush Administration allegedly used the tragic event to push forward its agenda for unjust wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Starring: George W. Bush, Al Gore, Ben Affleck, Stevie Wonder, Tom DaschleDocumentary | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
English: Dolby Digital 2.0
Disc Menu is incorrect
English
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (locked)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 3.0 | |
Extras | 3.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
For anyone caught up in the "drama" surrounding the 2020 Presidential election, drama which is still taking up huge amounts of airtime and bandwidth on the internet as this review is going live, you may want to spend just a few minutes watching the opening of Fahrenheit 9/11 to either reacquaint yourself (if you were around then) or acquaint yourself (if you weren't around them) with the "drama" surrounding the 2000 Presidential election. Suffice it to say, the more things change, the more they remain the same, and much as invocations of election fraud, outright theft and appeals to the Supreme Court may seem completely au courant, Fahrenheit 9/11 makes it distressingly clear that, as au courant as they may well be, they're also a potent example of another French phrase, namely déjà vu. Much as with some of Moore's other work, there's an undeniable "heart on his sleeve" aspect to how Moore presents his information, especially once he segues from more generalist documenting of the lead up to September 11, 2001 and the unsettling events which followed it to more personal issues, like the impact of the Iraq war on some Michigan families.
Fahrenheit 9/11 is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of MVD Marquee Collection, an imprint of MVD Visual, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. As with many documentaries culled from such a wide variety of source material, there's a probably unavoidably heterogeneous look here. The best looking sequences are the contemporary interview and "man on the street" elements, which feature nice detail levels and a completely natural looking palette. A lot of the source material is fairly ragged, and it's not unusual to see upscaling artifacts and other baked in video elements like ghosting.
Fahrenheit 9/11 features only lossy Dolby Digital tracks in either 5.1 or 2.0 (the disc menu incorrectly states the 2.0 track is LPCM). This piece frankly doesn't offer a hugely ambitious sound design, and as such the lossy audio probably suffices well enough, if not absolutely optimally (at least for audiophiles). All of the talking head material sounds fine, as does the out and about sequences featuring Moore and others. Some of the archival video can sound a bit ragged at times, at least relatively speaking. Optional English subtitles are available.
Even those who may feel they're diametrically opposed to Michael Moore on virtually any sociopolitical subject imaginable may admire Fahrenheit 9/11 at least as an example of what "montage theory" can do to influence people. Moore makes a case which is at least reasonably cogent suggesting there were all sorts of "shenanigans" leading up to both the horrors of September 11, 2001 as well as its aftermath. That said, there's no question that he has structured this piece to sway opinion, and as such it's not an "objective" documentary in the traditional sense. This release has decent looking video, at least when understood within the context of varying source material, but audio is unfortunately only lossy. The supplemental package is quite well done. With caveats noted, Recommended.
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