On September 11, 2001, I got to work around 8:15, as usual, earlier than most in my co-workers. There were workers doing some sort of drilling outside so I turned my headphones up a little louder. Close to 9:00, Phyllis, the receptionist, tapped me on the shoulder. She told me to go into one of the policy offices where those of us who were at work were gathered around a small television. I saw the footage of the first plane hit the tower. At that point, we thought it was a horrific accident. We were still standing there watching the TV when the second plane hit the second tower. And then we knew - this was no accident. When the plane hit the Pentagon, several miles from where I was working, none of us knew what to do.

I remember the confusion in the streets. I remember the quiet on the train as we all sat there stunned. I remember driving home and looking over at the woman in the car next to me, her face filled with fear, confusion and shock. Thankfully, a friend who worked at the Pentagon was okay and so were my friends in New York but so many friends and family members weren't as lucky that day. 

I tried to see this movie when it first came out and it was sold out each time. And each time, I was a little relieved. For reasons, I still don't fully understand, I was very reluctant about seeing this film. In the end, I'm glad I did. As a reviewer, I don't really feel that my politics should play a role in my review of this film but in the end, I don't see how I can write it without including a little bit of my conservative Democratic leanings. Now, enough about me and on with this review.

Michael Moore seems to have many of the same problems with the Bush administration as I have (and apparently many other people). From the 'election' fiasco to Bush's response to the attacks on the World Trade Center to his gung-ho decision to send men into Iraq (even though their association to Al-Queda is tenuous at best) to his inability to capture Osama Binladen, Moore paints Bush as an impotent leader who chillingly refers to himself, as 'the war president'.

Critics claim that all of Moore's facts have been available to the American public all along and that he reveals nothing new. Although the information about W's associations with the Saudis, the Taliban and Haliburton may have been presented before; it was far from common knowledge. While I do know political junkies who devour the Washington, Post, The New York Times and prefer NPR to music, most Americans don't go into that level of detail. The public needed someone to not only show us the dots but help us connect them and Moore does a good job laying everything out clearly and succinctly.

As always, his use of music and candid footage cut to the chase while maintaining some humor and levity. But respectfully, Moore is a bit toned down here (as compared to Roger & Me and Bowling for Columbine). Moore also manages to connect to real people who play a vital role in telling his story. The frustrated FBI agent who was denied the chance to interview the Binladen family, the soldiers who get the rush from fighting, the ones that want to come home, the marine who refuses to go back and the mother grieving for her son all hammer home Moore's points.

While I was moved by the story of Lila Lipscomb, who lost her eldest son when his helicopter crashed, I think Moore was a little bit exploitive in telling her story. She is a real woman with real emotions, grieving for her son. Her story of getting the call from the military about her son is heart-breaking and there wasn't a dry eye in the place when she read his last letter, but did we really have to see her breakdown in front of the White House? If ever anyone needed a moment of privacy, it was then. 

Right-wingers are mad because Moore wasn't more objective. Well, here's a news flash. He doesn't have to be. There are documentaries and there is journalism. Documentaries are filmed arguments. The director takes a stand on a subject and finds facts that support it. It isn't Moore's job to be unbiased, that job belongs to the media, who, in the wake of the War on Terror have seemed to forgotten what unbiased and objective mean.  

Moore does a very good job of supporting his arguments. From what I have heard, the conservatives are in the process of putting together their own documentary that tells the other side of the story. Fine. My hope is that people will take Moore's work, and any others and use them to think objectively and to question what goes on around them and not just take everything for granted. I realize that is a lofty goal.