"The best realism art is good at is to hide its artistic means" - "Understanding the Film"
Michael Moore, an outcast of capitalism, a staunch leftist director, believes in the camera in his hands, and is committed to using so-called real images to reflect the real social status quo in the United States. And his famous work "Fahrenheit 911", which continues its bold and spicy style in the past, brings to the audience the inside story about the 9/11 incident and the Iraq War, which is very different from the US government's propaganda caliber, and even its mainstream politics. A unique interpretation of ideology that goes against the grain.
The most distinctive feature of "Fahrenheit 911" is the questioning and questioning attitude under the color of conspiracy theory. From the discussion of the legitimacy of the Bush administration at the beginning, to the radiating control of the Saudi consortium on American politics, and then to the 9/11 incident, The shady lies behind the Iraq War, Michael Moore can be described as clear thinking, one step, a black chronicle of the Bush administration was born. Another notable feature of "Fahrenheit 911" is the ubiquitous sense of humor. The author thinks that this sense of humor inherits the unique black humor of the American people, except for the "malicious" mixed cuts of President Bush's vacation and speeches. The clip gives the author a feeling of watching ghost videos at station B in 2020. This ubiquitous sense of humor is mostly reflected through deliberate audio-visual design. Michael Moore's sarcastic commentary must be one of the pleasures of watching this film. This kind of sound and picture counterpoint that runs through most of the film brings about that sound and picture form two separate and interrelated developments. Independent systems, such as the cheerful soundtrack "The Roof is on Fire" when American soldiers fought in Iraq and brought about a huge humanitarian disaster, the sad soundtrack of the boiling crowd at the beginning of the film celebrating Gore's election as President of the United States, and the phrase "was a dream, or was real? "The sad rhetorical question, this contrast of sound and picture has formed a very distinct satirical effect, and the off-screen commentary has also successfully played the role of the main body of the narrative. In addition, the film also uses a lot of montages that form contrasts to highlight the effect of contrast, such as the live video of the 9/11 incident in parallel time and the embarrassing expression of President Bush's "pretend to be calm" during his condolences in elementary school. It can be said that "Fahrenheit 9/11" The sense of black humor is reflected in its unique montage style.
The success of "Fahrenheit 911" lies in its humorous talk about political conspiracy, making its boring political documentary lively and interesting under the excavation of "conspiracy theories", and the visibility and entertainment of the work itself have been greatly improved. But what the author must point out is the real and fictional controversy behind "Fahrenheit 911", which is related to the sentence at the beginning of our article, and more related to the outstanding style of the film analyzed by the author above.
According to "Understanding Cinema", the classification of films can be divided into documentaries, avant-garde films and feature films according to realism, formalism and intermediate state classicism. Most of the films we see fall into the category of drama, a style that combines formalist design with realistic insight. Documentary is the best embodiment of realism. It encourages the recording of real images and advocates that "the shock that a documentary brings to the audience usually comes from the truth rather than the beauty of the image", but the documentary is not a complete fact, even if it is the world's first The documentary "Nanuk of the North" also has the formalism of posing, and with the mature research of montage theory in the later period, we understand that film is the art of editing, and montage represents the subjective will of the creator. So there are no real documentaries in this world. What we see is only partial truth and what the creators want to tell us.
"Fahrenheit 911" is not real. It is full of a lot of fiction by the creator. This fiction may not be a distortion and blackening of facts, but a recombination and processing of facts . Of course, the director tried to avoid the destructive influence of this fiction on the documentary, such as the extensive use of real news reports and interviews with characters, but its prominent audio-visual language design betrayed the director's heart. This kind of betrayal lies first in the planning and layout of the entire film. Although it follows the general context of time development, each stage is accompanied by the director 's preconceived voice of doubt. The behavior of unwilling to send children to Iraq” is the same as the BBC’s street interview on sensitive political topics on the streets of Beijing, China. It is full of impolite pre-substitution and subjective malice. Regarding the Bush administration, the Saudi consortium, and the situation in the Middle East, the director's attitude is always so obvious and prominent. This attitude is reflected in the off-screen commentary of the whole film, but also in his tendentious montage editing. Although this approach is partially helpful for the visibility of the political thriller theme of the film itself, it causes the film to overwhelm the objective in some passages, the individual will and emotion are too obvious, the political orientation is too prominent, and the authenticity is washed away, etc. The disastrous consequences of violating the principles of documentary film. If a good realist film is good at concealing artistic means, "Fahrenheit 911" boldly shows its style and creative attitude without any scruples. It is not true or even excellent at this level.
At the end of this article, the author wants to explain that "Fahrenheit 911" must be a unique documentary, but what it reveals may always be just an imperfect truth, a fact in the eyes of the director. What the author is curious about is, what kind of country can produce "Fahrenheit 911"? Perhaps the free speech and creative space behind it are the more interesting footnotes to the works.
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