If you see but one film this year...

It's probably important for anyone reading anything I write about "Fahrenheit 9/11" to understand the prism through which I viewed it this afternoon. I'm from Michigan. My political leanings lie pretty far to the left on the spectrum. I own "Roger & Me," "Bowling for Columbine" and both seasons of "The Awful Truth" on DVD (I draw the line at "Canadian Bacon," though). I own every book he's ever written. I even like to wear baseball caps. All of this is to say that I'm basically an unabashed Michael Moore fan.

That doesn't mean, however, that I don't understand and even share some of the complaints that many people make of him. He likes to play fast and loose with facts if it makes better film (the butcher job on Heston's speech in "Columbine," for example). He likes to compose grandstanding stunts to make for really incomfortable and, oftentimes, absurd conflict. Such moves often detract from the impact of his productions. His need to be the star of his films are often their biggest weakness.

Well, that's not really an issue with "Fahrenheit." Moore has plenty of people and stories with which to populate his picture. I'm not going to comment on the politics of this film. I don't think I need to. You know where I stand. I will say, however, that this might be the most "important" film in recent memory. You will react to Moore's revelations and images. It's simply superb filmmaking. His film construction has improved with every single outing. "Roger & Me" seems patently amateur by comparison. His underappreciated "The Big One" seems like only a bunch of loose ends. This picture never wavers in its agenda and only once (when he drives around D.C. in an ice cream truck reading The Patriot Act) gets too goofy. The tone, the passion, the fervor. It's all spot-on.

You will also question your reaction to much of the film. Am I being taken along on a ride? Am I following the lemmings over the cliff? Am I reacting the same way as the Religious Right did after seeing "The Passion of the Christ?" That's up to you to decide. However, the feeling of this film is something that won't escape you for several days. That, to me, is perhaps the finest compliment one can pay a filmmaker.

For the record, I believe every word of it. Almost. I honestly felt bad for Britney when some reporter asked her what she thought of the war and W. I mean, really. Should she have to have a ready opinion on that? Is it so funny that she said something stupid? She's a 22 year-old undereducated singer fer cryin' out loud. When our elected leaders, though, can't lucidly explain their positions (which happens time and time again in "Fahrenheit" and on your local airwaves) and beliefs? That's a different issue.

Whatever you do, though, wherever your political allegiances lie, you owe it to yourself to go see this film. Don't go, though, if you don't like to think. Don't go, though, if you don't like to be made uncomfortable by the world in which you live. Should you choose not to go you certainly won't be alone. When White House Communications Director Dan Bartlett was asked if he or the President had viewed "Fahrenheit" he replied...

This is a film that doesn't require us to actually view it to know it's filled with factual inaccuracies.

Comforting. Very, very comforting.

Ignorance never settles a question.
-benjamin disraeli