Michael Moore

Call it trickle-down politics. The culture wars that have raged across our fair land for years now have moved from the highbrow realms of think tanks, religion and academia to new battlegrounds: the concert hall, the movie theater, even the auto showroom. Welcome to the pop culture wars of 2004. In this fiery summer of Fahrenheit 9 / 11 and the political conventions, it seems, once-simple consumer choices like the music we listen to, the books we read, the TV shows we watch, even the food we eat have become political statements.

Since Revolutionary times, American soldiers have brought music into battle, but the latest entry in the "songs to kill by" category - as seen in Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 - is a long way from the peppy inspiration of the fife and drum. Moore's anti-Bush, anti-war documentary, in a scene reminiscent of Apocalypse Now, features footage of troops in Iraq pumping up for battle by listening to the pounding rhythms of "Fire Water Burn," an eight-year-old release by the punk/hip-hop/Beastie Boys-inspired group, The Bloodhound Gang.

The record-breaking success of Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 may mark a turning point in the acceptance of documentaries by audiences as mass entertainment and by movie distributors as potential profit centers. This anti-Bush documentary is merely the latest and most successful of many feature-length documentaries that have hit it big at the box office in the last few years, among them the current release Super Size Me, about the perils of eating fast food, which has taken in close to $10 million so far; Winged Migration, a nature film that took in $11 million last year; and Spellbound, about spelling bees, which took in $5.7 million.

LAST WEEKEND, filmmaker Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 became the first documentary to rank No. 1 at the box office. The movie's unabashed criticism of President Bush's politics and character and his handling of post-9/11 events and of the war in Iraq has become such a promotional and word-of-mouth success that it appears the film will be a hit for weeks to come. The review by The Sun's chief film critic, Michael Sragow, was less than enthusiastic. The newspaper gave the film two stars in its one- through four-star rating system.

It's too bad that Disney has stupidly positioned America's Heart and Soul, Louis Schwartzberg's documentary cross-section of the 21st-century United States, as its alternative to Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, thus insuring condescension from many critics. First, the studio refused to release Moore's film (although Miramax, a Disney company, produced it). Then, the studio screened Schwartzberg's film for the conservative group Move America Forward, which has tried to pressure Moore's film off movie screens.

THE REPUBLICANS are learning how to cringe. They have owned the propaganda airwaves for so long now, and suddenly Michael Moore smacks the hell out of them in Fahrenheit 9/11. Enraged moviegoers spent $22 million watching the film over the weekend. They enter theaters as an audience and emerge as an electorate. But the Democrats ought to duck for cover, too. Over the weekend, the Charles Theatre's very walls seemed to bulge. The place was sold out, one performance after another, two theaters at a time.

Allan Starkey didn't go to see Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 yesterday to have his mind changed about George W. Bush or the war in Iraq. He wasn't disappointed in the least. "I know the film is as biased as all the critics say it is," Starkey, a professor at Towson University, said a few minutes before the opening of the incendiary new film at 11 a.m. at the Charles Theatre. "As far as I'm concerned, Michael Moore is the liberal answer to Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly, and I'm grateful he's there."

In the rare funny bit from Fahrenheit 9/11, writer-director Michael Moore plays the song "Believe It or Not" - the theme to the '80s-TV superhero satire The Greatest American Hero - over the sight of George W. Bush's "Mission Accomplished" moment on that aircraft carrier more than a year ago. This kind of savvy mass-culture coup has made Moore a hero to grass-roots audiences and populist hipsters alike. The excruciatingly apt lyrics include, "Flying away on a wing and a prayer/ Who could it be?

While some groups are calling for boycotts of the Michael Moore-made movie Fahrenheit 9/11, Baltimore's two independent theaters have been arguing over who should be allowed to show it. The Charles Theatre has blocked the Senator Theater from showing the movie, which opens Friday. The film has drawn attention for its critical look at the Bush administration's actions after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Critics have condemned it as unpatriotic. The co-owner of the Charles acknowledged that he asked the film's distributor not to release it to the Senator.

In the past few weeks, gaps in the record of President Bush's service in the Air National Guard have made front-page headlines. An energized White House press corps has besieged Bush spokesman Scott McClellan in recent days with questions about months for which Bush's activities could not be confirmed. Despite Bush's defense, saying he fulfilled his obligations, reporters have fanned out through Alabama to find anyone who can attest to his presence there. Late-night comics have picked up the topic with glee.