I can't be bothered to take you through every twist of Moore's flawed reasoning, but take it from me that this vast and rotting red herring stinks up the rest of the film.
Self writes that while Moore's gags work on domestic subjects, when Moore "goes global, he's merely puerile." He is angered by Moore's slurs against the Romanians and the Dutch (who supported the Coalition) which he rightly sees as bigotry, and opines that the Afghanistan war cannot be dismissed by simply "putting Dubya and Tony Blair's heads on the bodies of movie cowboys."
Furthermore, Self's final parries against Moore are during the parts of the film in which Moore poses as a recruitment officer for the Army and his portrayal of Iraq as a peaceful country before the war.
When Moore gets to posing as a recruiting sergeant on Capitol Hill, asking Congressmen to encourage their kids to enlist, or holding the camera of a recently bereaved former supporter of the war as she breaks down in tears for her soldier son, you know you are dealing with a manipulator, pure and simple.Moore's assault against the war in Iraq is, likewise, fatally compromised by his unwillingness to engage with the vileness of the Ba'athist regime. Instead of showing the victims of Saddam's torturers, we see footage of happy, playing children and sidewalk cafes on the day before the invasion began.
To acknowledge what a grey moral area international politics always is would upset Moore's black-and-white view, just as much as it would his arch-enemy's. While the inability of the film to cope with the British involvement in Iraq (we are simply air-brushed out), exposes how crude Moore's political perception really is.
In other words, what Self is saying is that, as a liberal-Leftie himself, he is affronted by what he sees as Moore's willingness to engage in tactics he normally sees as the modus operandi of the Right. This clearly speaks volumes about Self's credentials as a left-winger.
Self sums it all up at the end of his review:
[W]hile The Passion asked us to worship a man who thought he was the son of God, Moore, with his grand-standing Oscar speeches and overblown rhetoric, is beginning to give the impression that he thinks he is the Almighty.
Article comments
1 - Michael B
"Moore, carried away by his conspiratorial view of a grand cock-up, covertly advances the preposterous thesis that the Bush regime may have actively colluded in the attacks of 9/11."
This must have been really covert, because I didn't get this idea from the movie at all. All that was implied was the Arab relationship colored the aftermath and investigation of 9/11. There was no indication that Bush, et al had anything to do with the 9/11 other than ignoring warnings.
Self also pointed out the few moments of humor in the movie. They were meant to be humerous to lighten the load. How could anyone take those things seriously?