mengel44

Moore seems to say that W started the war in Iraq to distract us from the real culprits: his dad's friends, the Saudis. He also seems to say that Saudi influence in the US stems from alliances between the Bush family and Saudi leaders. Wrong on both counts. The war can be blamed on another W: Wolfowitz and his neocon clique. They've been pushing it for ten years. They wanted it to establish a "democratic" Middle East, and W is in sympathy with their dangerous and nonsensical schemes. For all of them, 9/11 was a convenient excuse to implement their agenda. Also,the Bush family is not the only US elite in bed with the Saudis--that connection with our leaders is much longer and deeper. And as for them being corporate whores--90% of our politicians are corporate whores, including Kerry and Clinton! The Bushes are just among the better paid. My complaint is that Moore's indictment doesn't have enough perpetrators listed--but a film like that would have taken twice as much time.

That said, however, the second part of the film--the antiwar part--is devastatingly on target. An elite planned and profits from the war, Bush and the media lie to us about it, young and poor Americans die in it, and Iraqi civilians are murdered in its flames. This is not an original message about war--but Moore does a powerful and unforgettable job of presenting it. So notwithstanding inaccuracies and distortions, I hope everyone sees this film. Not just because it does irreparable harm to Bush's reelection campaign (too bad, Bushies), but because many thoughtful people will see how they've been fooled--and in that regard, the ending is perfect.

It's not the masterpiece some seem to think it is, and I could understand why some people might turn off to it. I'm not a big fan of French cinema. It demands some patience and thought. I liked "Human Resources" better. But I found it very engrossing and convincing as a psychological study of the main character, and most interesting as commentary on the nature of work and the contagiousness of greed in our times. It is on target as social criticism; this story could have been located anywhere. The acting was solid; the cinematography very effective; and the music--well--appropriate. The ending, I must say, left me puzzled until I thought about it a bit--I found it somewhat disappointing in some ways. You be the judge.

My wife and I both got tired of this after about half an hour. By now, this kind of story has become formulaic and cliched. The adult in-jokes; the anthropomorphic sentimentality; the perils and chases--much too cutesy and much too contrived, even for a Disney film. This is totally lacking in the inventiveness, humor, and appeal--or creative animation--of Monsters Inc., Shrek, or A Bug's Life, all of which I loved. It's probably easy to become overwhelmed by the nice colors on the big screen; in this case, seeing it on DVD is to see the film more clearly and to realize it doesn't live up to the hype.