Steve Johnson has a terrific review of F9/11. It’s about 3 stars short of a rave.

Steve reduces the movie to a silly conspiracy theory and an unreeling of images that we need to see if we are to be morally accountable. I agree that the movie is both those things, but I think it’s also more than that. Moore blurts out conspiracy theories with alarming frequency, and I agree with Steve that they generally don’t stick. (I do want to read the book about the Bushes’ relationships with the Saudis, though.)

But I didn’t read the intellectual content of the movie as being about those theories. Rather, they are there to help make the case that we got into this war under false pretenses. These guys lied to us. So, if we didn’t invade Iraq to fight the war on terrorism and to keep us safe from those WMD’s, then what was it for? Moore doesn’t give us a good answer to that question, and I agree with Steve that Moore skips one of the most important ones: neocons are idealists – chickenhawk idealists. Moore sloppily throws at the screen every bad reason he can think of. But his aim is, I believe, first and foremost to tell us that our administration lied and then lied again. Then they lied through their teeth, and then they forced Colin Powell to lie through his.

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