Weep no more for Michael Moore. His film Fahrenheit 9/11's new buyers are Miramax film studio founders Harvey and Bob Weinstein who've personally bought the rights to the picture from Walt Disney Co. So expect this:
(1)It'll definitely be shown in some U.S. theaters this summer, at the height of the Presidential campaign.
(2)Even more hype about it now being shown and how it won the highest award at Cannes film festival. Due to the controversy over it, review of the film will get top display in newspapers.
(3)A recap of the whole controversy where Miramax funded it, but its owner Disney supposedly refused to release it saying its criticism of GWB on the war in Iraq, 911 performance, and alleged ties to the Saudi royal family were too political. This controversy raged and ended with Disney insisting they didn't try to squelch the film due to fear of political repercussions. Etc.
The reality is: the film WILL be seen, it'll do lots of business, give Moore enough money so he can finally afford some razor blades and maybe even have some limited political influence.
The reason the influence will be limited is because this film is likely to be viewed by anti-Bush Democrats and some swing voters, but is too partisan to attract many Republicans, and it may not be appealing to even some swing voters who hate strong partisanship. So it's actual ability to change minds will be limited -- but it will be one more negative image out there (shown daily) of the Bush administration..
As I mentioned on my blog (regarding Al Gore's insane performance the other day), this is another example of an item that makes every Democrat wish he could vote for Kerry twice, and then delude himself into thinking that translates into a doubling of the Kerry vote.
I tend to agree that this isn't going to change many minds. It's mostly preaching to the choir.
My question is: who the hell ARE the "swing voters" anyway? I don't know any of them. Everyone I know is already firm, and I mean firm, in who they're going to vote for. I don't know a single person trying to make up their mind. Who the hell, and where the hell, are these alleged "swing" voters?
Swing voters does conjure up an image of voters who are swapping wives...or singing Sinatra tunes and snapping their fingers.
But they DO exist. You can look at any poll or do a google search and will see that the electorate is about evenly split.
This year for one of the first times the election is going to hinge on an increasingly small number of voters who have NOT made up their mind. They may like certain things about GWB and not like others; they may react the same way to Kerry.
So they do exist and surveys show they do. I did some posts on University of Virginia's Larry Sabato's Crystal Ball political science newsletters and Sabato, a favorite expert, notes the polarization.
If the electorate is virtually evenly split with partisans who are absolutely convinced their man is good and the other is evil, etc. then the deciding factor is going to be the squishier voter. Here in CA, why did Arnold get such a big vote? He won over most of the swing voters as well as less partisan Democrats.
They DO exist. And this year whoever gets most of them (and gets all of their voters out) will WIN since the country is split.
This movie might actually get people involved in the voting process enought to actually vote!