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From my blog:
The "Bash Bush Bash" caravan to the matinee showing of Fahrenheit 9/11 at the AMC 24 consisted of three: my friends Joe, Darren and myself. Sure enough the movie didn't change anyone's mind, maybe because they fully agreed with it when they went in.
Darren and Joe both said they didn't think the movie would tell them anything that anyone who watched the news didn't already know. I said that may be true but the movie's impact was the cummulative effect of seeing those clips all in one place, with digital stereo, etc.
I was surprised when Darren showed up with his girlfriend who has recently been outed as a Republican. She quickly explained that she was going to see White Chicks. Joe, a rabid Democrat who had never met either Darren or his girlfriend before, instantly lunged at her with, "WHAT?! WHY?!," then mocked her choice of White Chicks saying it was politically incorrect, "black men in whiteface."
Throughout the movie Joe had to step on the punchline of each factoid by announcing it as the scene was being set up. Eventually I said, "Joe, the movie comes with its own narration." He then turned to filling the theater with unsettlingly obnoxious sucking noises with the his drink straw throughout the rest of the film, as though there was an undiscovered reserve of cola somewhere at the bottom of the cup when it was clearly drier than an Arbusto oil well.
The real show started when the movie was over. Darren and his girlfriend had left but I spotted my former Kennesaw State University sociology professor in the lobby. He stood out in my mind because, 10 years ago, I told him I listened to Rush Limbaugh a lot and would be interested to see how what his class had to say squared with Rush. He said, "Well, let me tell you, I'm a sociology professor, I'm from New York and I'm Jewish. So I should be a liberal, but I'm not. So what you hear in this class will probably match what Rush says." It turned out he had been dragged to the movie by a colleague. And within five seconds Joe was in his face ranting about Saudi-Bush ties (the professor dismissed those as "tentative" and the report of 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers being Saudi as "lies of the liberals").
The professor asked me what I had been doing since college and rather than bore him with my extensive list of sterling accomplishments I went for the low stuff. I told him I had gotten a jaded view of the corporate world thanks to being laid off by Adelphia and Worldcom within months of each other, both companies who's CEO's have been investigated for graft and fraud. Sensing the pain of a former student he did what a lot of people around here seem to do, he burst out laughing at me. To which I responded, "Yeah, a lot of good Kennesaw State did me! Let ME come speak to your class! I'll tell them, 'Exits are over this way, folks!'"
His co-worker said maybe what I needed was a graduate degree, the deluxe snakeoil of academia. "Why don't I just put a bullet in my head? It'll do me just as much good!" I explained that businesses are highly automated these days and what they're looking for are semi-literate people who won't expect to be paid much over $9 an hour to babysit the machinery. A guy who thinks he's a hotshot wiht his Ph.D. in B.S. who's looking for $80,000 a year is the LAST thing they want to see.
In the end I asked their forgiveness for interrupting their colas and popcorn and wrote down the address of my website on a Post It note for them to find stuck on the bottom of their shoes later. I told the professor maybe Fahrenheit 9/11 could replace Hard Times on Clay Street as required media in his class. He said, "Don't count on it."
A viewing of Fahrenheit 9/11 is unlike any other moviegoing experience you'll ever have.
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