Review | Fahrenheit 11/9 film review: Trump’s rise to power dissected in Michael Moore’s bleak, provocative documentary
- Documentary shows how US politics is driven by personality rather than policy, and that make Trump’s grip on power very tight
- Moore believes the Democratic presidential nomination was rigged towards Hillary Clinton, and that effectively lost them the election
4.5/5 stars
Thanks to the Mueller inquiry, much has justifiably been written about Russia’s alleged involvement in Donald Trump’s surprise 2016 United States presidential election win. But in Fahrenheit 11/9, the Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Michael Moore focuses on the domestic issues that drove US citizens to vote for Trump, rather than meddling by foreign powers.
The film is a multifaceted video essay, and many of the points he makes will shock viewers unfamiliar with the US political system, the country’s deep social problems (which include hardship and poverty) and its population demographics.
For instance, Moore notes that the rigging of the Democratic presidential nomination by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in favour of Hillary Clinton rather than Bernie Sanders effectively lost the election for the Democrats – many Sanders supporters where so disgusted by the actions of the DNC they chose to abstain rather than vote for Clinton.
What’s more, Moore warns that it’s dangerous to dismiss Trump as a political idiot, showing that he has a time-proven strategy for keeping power.
