Michael Moore's Hometown Paper Weighs In On New Film

By: E&P Staff By now, all the big city reviewers, entertainment pundits, and political commentators have weighed in on the controversial new movie, "Fahrenheit 9/11." But what is the view from director Michael Moore's beloved hometown, Flint, Mich., which features in every one of his films, including this one?

Flint Journal reviewer Ed Bradley this morning called the film "not its director's most seamless mix of information, opinion and entertainment -- 'Bowling for Columbine' is a better movie -- and sometimes Moore's rage threatens to overwhelm it. But few films can claim to reflect as potently this tumultuous, polarizing American age."

Bradley calls it an "angry polemic," but "yea or nay," the film is "essential viewing." He gives it 3 stars out of 4.

He observes, "Some of the film's most powerful moments are the 20 minutes or so devoted to Flint and Flintites. Scenes of Marine recruiters staking out the parking lot at Courtland Center, and sizing up the mall's youthful clientele, are truly unsettling."

The now-famous local mother who lost a son in the Iraq war, he adds, serves as "a Bush counterpoint."