By: E&P Staff They like Mike. While the country as a whole appears split, along political lines, over the controversial Michael Moore documentary, "Fahrenheit 9/11," movie reviewers at U.S. daily newspapers are not.
An E&P survey of 63 daily papers that ran reviews, in "red" and "blue" states alike, finds that 56 gave the film a positive nod, with only seven abstaining, an almost 90% favorable rating.
The seven in the "anti" camp were: Detroit Free Press, Rocky Mountain News of Denver, San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News, New York Post, South Florida Sun-Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale, The Philadelphia Daily News and The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer.
Among the "pro" crowd were reviewers from moderate to conservative papers such as the Boston Herald, Daily News of Los Angeles, The San Diego Union-Tribune and Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Many of the positive reviews expressed reservations but overall weighed in on the plus side.
Among the few negatives, Phoebe Flowers in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel called the film "hyperbolic hysteria," and Lawrence Toppmann in the Charlotte Observer observed that Moore "rakes muck like nobody else, but almost as much of it sticks to him as to his subject."
But they were drowned out by praise, not only from some of the expected big city papers but from smaller towns. Boo Allen of the Denton (Texas) Record Chronicle referred to "Maestro Moore." Philip Martin in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette of Little Rock called the film "tough and true," while James Sanford in the Kalamazoo (Mich.) Gazette found it to be a "skillfully" directed "two-hour indictment."
Mary Pols in the Contra Costa Times of Walnut Creek, Calif., pretty much covered the waterfront in calling the film "passionate, clever, scathing, funny, snarky, brutal, sad, glib and at times superficial."
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