Fahrenheit 911

Those who follow the news closely will find little new here - the questionable election victory in Florida, Bush's slacking in office pre-9/11, the business connections between his family and the bin Ladens, the profiteering opportunities brought by a war on Iraq, the breaches of civil liberties in the Patriot Act, the lies about Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction and links to al Qaida, have all been documented before, and the footage of the Bush administration used in the film has been compiled mostly from standard media outlets. What makes 'Farenheit 9/11' stand out is its overwhelming concentration of information which, while shrewdly editorialised and certainly more convincing in some parts than in others, represents in its totality a devastating indictment of the current Republican government - and unlike, say, the coverage of events by network news, Moore's feature format allows him to make a point at some length, developing it from a nipping soundbite into a full-jawed mauling. It is one thing to know