US presidential election heats up, to Fahrenheit 9/11

The scramble to bring the dark, often satirical film to US movie screens is blending Hollywood and presidential politics in ways never seen in a race for the White House. While the filmmakers deny any overt effort to promote the candidacy of the presumed Democratic presidential nominee, Senator John F Kerry of Massachusetts, their efforts clearly are in sync with many aspects of the campaign.

To fend off the criticism that already is brewing, Moore has set up a ‘‘war room’’ populated by former Clinton White House operatives plotting swift counter-attacks on Bush supporters who question the film’s credibility. To lead the effort, Moore has hired former Clinton and Al Gore political advisers Chris Lehane and Mark Fabiani.

‘‘Employing the Clinton strategy of ’92, we will allow no attack on this film to go without a response immediately,’’ Moore said on Thursday. ‘‘And we will go after anyone who slanders me or my work, and we will do it without mercy.’’ Moore also said he planned to use the film to register thousands of voters, along with screenings to benefit anti-war groups.

So far, the Bush re-election campaign has played down concerns about the film’s effect. ‘‘Voters know fact from fiction coming from Hollywood,’’ said Bush campaign spokesman Scott Stanzel. ‘‘It’s designed to entertain. And everyone knows where Moore is coming from.’’

Others have been more aggressive in trying to discredit Moore, who attacked Bush from the Oscar podium when he won the feature documentary prize for his Bowling for Columbine. Former president George H W Bush called Moore a ‘‘slimeball’’ last month, dismissing the upcoming film as ‘‘a vicious attack on our son’’, according to he New York Daily News. Joining Moore in promoting the film is Harvey Weinstein, a top Democratic donor.

The film has drawn the media spotlight ever since The New York Times published a story last month revealing that Disney was blocking Miramax from distributing Moore’s film. Moore’s agent, Ari Emmanuel (whose brother, is another former Clinton White House operative), charged in that story that Disney feared that Bush’s brother, Florida Governor Jeb Bush, would yank tax breaks for the company’s theme park. Disney executives denied it.

The story broke just before the Cannes Film Festival, where the film was a media and critics’ darling. It went on to win the festival’s top prize, the Palme d’Or, and several weeks later, the Weinsteins purchased it from Disney and lined up new distributors. The film’s high profile has been rising ever since.

To promote Fahrenheit 9/11, the producers are screening it in New York and Washington DC next week for opinion makers in media and politics. Television advertising begins this weekend. Larry Noble, former chief counsel of the Federal Election Commission, said the film’s ads, which are apt to paint Bush unfavourably, risked drawing complaints that campaign-spending restrictions should apply to the movie’s promotion. But unless the ads specifically call for Bush’s defeat or the election of Kerry, he said, the commission is apt to reject the complaints.

Still, for Harvey Weinstein, the film offers a chance to make money while enhancing both his Hollywood standing and political clout. But Weinstein, producer of upcoming Los Angeles and New York concerts to raise money for Kerry, denies any overt political agenda. ‘‘This is not about electing a candidate,’’ he said in an interview.

Fahrenheit 9/11 casts a deeply unfavourable light on Bush’s handling of the September 11 attacks and the Iraq war, ridiculing him and his top advisers. Moore, who closes the film with the message ‘‘Do Something’’, is unabashed about his hope that the film will help dislodge Bush as President. ‘‘I hope this country will be back in our hands in a very short period of time,’’ he told hundreds of invited guests at a celebrity-jammed Beverly Hills screening of the film on Tuesday.

‘‘Are we conducting this like a campaign? Yes, we are,’’ Moore said in an interview on Thursday. ‘‘But it’s not a campaign for Kerry.’’

Filmmaker Rob Reiner, who saw Fahrenheit 9/11, said: ‘‘I don’t know how many entrenched voters’ minds will be changed, but it will certainly galvanise people who are against Bush,’’ he said.

That potential is not lost on Moore, who plans to offer ticket discounts and prizes to newly registered voters who see the film or visit his website. ‘‘If it can encourage the people who belong to the largest political party in America, the non-voter party, to leave it and do the very minimum of what every citizen should do on November 2, then I hope that will be seen as a significant contribution to this country,’’ he said.

— (LAT-WP)