Crowds in the US capital flocked late Friday to the opening of Michael Moore's film "Fahrenheit 9/11," some to get fired up about ousting President George W. Bush in the November 2 election, others to see what the controversy is all about.
Nurse Alexandra Moss, 31, made a point of seeing the vehemently anti-Bush documentary as a contribution to help defeat the Republican president in November. She even brought her mother to the film. "I want to see Bush out of office," she said.
Lynda Bond, 47, a fervent Republican whose husband is an elected official, came mainly to confirm that the incendiary movie was nothing but a string of lies.
"I wanted to see it to understand what everyone was talking about," Bond said. "It is extremely misleading. I bought a ticket for another movie and then came to see this one. I wouldn't give Michael Moore my money."
Impatient viewers in Washington, the most politicised city in the United States, invaded cinemas as the movie opened Friday. At a 14-screen multiplex theatre in Georgetown, in the heart of the US capital, "Fahrenheit 9/11" was being shown on three screens. Tickets had been sold out for days, and some people were forced to sit on the ground.
The movie begins with the November 2000 US presidential election. For a few minutes Democrat Al Gore appears to be winning . . . but he then concedes victory to Republican Bush. The camera pauses on Bush, who laughs nervously. The audience howls with laughter.
Then there is footage of Bush on vacation at his ranch in Crawford, Texas. Critics say that he is spending too much time away from the White House. "I'm working on some things," Bush awkwardly tells television news reporters, stumbling on his words three times. Another burst of laughter follows.
Moore's humour doesn't always hit the mark, and his line of reasoning at times seems hollow, even a touch demagogic. But the audience loves it.
When the movie turns to the September 11, 2001 terror attacks in the United States, the screen goes dark, with the sound effects - the explosions, the cries of anguish, the chaos - telling the story.
The film then moves to Iraq, where a woman is seen pleading to Allah after her uncle's home is destroyed in a US bombing. "What have they done?" she wails.
In another moving scene, the mother of a US soldier killed in Iraq breaks down in sobs as she talks about her son's death and her doubts about the reasons for going to war.
The crowd breaks out in applause as the movie ends.
Nadia MacFarlane, 31, a pre-medical student at Howard University, thought the movie was "a good reinforcement that you're not crazy, that (what I think), it's true," she said.
Robin Presta, 25, who works for a non-profit organisation, wiped her eyes with a tissue throughout the film. "I was definitely moved," she said.
David and Sharon, a couple in their late 40s who declined to give their names because of their jobs - he works for the government, she for a law firm - said that the sell-out crowd shows "how people are starving to see" the film. The Bush administration "has attempted to crush any kind of opposition," David said. "Everyone in the world has figured the madness here in Washington, except for the Americans. I'm glad somebody made a film like this."
"Fahrenheit 9/11" appeared in 868 US theatres, a record for a documentary.
It is unclear what effect, if any, the movie will have on the outcome of the November election. Three years of Bush's unabashedly conservative policies have sharply polarised the US electorate, most political observers agree. And with just over four months to go to the election, the contest right now comes down to a small pool of swing voters.
Todd Hallauer, 28, a self-confessed political liberal who works for the Merrill Lynch accounting firm, said he thought the timing of Moore's film "is great, with the election coming up." But he observed: "There probably aren't a lot of swing voters here".
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