Customer Reviews

Fahrenheit 9/11

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It is so typical for soundtracks lately to leave out the best songs or scores of the film. This one is no exception! I very much wanted to hear the song that plays over the opening credits and the "Congressional Recruitment" scene. It is omitted from this otherwise great soundtrack. Studios need to start including all major works from films to make whole a "soundtrack."

This soundtrack is the perfect compliment to Fahrenheit 9/11. It stands well on its own, meshing such pop-culture hits as the GoGo's "Vacation," and REM's "Shiny Happy People," as well as the numerous instrumental tracks that made this film so memorable. Highlights no doubt include "Weapons of Deceit," "All They Ask," and the timid (and telling) "Bush Waits... And Waits."

Regardless of whether you agree with the film, this soundtrack gives the listener a veritable two-fer, mixing emotional and somber instrumentals with invigorating vocal pop tracks.

"Rockin' in the Free World" indeed!

The bulk of the CD consists of instrumental music from Jeff Gibbs, which is mood-setting synth music. "The Un-President" was used in the opening of the movie, when Gore had justly won the 2000 election, only to have victory snatched from him. The stark grim piano track, "Bush Waits...and Waits" was used where the unpresident merely sat in his chair after getting news of the second plane hitting the WTC, and pondering who did this? There is some Philip Glass-style synth music in both "Weapons of Deceit" and "Deserter." Both have the same sound, except for the more techno electronica flavour of the latter.

There are two other instrumentals aside from Gibbs'. One is Paarvo Jarvi's funereal and emotional rendition of Estonian composer Arvo Part's "Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten" used during the 11 September segment, the sight of ash and debris floating down like gray snowflakes from the sky. The other is Elmer Bernstein's theme to the Magnificent Seven, used to depict Afghanistan as an example of U.S. cowboy diplomacy, starring Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell, and Tony Blair.

"All They Ask" is taken during the final segments of the movie, where Moore praises the young men serving in the military. "All they ask is that we don't put them in harm's way," he says in the voice-over. "Will they ever trust us again?"

Now for the pop/rock songs. The Go-Go's' "Vacation," the title from their second album, was used to show what Dubya did after his poll numbers went down. Cue scenes at the ranch. Eric Burdon's "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place" from the 1960's was used in the scene describing how the Bin Laden family were the only ones allowed to leave by plane during 12-13 September 2001 while millions of Americans were stranded.

The relationship between the Bushes and the rich Saudi oilmen shows them to be "Shiny Happy People," sung by R.E.M. and Katie Pierson of the B-52's. This was played where Poppie is shaking hands with the Saudis and saying how it's a happy reunion with good friends. The point being how the rich are shiny and happy, but what about the rest of us?

I wonder how Jimmy Pop feels about young American soldiers using his group the Bloodhound Gang's song "Fire Water Burn" while they are destroying Baghdad. The part the young soldier quotes is "we don't need no water, let the MF burn. Burn MF Burn." Later in the movie, this song is used when the Iraqis take to the streets, dragging and later displaying the mutilated corpses of US soldiers.

J.J. Cale's "Cocaine" only got used for a few seconds, but that was during the segment where Moore discusses Dubya's altered air force records. "If you wanna get down on the ground" can have connotations of how Bush was grounded along with James R. Bath for not reporting for their physicals while in the Texas Air National Guard. However, I cannot recall when Jethro Tull's "Aqualung" was used.

Using Joey Scarbury's bubbly pop of "Believe It Or Not," during the scene of Bush proclaiming victory over Iraq aboard the aircraft carrier is clearly meant to evoke anger among those of us lefties. This is the theme song to the short-lived TV series The Greatest American Hero. The Greatest American Hero? Him? A joke surely, yes? I thought so.

Played over the credits is Neil Young's jamming rocker "Rockin' In The Free World." A great song yes, but given the finale, using the Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again" would've been more appropriate, but Pete Townshend's refusal made that impossible.
Not a complete soundtrack as the themes from Dragnet and Peter Gunn aren't included, but it's for a worthy cause and movie. This CD should have been reviewed before Election Day, for which I apologize, but maybe this will serve as a reminder of the importance of voter participation.

I have listened to this CD and find it a great collection of music, suiting the documentary perfectly.
The most moving moment in the film is the recreation of the events on 9/11 in NY, together with 'Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten'. Mr Hamlow reports that this piece is by Paavo Jarvi, however it is actually written by the composer Arvo Pärt. I just thought this should be pointed out...

Good, but not great soundtrack, but infinitely worth it for Joey Scarbury's immortal "Believe It Or Not" alone.

You can't put a price tag on things like that...

I was disappointed that the "We've gotta get out of this place" was not the version played in the movie. It was a slower tempo original. A lot of the tunes were ad hoc compositions for the movie and fleshed out the album. Overall I only find myself liking two of the songs, "Greatest American Hero", and "REM". Lucky I bought it second hand for the cost of two singles. I'd be annoyed had I been relying on the unknowns being of value and the older version of "'outta this place" being as the movie.

In the entire history of American cinema, Michael Moore's Bushwhacking expose FAHRENHEIT 9/11 has a special place--right up there with other ultra-controversial, politically-themed films like DOCTOR STRANGELOVE, ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN, JFK, THE CHINA SYNDROME, and MISSING. A lot of that has to do with the choices of music he made to accompany this crazy and highly charged creation of his.

For instance, there are the original pieces of music supplied by composer Jeff Gibbs that make extensive use of keyboards and synthesizers: "The Un-President"; "Bush Waits...And Waits"; "Weapons Of Deceit"; "Deserter"; "Afghan Victory Dance"; and "All They Ask." These are brilliantly designed space-age pieces that make very clear the irony and the ire behind Moore's evidence, as well as allowing us to imagine an Orwellian world, Dubya style. Then there's his uses of once-forgotten 80s hits like the Go-Go's "Vacation" (heard during the segment showing Bush spending 42% of the first seven and a half months of his presidency vacationing in Crawford, Texas), and Joey Scarbury's "Theme From 'The Greatest American Hero'" (during that now-infamous "Mission Accomplished" photo-op on a navy ship off the California coast during the first months of the Iraq war). Jethro Tull's "Aqualung" is heard briefly in the film during an interview with a soldier in Iraq, but heard here in its entirety, while Neil Young's 1989 anti-George H.W. Bush missive "Rockin' In The Free World" blasts over the closing credits.

But where Moore truly makes the most is in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, with Estonian composer Arvo Part's 1976 composition "Cantus In Memory Of Benjamin Britten" for bell and full string orchestra. In the key of A Minor, it plays over the horrifying aftermath of the attacks in New York, with papers, ash, and smoke making a pall over the Big Apple. It is performed here by members of the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, led by Paavo Jarvi.

Rounded out by tracks from R.E.M., J.J. Cale, Bloodhound Gang, Eric Burdon, and Elmer Bernstein (a witty use of the composer's famous theme for THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN), the FAHRENHEIT 9/11 soundtrack is a perfect companion to what is unquestionably one of the most incendiary and subversive movies, documentary or otherwise, ever unleashed into the world. It is a soundtrack full of irony, cynicism, anger, and remembrance, not only of 9/11, but of the Iraqi conflict, and the deceptions that led us to the place we are at now.

I picked up this CD on the day the DVD came out and got quite the mixed bag.

On one end, you get almost every song heard in the film...the problem is, most are NOT very good with the exception of Elmer Bernstein's rousing rendition of the score for THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, The Bloodhound Gang's fittingly apocalyptic FIRE WATER BURN, the haunting CANTUS IN MEMORY OF BENJAMIN BRITTEN by Jarvi, and Neil Young's ROCKIN' IN THE FREE WORLD.

I'm sorry but I detest the Go-Go's with a passion, Eric Burdon's WE GOTTA GET OUT OF THIS PLACE sucks to high heaven when heard alone without the visuals, I have NEVER liked SHINY HAPPY PEOPLE by REM, and I hate Jethro Tull to a degree that has yet to be discovered.

What DOES deserve to be on the soundtrack is Jeff Gibbs's etherial and fitting score wherein he seems to channel minimalist composer, Philip Glass and it's possibly one of the best scores I have heard all year. It recalls a sense of mystery, a puzzle of sorts, just like Glass's score for Errol Morris's documentaries, THE THIN BLUE LINE, A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME, and the more recent FOG OF WAR.

Thumbs up to Gibbs who saves this CD from being a total loss.

*** out of ****

-- Matt