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Like 'Fahrenheit 9/11,' Except Bush Is the Hero
By JOHN TIERNEY

Published: September 30, 2004 NYT

WASHINGTON, Sept. 29 - The Republicans finally have Hollywood's answer to Michael Moore: "Celsius 41.11 - The Temperature at Which the Brain Begins to Die," a documentary made in six weeks that is billed as "The Truth Behind the Lies of Fahrenheit 9/11!"

After its premiere in Georgetown on Tuesday night, there seemed to be two prevailing sentiments among the solidly Republican crowd of 300. One was that the film is a lot more thoughtful and accurate than "Fahrenheit 9/11." The other was that it is not going to gross $100 million.

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But then, that was not the point, as the Hollywood conservatives (yes, there are some) who made it kept insisting.

"We could have gone wall to wall with red meat on this, but we purposely didn't," said Lionel Chetwynd, a writer and producer of the film. His credits include the screenplay for "The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz" and documentaries on D-Day, Vietnam and Sept. 11, and he is billed as a special guest at the Liberty Film Festival, "Hollywood's first conservative film festival," running Friday through Sunday. "The cheap shots may be entertaining in Moore's film," he added, "but we wanted to make the intellectual case and go beyond lecturing to the converted."

Hollywood's version of the presidential campaign seems to be an inverse of the one being waged out of Washington. Democrats have been lamenting that their candidate is too much brain, too little heart, in contrast to the Republicans' emotionally appealing message.

But on the big screen, the Republicans are taking the wonk approach in an attempt to show that their brains have not overheated. "Celsius 41.11" offers a point-by-point defense of President Bush (listed on the screen like a PowerPoint presentation) by politicians, journalists and scholars discoursing on the legality of the Florida recount in 2000, the Clinton administration's record on fighting terrorism and the theory of American exceptionalism.

The film does have a few "Fahrenheit"-style juxtapositions, like an image of the World Trade Center burning as Mr. Moore declares: "This needs to be said on national television. There is no terrorist threat." The discussion of Europe's slow response to Hitler is illustrated with a picture of French antiwar demonstrators in 1938 holding up signs saying "Non" - which inspired a hiss from the Republicans on Tuesday.

Senator John Kerry is serenaded with a new song (written and recorded on deadline last weekend) by Larry Gatlin, the country-music star. Sounding a bit like Pete Seeger, he sings, "John boy, please tell us which way the wind's blowing." But it's not even accompanied by the famous shot of Mr. Kerry windsurfing.

"It would be easy to string together a montage of Kerry footage as the man of athletic leisure, make him out to be a wealthy dilettante, the way that Moore did with Bush," Mr. Chetwynd said, alluding to the recurrent images of Mr. Bush on vacation in "Fahrenheit 9/11." "But we wanted to deconstruct the anybody-but-Bush argument by taking Kerry on his own terms, as a serious man."

The film was financed and produced by Citizens United, a conservative group in Washington. In June it asked the Federal Elections Commission to stop Mr. Moore from running advertisements for his film during the period before the election when political commercials by outside groups are restricted. That complaint was dismissed after Mr. Moore said he would not run the commercials in question.

In a separate ruling this month, the commission refused to allow Citizens United to advertise "Celsius 41.11" or pay to run it on television. David N. Bossie, the group's president, said this week that several distributors were interested in "Celsius 41.11" and that he hoped it would appear in theaters within two weeks.

No one, including its creators, expects the film to have the popular impact of "Fahrenheit 9/11," and the premiere Tuesday lacked the array of Washington celebrities who turned out for Mr. Moore's opening. But those who did show up seemed delighted that someone was finally taking on Mr. Moore.

"This film wins an entry into the debate," said Jerome R. Corsi, an author of "Unfit for Command," the best-selling critique of Mr. Kerry's Vietnam record. "It's going to be talked about."

Debra Burlingame, whose brother was the pilot of the airplane that crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, said she found the film's sober tone a welcome contrast to Mr. Moore's approach.

"Michael Moore actually used footage of the Pentagon in flames as a sight gag," said Ms. Burlingame, a founder of a group of relatives of Sept. 11 victims who are supporting Mr. Bush. "It was really hard to sit there in the theater listening to people laugh at that scene knowing my brother was on that plane. I wish more people would see this film instead."