The Reel-World Replay.

FAHRENHEIT 9/11 (Film); MANCHURIAN Candidate, The (Film : 2004); VILLAGE, The (Film)

MOORE, Michael, 1954-; DEMME, Jonathan, 1944-2017; SHYAMALAN, M. Night, 1970-; KERRY, John, 1943-; BUSH, George W. (George Walker), 1946-

This article discusses how movies such as Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" are echoing American politics this summer. Late in July I went to Boston for the Democratic National Convention. I watched a group of military veterans swear that John Kerry was the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being they've ever known. Then I went to the movies and saw it all again. If summer movies are supposed to offer an escape from the weightier concerns of the real world, then this year Hollywood has screwed up big time. In Demme's version, the brainwashed candidate's mind hasn't been stolen by the Chinese and the Russians, but by a sinister corporation with obvious similarities to Halliburton, the company Vice-President Dick Cheney used to run.