Strolled down to the cinema yesterday afternoon to take in the movie.

As a documentary, it's just so-so. Standard Moore production that presents its point of view with a fairly entertaining coating, though not really compelling. I wasn't riveted, but I wasn't bored either. Some assertions were hyped, some were underplayed. Moore handled the 9/11 attacks "tastefully", to the extent that's possible, by not doing the obvious and replaying the traumatic images, but rather with a black screen backed up by a soundtrack of sirens and wails, and later with footage of people watching in horror. Good call to not crassly exploit that footage (unlike the Bush campaign in a couple of its ads).

The real question is whether "Fahrenheit 9/11" will change any minds and influence the election.

It's not going to change the minds of people who've already judged Bush, either based on what the informed minority has observed of his term (incumbents run on their high-profile records, for better or worse); or the blind stubbornness of party loyalists.

And then there are the undecideds. Who the hell are these people who don't already have an opinion about Dubya? Single-digit numbers in the polls translate into several million people who have been intellectually AWOL for four years. Have that many people been in a coma for all that time? Or are these people smart like foxes, and waiting to see what sort of October Surprise Rove cooks up?

Well, in any case, I think the movie will persuade some of the undecided, if for no other reason than the presumption that they're uninformed, perhaps even shallow, and thus likely to be impressed by a two-hour sound bite that's chock full of revelations (to the uninformed).

Which, from my point of view, having already judged Bush wanting based on his record, is a good thing. I want the votes to defeat Bush, and I'm not going to be picky about how they're delivered. Sometimes people can do the right thing for the wrong reasons.

So I appreciated the movie, as much from my judgment of its pragmatic value as for its own merits. An election year is all about duelling propaganda, and I don't feel any need to apologize for a powerful arrow in the quiver. Whatever works.