The lights faded and the screen blipped its first signs of life with the lyrics of a classic Rolling Stones song popping in with the images of the new Coke product C2. “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” played ominously and perfectly before the first shot of the movie. How appropriate that a song embodying American politics would be in perfect tune with that which represents, and in many ways, symbolizes an aspect of our culture.

Al Gore’s supposed victory is shown and as quickly as that occurs, is taken away. Yes, 2000 was a dirty year. Who became president didn’t really matter ultimately to most people because most of us accepted George W. Bush as president, but the legitimacy of it was questioned. And it still is. “Fahrenheit 9/11” is a testament to that bitter memory of the improbable and inexplicable rise to power of one man and another man’s journey to unseat a sitting president not of simple pity, but for a string of reasons the filmmaker presents to us in all its biased glory.

Yes, this film is propagandist in nature, but is at the same time a documentary. How many documentaries have come before that have truly been unbiased? Not many, when thought about. Though, aside from the few PBS specials, how many documentaries does a person ever watch? To say Michael Moore is scathing about Bush would be to call a monsoon a gentle breeze. This film is a daisy cutter and the president is the target.

And when it struck, the crater was evident: $21.8 million for a movie playing in less than 900 theaters across the country. Monetary figure aside, that figure translates to a great many people seeing the film — the film so many tried to have boycotted from theaters.

The people who would have silenced this film have become the source of its greatest publicity. Before the first reel was ever projected, discussion swelled slowly, only to have become a raging inferno by end of Friday.

As infuriating as it is for a group of Americans to insist that stifling of speech is acceptable, the American public has chosen to display our collective anger and spit in the faces of those people. We showed up in droves, filling seat after seat.

As much as the film focuses on the ills of the current administration, it also is heart wrenching when it delves headfirst into the war in Iraq, and never once is it contrived.

It is the individual soldiers voicing their opinions — not some carefully chosen talking head. The images of their abuse and their abuses are unabashed in showing the dying and wounded. The heartless actions and the soundtrack to which we destroy a country while “Fire Water Burn” plays is horrific in its macabre humor. For these nuggets of truth, even if you should disagree with what you see in the rest of the film, it will sit at the bottom of your stomach like a lead weight.

There in your offices, in your hallways, behind your cubicles, you can hear the mention of the word “Fahrenheit” echoing. It’s being discussed, if quietly, between people. Maybe the words have crossed your lips.

That is the most important aspect of this film. It has stirred discussion. It resonates inside those who despise the man in the White House and it forces its supporters to either dismiss the film or question their belief in Bush.

How dare they — those who take it upon themselves to want to keep something of this importance from us? Should not all parties stand and shout down those people who think it wise to censor everything? No matter what party affiliation you might possess, should it matter who tries to censor what?

This is probably the film event of this year because it matters — so much more than how Harry Potter ends or if Peter Parker finally ends up with Mary Jane.

Moore may not possess the grace endowed to many an orator, but he is certainly topical, and slams his views into the public consciousness like a sledgehammer.