HEY GENERAL... ABOUT YOUR RESPONSIBILITY

General,

It’s been a hard day’s night, this battle is lost, and the backlash has begun. Vae victis. The mob is jeering at King-Kong in chains following Caesar’s triumph. The few statements I read from you since we were defeated left me wondering. Those I didn’t read made me uneasy. I know you’ve got to keep a low profile, and that the winter might be long. But I’m worried. How shaken are you ? How dug in ? Up to your heels ? I feel I have to break my duty of reserve.

I hope you know you bear no responsibility in our army’s wreckage. The Emperor’s victory was begotten by the terrifying marriage of cynical smear tactics and plebeian stupidity, then born out of Doofus’s consistent silence about the patricians’ wheeling and dealing, his consistent failing to be either inspired or inspiring, and his consistent refusal to acknowledge a banner that was both. To say nothing of the Votergatum. Call yourself Cassandra.

No need to elaborate either on the way you served. You served. Heart, soul, blood, sweat and guts. At the front line. That’s more than what most of those who blame you can say. For lack of any proof whatsoever, we can schematically assume that F9/11 fired up our side, counter-fuelled the enemy and changed a few minds, most of them for the better. As for the Tour, it unmistakably caused a more significant turnout, and we’re not going to let anyone tell us that the majority of the slackers who saw you plebiscited the Emperor, are we ? So, at worst it was a draw, at best you got the 1 % to 2 % more Doofus voters you had planned to conquer. Mission accomplished.

But, General, from the legitimate feeling you did no wrong and can stand proud and impassive in front of the rabble, you seem to deduce there’s nothing you should change or question. It’s not like you. And that’s puzzling me.

General, I’ll be blunt : I don’t like the idea of a F9/11 ½. And I like it even less hearing the way you talk about it. I hope for the best but I fear the worst. “We’re communicators” ? “Convince the 51 %” ? “Weren’t told the truth” ? Shit, General, what are you talking about ? You were an artist, do you mean to become a team of publicists ? You were speaking your mind and raising awareness, do you mean to arm-wrestle the words into the people’s minds ?

I think I understand what you mean to do, actually : you plan to go back to this initial French concept of “cinema d’intervention” that gave birth to F9/11. You want to witness the American lie as fast as it unwinds, you want to use images as weapons for a permanent revolution, you can’t stand the useless waste of human lives and you feel from deep inside you just couldn’t find peace if you called it a day now.

Yes… But are these motives still real, or are you kidding yourself ? Things have changed in an awful lot of ways in the last few months. Glory blessed and cursed you. More annoyingly, it defined you. You’re no longer a voice in the crowd, a modest symbol of free speech and democracy. You’re the man who wanted to topple the President. The man who couldn’t topple the President. And no one ever calls you Roger Moore anymore.

What can you do now ? What more can you do ? Why enhance this slippery image ? You can’t outshine F9/11, be it commercially or artistically. Your credibility is bullied. Your name is sealed by scorn or hatred. This persona is up shit creek without a paddle. Who is going to believe Michael Moore, apart from those who already believe him ? What are you prepared to do to make the others listen ? Are you about to commit your first bad work ? Your first pointlessly bad work ? Will there come a day when someone will say F9/11 ½ is crap and I shall remain silent ?

General, I’m looking back and it’s plain to see that if you spot hubris so well in others, it’s because you have it in you. Yours might be sublime – it’s still hubris, and you’ve got to make sure your fantasy of saving the world all by yourself doesn’t get fruitlessly out of control at the end of this parabola which saw you set a trend, steal the show, take the lead of the untamed, top the scene, impose a worldview and reach the top of your career. A source of strength can so silently backfire into a road to ruin. And the wisest way to go in citizen action or civil disobedience is to go in the largest possible numbers.

Resistance surrounds you. I saw “Le monde selon Bush” and “The Control Room”, to name but these two. Of course it’s nothing like your blazing, majestic fresco, but it’s no intellectual, abstruse stuff either, and it was a vital complement to your work : Karel investigated over the oligarchy as a whole, Nouhaim showed how the Arab world saw the invasion of Iraq. You were in a position to openly rally the other artists, make their movies commercially attractive, promote their works, actively create a culture. You’re a wonderful teacher, you have the energy and the authority, you could have done it.

Instead of that you just recommended them on your site and we were led to treat F9/11 as a fetish. God, the meetings and the rallies were centred only about that : how to persuade people to see F9/11, how to advertise for F9/11, the anti-R rating campaigns, the hacking of the repug sites who were sending death threats to theater owners… That, and voter registration. We had a broad range of issues of discussion, but as far as action was concerned : F9/11. I don’t blame you. Not at all. I’ve been the first one to play this game. It was Cannes, the Palme d’Or, full recognition at last after years of struggling and obscurity. It was intoxicating. Especially for me, who was there at the very beginning. It’s just that all the weight was on your shoulders, and you thought you could bear it, and so did I. But now time has come to sober up.

You can’t.

Yes, I know, many a time has a single human being started great things – but not always – not alone – not in any context - not against all odds. You’re not Rosa Parks. And the truth is not yours. It’s because you have implied the truth was yours that the slander has been all yours to take. Dissociate the truth from your name, and the mudslinging will fail. Open a school, train students, federate followers… I don’t know. Running for best picture to leave room to your fellow documentarians, shooting more consensual and still dangerous works like Sicko seem to me the right way to go. I whole-heartedly commend these moves. You need to clean yourself from the mud by diluting the responsibility and refusing that devil suit. Free the truth, General. Free yourself. Stop playing Superjeez now, it’s Gibsonland.

And do F9/11 ½ as well if you feel it’s the right thing ! Just make sure it’s about the war, not about the Return of the Son of your Revenge – and all will be well.

General, you’re right to be unapologetic. You’d be wrong to be autistic. You’re right to be tenacious. You’d be wrong to be stubborn. You’re right to remain insane. You’d be wrong to lose your sanity. You’re right to be yourself. You’d be wrong to stay on your own.

Don’t let your glamour get in the way of your power. Such is your responsibility.

Please consider.

Yours.

Private fear_and_hate_9_11


PS – This just in - I hear you’re currently spending your time going to church, taking walks in the woods and catching up on sleep. And following my advice before I even gave it…

While he has no problem being a "designated hitter" in the political game, he's not interested in being the coach or most valuable player.

"Being a figurehead is a responsibility and a burden," he said. "Still, people have gone to my movies and read my books, and I'm not going to let them down.

And F9/11 ½ has now become only a “potential follow-up”. Wonderful. Of course you’re aware of all that… Silly me. Oh, I'm going to post my letter since I wrote it. But sometimes I wonder what it is I worry about. Guess I’m simply bored from not hearing enough of you.