10 Controversial Documentaries Since 2000 That Shouldn't Be Ignored

3. Fahrenheit 9/11

One of only two documentaries to win the prestigious Palme d'Or at the Cannes film festival (Silent World the other, in 1956), Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 received what is said to be the longest standing ovation in the event's hallowed history when it triumphed there in 2004 (different reports have it at somewhere between ten and twenty minutes). A scathing, highly emotive, contentious (its facts have been questioned) take down of the Bush administration after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, Fahrenheit sees Michael Moore go even more partisan in his beliefs that the American government were more concerned about keeping the Saudi's happy after the atrocity than they were the American people - with Moore also lambasting the US's decision to invade Iraq, which he saw as a blatant attempt to further their business interest in regards to oil. As with Bowling for Columbine, Moore finds the "human angle" of the War on Terror, seeking out certain individuals (a mother who lost her son in Iraq, a former soldier disillusioned by what he saw there) to add weight to his full-steam-ahead attack on Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney, and co. Say what you like about Moore's tactics (subtle he ain't), but they work, and in Fahrenheit 9/11 he has his controversial masterpiece.