Never in the history of motion pictures in America has so much controversy been generated by a single movie, a documentary, as has Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11'.

Moore created history at another level for no documentary film has been released theatrically across the country in as many as 868 screens. Normally documentaries hardly get a nationwide theater release and this documentary is an exception. Attempts were made by powerful forces like the supporters of the Republican Party to suppress the film and prevent its release.

Consequently even before it was ever screened, it attracted controversy when Moore announced that the Walt Disney monolith had refused to let its Miramax Films division distribute the movie after making a commitment. In a bold move Miramax chiefs Bob and Harvey Weinstein bought the movie personally and distributed it through a partnership with Lions Gate Films (a Canadian company) and IFC Films.

In Fahrenheit 9/11, the rabble-rousing controversial American documentary filmmaker with an impressive track record including an Oscar went to town in criticizing President George W.Bush for the manner he handled the [September] 9/11 national calamity, the terrorist attacks and finally the war in Iraq.

Moore took the bold stance in the film that the Iraqi war was totally unnecessary and had caused untold suffering, damage and danger to the American army who were made scapegoats for the President's settling of private scores. He also suggested that there were business connections between the Bush family and Osama Bin Laden's rich family in the oil-rich Middle- East.

Expectedly the Republicans worked hard to hit him below the belt by calling the movie a tissue of lies generated by a frustrated filmmaker. The back and forth-game of hurling insults fanned the fierce flames of public interest and consequently the American public eagerly awaited the release of the documentary.

Such expectancy has never been witnessed in America for a mere documentary film and soon public interest began to cross the high seas and oceans and reached Europe and the United Kingdom. Fahrenheit 9 /1 won the prestigious Palme D'Or Award, at the Cannes Film Festival earlier in May this year.

This was the first documentary since 1956 to win the much applauded and much coveted award. In spite of the award, attempts were continued to be made to block its release in theaters.

Fahrenheit 9/11 was released on June 25th, at 868 cinemas across the United States and raked in an astonishingly incredible box-office returns of 24 million dollars in just three days! No other documentary film has ever made this kind of money.

Moore commented, "It became part of the national conversation this weekend. These are mind-blowing numbers."

The rest of the world where the film has already generated much interest waits to see the movie. Interestingly Moore has toured many European countries and also England to lecture about his film and hitting at George Bush and his policies bitterly with a steel fist. He went even to the extent of calling Americans, ‘idiots’ for assuming many things about themselves like ‘world supremacy’, which according to him are all just hot air!

Expectedly Moore has already received fabulous offers for the DVD rights of the documentary, again something that could create history. But he is in no hurry to take advantage of the offers.

Moore is no stranger to awards and adulation. In 2002 he won the Oscar for ‘Best Documentary’ for his Bowling for Columbine, in which he explored the American gun culture in all its ramifications and the dangers to society at large.

During his acceptance speech on the Oscar Night he strongly criticized President Bush for which there was mixed reaction from the audience. Many cheered and some jeered! But true to his style he said what he wanted to irrespective of the feedback of the American movie world establishment.

The Oscar Award winning documentary was also a box-office success collecting over $20 million but this ‘hit hard-documentary-at Bush’ has put the earlier film in the shade!

Michael Moore, a Catholic of Irish descent was born on April 23, 1954, in Davison, Michigan, a suburb of Flint, where General Motors had major manufacturing plants, where Moore's father and grandfather worked. Moore soon developed an interest in student politics. In 1972, when 18-year-olds were granted the right to vote, he ran for a seat on the Flint school board, soon becoming one of the youngest people in the United States to win an election for an office. Thus he laid the foundation stone to grow and become one of America's most fearless commentators of the political and corporate establishment.

Moore became a one-man crusader and social activist hitting at American establishment and the rich and corporate sectors controlling the nation. Besides being an activist and a documentary filmmaker he also made a reputation as a best-selling writer with many books to his credit which are all stinging slap-satires on the cheeky American establishment.

Moore became famous with his film Roger and Me, a documentary about what happened to his hometown Flint, after General Motors closed its factories and opened new units in Mexico, where the workers were paid smaller wages.

Moore's other worthy ventures in celluloid include Canadian Bacon, Bowling for Columbine which won him an Oscar. He has also directed two television series, TV Nation and The Awful Truth. Both are his hot brand mixes of vitriolic vicious satirical slashing wit.

Moore has written three best sellers, DownsizeThis, Stupid White Men, and Dude, Where's My Country.

Moore workes as a journalist for a short while, and later was part of Ralph Nader's crusading team. Due to some misunderstanding he left, but worked for him during the last Presidential elections. Indeed Moore and Nader have some common elements.

In order to downsize the man and his work, an expose- book was written and released recently in which he was condemned as some kind of fraud. This book Michael Moore Is A Big Fat Stupid White Man with its title being a clone- take-off from his best-selling similar titled book! And surprisingly, this book has been published by the same firm which published Moore’s bestseller Stupid White Men!

With the thumping success of Fahrenheit 89/11 Michael Moore has emerged as a formidable social commentator and crusader against the American establishment. And also as a cult figure in America.