It was a two-hour drive to the much-anticipated "Fahrenheit 9/11" screening in Crawford, past cattle guards, chicken sheds and corn fields. A line of out-of-town (and out-of-state) cars slowly rolled along a tiny two-lane road. We knew we were close when we saw a "Welcome to Crawford" sign with a grinning George and Laura Bush pointing at us. I had a "Wizard of Oz" epiphany: "We're not in Austin anymore."
Backpack-carrying, peace-loving activists had never looked more out of place. To get to the high school football field where the movie was being shown, we walked along a dirt road, passing a tiny, dilapidated house where a man blasted bluegrass music. Another Crawford resident ran through the ticket line with a video camera, laughing and asking, "Where y'all from?" Many declined to comment.
A politically charged gathering would be nothing without the bumper stickers. A window in the back of a van said, "Lawn chair: $18; seeing Fahrenheit 9/11 in Crawford: priceless."One pick-up truck had a sort of manifesto painted on it: "Anti-Bush, anti-war, and pro-Texas."
There were, as expected, a plethora of protesters on either side of the line, waving signs and practicing cheers. One wore a T-shirt that read, "George W. Bush is my homeboy." Was he being ironic? Even children got into the act, including an infant with a "W" American flag sticker on his back. He should have been excited to be at a circus with so many clowns.
Each controversial comment in the movie was rewarded with boos from the "standing room only" Bush section and cheers from everyone else. The Associated Press estimated that 3,000 attendees congregated in the town of 700. They roared whenever the words "Michael Moore," "Fahrenheit 9/11," or "President Bush" were mentioned. Some Bush supporters even screamed his praises in the scene when Britney Spears, the well-informed pundit, said Americans should blindly support the president.
President Bush, on a "working vacation" at his Crawford ranch, was closer to the screening than its director, who snubbed his fans. Had Moore made an appearance, the atmosphere might have been more highly charged, but he canceled at the last minute claiming he didn't want to overshadow the film's showing or the Crawford Peace House, which was using the movie as a fund-raiser.
I was expecting the polarized political extremes to clash in controversy in this sleepy town, cage match-type brawls between Bush and Moore fans. But mostly, they just watched a movie, yelled a little and drove home.