Eisner and Me

The Walt Disney Co. may be a purveyor of humor and fantasy, but it’s not treating Michael Moore’s documentary “Fahrenheit 9/11” as a laughing matter. Disney’s decision to block its Miramax Films division from distributing “Fahrenheit 9/11,” which links the Bush family to Osama bin Laden’s, has the filmmaker crying foul. “I would have hoped by now that I would be able to put my work out to the public without having to experience the profound censorship obstacles I often seem to encounter,” he wrote on his website.

Put the somber protests aside for a moment, though, and you might wonder whether Disney and Moore himself are really crying all the way to the bank. Both sides benefit from the decision. Moore gets to pound the anti-corporate drum and receives gobs of free publicity, while Disney placates conservatives outraged by its original backing of the film.

When “Fahrenheit 9/11” appears next week in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, it’s certain to be among the most-talked-about films. Moore’s book “Stupid White Men” was hardly hurt by publisher HarperCollins’ near-cancellation of its publication. It was an instant bestseller in the United States and Europe. The more he’s threatened by the guys in Armanis, the better Moore seems to make out. Could there be a “Michael Eisner and Me” film in the works?

Well, no. But even if neither side ends up losing in the brouhaha, there is something troubling about the power to quash projects that corporate consolidation is creating. Disney isn’t distancing itself from the film because of any convictions; it’s doing so because it has none. Its only wish is to offend as few people as possible and, if Moore’s side of the story is right, to preserve state tax breaks for its theme parks in Florida, which depend on the goodwill of Gov. Jeb Bush.

No doubt Moore can get a new release deal. But a fledgling director with a controversial film wouldn’t be in the same position. All this is hardly on the scale presented by science fiction writer Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451,” which depicted a future in which a fireman’s job is to burn all books, but it isn’t exactly reassuring.

Moore is in the fortunate position of being able to have the last laugh. Maybe the subject of his next film should be Disney itself.