LEWISTON – As the closing credits of “Fahrenheit 9/11” rolled, Tim Berry sat in the rear of the movie theater and fumed.

“Where was Michael Moore when Bill Clinton was being impeached?” asked Berry. “Where was he was the U.S.S. Cole was attacked?”

Filmmaker Michael Moore had insulted his president. Berry balled his fists, mentioned cigars and Monica Lewinsky, and dismissed the film as “Bush bashing.”

Three weeks after its release – an eternity in the summertime movie business – “Fahrenheit 9/11” is still getting moviegoers worked up.

The film, an examination of the Bush administration’s policies following Sept. 11, has become the most popular documentary in history. It is approaching the $100 million mark in sales while competing with comic book heroes, dodgeball and boy wizards.

It’s also drawing sharp divisions among moviegoers.

On Thursday, about 20 people attended the 7:10 p.m. show at Lewiston’s Flagship Cinemas, where it began playing July 9.

In the same audience where Berry grew angry, another man cheered and howled. Audience members laughed at the buffoonish depiction of Bush and cried with the mother of a soldier who died in Iraq.

“I thought it was great,” said Darcy Malone, a 26-year-old liberal who saw the movie for the second time Thursday. Friends of hers have been back four and five times, she said, returning to pick up on the movie’s subtleties and further examine the details of Moore’s criticisms of the president.

“Fahrenheit 9/11” covers a lot of ground. Just under two hours long, it begins with the 2000 presidential election. It then jumps to Sept. 11 and its aftermath: from the passing of the Patriot Act to the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq.

It’s one of those movies that seems to affect everyone who sees it, said Noah Willson, a supervisor at the theater.

Since the film opened, the 18-year-old from Poland has been watching the movie’s audiences, from the aging “back-to-landers” to the young people. Audiences have cheered at the president’s gaffes, gasped at the sometimes gory wartime images and applauded when the film ends.

“It’s not an uplifting kind of movie,” said Willson. “But there’s a lot of truth to it. People who see it get really fired up.”

Most audiences leave the theater a little sad, he said. As they walk out the doors, there’s less chatter.

Darcy’s mother, Suzy Jenner, saw the movie for the first time at the Thursday show. A teacher in Sabattus, she hid her eyes when the screen showed an Iraqi toddler with a deep wound across his head.

She was bothered by Moore’s careful description of the ties between Bush and the Bin Laden family. She was further unsettled by the suggestion that the president and his administration lied about the weapons of mass destruction.

“If it’s true, then the government manipulated the whole war,” she said.

Willson said he has found himself on both sides of the film.

A devout Christian, the teenager said most of the friends who share his faith are conservative. They tend to back politicians who oppose abortion and describe themselves as “right-to-life” supporters. Yet, the war has made it tougher on him.

He has watched the images from the film – particularly of dead Iraqis and Americans – and tried to apply those same right-to-life principles.

“Michael Moore raises lots of questions,” he said.”You have to take into account that the movie is one person’s perspective.”

He doesn’t yet know how he’ll vote during the November election, his first.

“It’s not like it made me like Kerry any more,” Willson said.