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When Michael Moore went looking for funding for his newest film, he claims he told the studio that it would be a kind of sequel to Fahrenheit 9/11, the director's most financially successful film to date. They handed over the cash, and he turned around and made a film that has little to do with that anti-Bush polemic, that is instead unapologetic about biting the corporate hands that feed him. That doesn't mean that Capitalism: A Love Story isn't a sequel, though. It's just that its direct antecedent is Moore's debut (and arguably still his best), Roger & Me, which was released 20 years ago this December.
Roger & Me was an extremely personal film about the utter collapse of one American city, Moore's hometown of Flint, Michigan, as a direct result of General Motors' decision to move tens of thousands of jobs to Mexico and shut down the factories that formed the backbone of Flint's local economy. Capitalism, at its core, takes on the same issues: corporate culture, the expanding gap between rich and poor, government complicity in the entire affair, but expands its focus nationwide. What keeps it from becoming unwieldy is that despite the bigger subject, the film feels nearly as personal as Roger & Me.
Capitalism is ostensibly Moore's target, but he's no economics professor, and his real targets are shady practices in the banking, investment, and mortgage industries, how bad an idea it is to hire executives from those industries to run the economy at the governmental level, the greed that wealth breeds, and ultimately, the catastrophic effects all of this has on the average American as the middle class steadily shrinks. The inexactness of his language will provide great fodder for his political adversaries &mdash quotes like "Capitalism is the opposite of democracy" makes for great sound bites, and Moore explains what he means by it, but it's still fuzzy reasoning since he's basically re-purposing the vocabulary to make his point.
Moreover, many real economics experts will be quick to point out that what Moore is railing against here isn't capitalism as an academic concept, but rather American capitalism – and its accompanying corruption – as it has come to be practiced in the last 25 to 30 years, and it's not really fair to equate one with the other. Then again, the right has been swaying hearts and minds for years by conflating socialism with communism as practiced by the Soviet Union, so it's not as if Moore is alone in the business of semantically misdirected hostility to strengthen an argument.
Plenty of debates will ensue over all those semantics, and many will lodge legitimate beefs with how Moore likes to pick and choose supporters who fit his purposes. In one segment, he asks a number of Catholic clergymen the church's position on capitalism, and the unanimous response is that it is an evil that must be stopped. One suspects he wouldn't lend as much credence to their views if he was making a documentary about abortion or birth control.
But for all the faults one might find with Capitalism, it is still very nearly as good as Roger & Me. Because no matter whether you agree with Moore's politics (and his targets are more bipartisan than ever this time), or whether you agree with his implied solutions (he coyly places a lounge-act version of the Socialist anthem "The Internationale" over the end credits), it's impossible to argue with the notion that we've got a serious economic problem in our hands in this country. The fact that last year's financial meltdown occurred while Moore was in the midst of filming plays directly into his argument.
But more important are his stories of everyday citizens, the 95 percent of Americans who now control less wealth combined than the top 1 percent, and their struggles with mountains of debt, daily foreclosures, joblessness, and a general tenor of despair. He effectively contrasts this with a time in America's history – using his father, a GM line worker, once again as his model of the middle class everyman – when workers could easily afford homes, could send their children to college, and during which time we created an infrastructure in this country that was the envy of the world. A time, he notes, when the wealthiest people paid upwards of three-quarters of their income back to the government to build that infrastructure and create an environment that actually rewarded the working classes.
It's these emotional stories, along with calls to action, as a matter of patriotic duty and as confirmation of our love of democracy, where the film shines. Moore's film isn't just about pointing fingers at those who have gotten us into this mess, but about mobilizing working people to stop waiting for someone else to fix it, and to stop sitting idly by while their wages, pensions, health care, and their very homes are stolen from them. In this respect, Moore is at the top of his game, and at the very least, Capitalism may spark some much needed conversations about America's problems among the people who are affected most by economic strife, and who have the least real power.
Opens today at a number of theaters throughout the area.
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Michale Moore didn't grow up in Flint, MI. He likes to claim that he did, but he didn't. He grew up in the suburbs (Davison to be exact).
Just one of the hundreds of "mistakes" he makes in his films.
Seems awfully picky to imply that Moore is a liar because he grew up in a suburb of Flint, Michigan, which is about ten miles away. I think he was close enough to see the fallout of the GM plant closures.
I don't disagree that Moore comes in with a particular point of view and tends to build a reality around that viewpoint - there are much better targets than the fact that he lived in Davison, not Flint.
If its so insignificant, then why didn't Micheal Moore start off Roger and Me by saying that he grew up about 10 miles from Flint and that, even though he lived outside of the city limits, he felt the impact of the closing of GM plants in the city?
He chose to say that he grew up in Flint, with all that entails (abandoned houses, desolate streets, crumbling infrastructure) when he didn't.
You will also notice that at the end of Roger and Me, he runs a line accross the screen stating that "This movie cannot be shown in the City of Flint, all of the movie theatres have closed." Technically correct, but in reality there are several theatres and even a large mall with a multiplex in Flint Township, right accross the border from the city. You could (and still can) even take a Flint public bus there. He wants to convey the image of Flint as some sort of remote planet, when in reality is a medium-sized metropolitan area with good and bad parts.
In fact, parts of the Flint suburbs (where he grew up remember) actually did quite well in the 80's and 90's as Detroit's job base moved out to Oakland County and people moved into the Flint suburbs to commute to those jobs. The Flint Airport (located in the suburbs and drawing heavily from Oakland County), for example, is one of the true economic success stories in Michigan.
One other thing that Moore never mentions. Why did Flint do so poorly with GM when Lansing (similar-sized city, about 1 hour away) did so well (including no major plant closings, largest auto production of any US city, and the opening of the newest domestic GM plant a few years ago)? Well according to GM, its because Lansing, unlike Flint, never had a major strike or UAW job action. Yet in all of Moore's movies, I have never seen him call the UAW to task for its role in poisoning the economic atmosphere in Flint.
Oh jeeze, Hillvada. Is there any political relevance to what you are saying here?
If I am quoted for something national, I often say "Washington, DC", even though I grew up in Woodbridge and live in Annandale. I feel like if I say "Virginia" it makes people think of someplace drastically different than where I really live. DC is more precise.
You might want to look up the difference between "accuracy" and "precision".
hillvada: if you're going to rag on moore for claiming to be from flint when he's actually from davison, then you better get your facts right about where plants have opened and closed.
GM's newest michigan plant didn't open in lansing, it opened about 10 miles outside of lansing in delta township.
if it's good for the goose, it's good for the gander...
Who gives a fuck?
+1
Thank you! Michael Moore is irelevant, and his ideas have been discredited time and again.
He tries to touch on a timely subject (should we become more European or move back towards traditional Americanism), but he fails to maintain a well-conceived and well-grounded position.
what the fuck does this mean? good lord, if you're going to knock his film-making, at least come up with something concrete to say yourself. this is so vacuous i can drive a truck through it.
hey, you guys are douchebags. Ever been to Michigan? Er, changing planes at DTW doesn't count. How about Flint? Didn't think so. I'm a displaced Michigan native. I know Flint, well. Davidson is Flint. It's like saying Ballston or College Park isn't Washington DC. Jackasses. Davidson suffers because the county (Genesse) runs the road commission and other basic services. Lose your biggest taxpayer (GM), the whole country infrastructure crumbles. May your home town never suffer like Michigan suffers.
Lansing didn't collapse as quicky or hard as Flint because 1) state government (quick, name the capital of Michigan!) and 2) huge university complex (Go State!) Flint was a company town. Can't compare a cantelope with that lemon.
Flint Township isn't prosperous. News flash. In the 80s and 90s, people from Detroit (oops, Oakland County) didn't move to Genesse County (where Flint is). They moved to northwestern Oakland County. Flint airport isn't a success. It has one low-cost airline (Airtran) that breaks the Northwest monopoly at Metro Airport. Flint is the BWI of Metro Detroit. And we all know that Baltimore isn't Washington.
God lord folks, know something before you open your mouth. Oh crap, then you'd be without your job!!!!
pworules: as a fellow displaced michigander, i hear you loud and clear. michigan will pull through, someday (there are too many positive reasons to live, work, and play there to abandon the place entirely), but it's going to take a very long time to climb out of the hole the state is in.