MESSAGE IN THE MOVIES

Capitalism: A Love Story Rated R

Directed by Michael Moore.  Documentary

Photo © Overture Films
Movie Review by Rev. Bruce Batchelor Glader

Twenty years ago Michael Moore made a film called Roger and Me in which he was a populist hero from Flint, Michigan, mad at how insensitive General Motors was to the assembly line workers at its auto plant.  The film showed the economic decline of the town, coupled with the high life that the executives were still enjoying. 

Now we live in a time of economic insecurity in America, where most of our manufacturing jobs have been outsourced, the government has had to bail out the auto companies (with the exception of Ford Motors), and college graduates are scrambling to find decent jobs. 

That scrappy filmmaker in Roger and Me was really on to something! Unfortunately, Michael Moore has changed over the years, too. 

He is now a wealthy man, for one thing.  This hasn’t changed his heart for the everyday working person, but his fame has guaranteed that he no longer can be the fly on the ceiling listening in to the clamor below. 

Moore has become the star of his own films, and each new movie is a four-part combination of a) interesting undercover reporting; b) moving character studies; c) sloppy reporting, with dubious documentation; and d) simplistic “solutions” to problems. 

I wish that I were the hopeful liberal I was 20 years ago, but no one is that naïve anymore (well, no one but Michael Moore’s character, anyway).  This film reveals the practice of “dead peasant insurance” in which businesses can take out life insurance policies on their employees and benefit from early deaths. 

Moore also does a good job showing the way in which the market can be played as a type of betting game in which investors make a profit using computers to manipulate the market.  The Daily Show did a better job investigating the latter piece as a five-minute humorous item. 

What I like best about Moore’s films (and I’ll keep watching them) are the human-interest stories.  Moore has a real heart for the poor and (I believe) his compassion is genuine. 

Moore still jumps to simple conclusions, and his solution to the “evil” of capitalism is “democracy”.  That’s right.  Democracy. 

It’s too bad that capitalism is worldwide; Moore’s answer is nothing less than good old-fashioned American self-interest.  Ah, sin, will you ever leave us alone?

Pitchfork Rating:
Two halos. (A typical Michael Moore film, with a bit more passion this time, about how greed and self-interest can ruin things.)

Two picthforks. (Corruption in high places, along with everyday sin; enough F bombs to make the R rating.)

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