It’s that time of year again when the world freshens up, spring is in the air and the world comes alive. Well with the exception of the release of a new film by Michael Moore. Talk about a downer. Nothing fresh here but rather more Moore ranting about how terrible a country is that pays him millions of dollars to make movies that fewer and fewer people are going to see.
CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY is anything but. What it basically boils down to is Moore’s view that capitalism is an evil idea that should be abolished and replaced by socialism. So instead of a system that uses incentive to get people to work harder to make something of themselves, Moore would be happier if we all just tossed what we made into a pot and dispersed it equally to everyone. An easy thing to believe while being paid the amounts of money he gets.
Moore uses several tactics that have worked for him before. The first is making fun of the stereotypical American family with mom, dad and the kids all living idyllic lives. He treats this as if it is a thing of the past, the good old days ruined now by corporate America.
His next tactic is to label a bad guy, which in Moore’s world are corporate big wigs. Their only concern seems to be making money for the company that they are in charge of, which is actually what they are paid to do. In Moore’s eyes this should be about making money for the workers instead of the stockholders who invested money in the company to begin with.
Then again he never notes that there are more pieces to the puzzle than he lists. Not mentioned are unions that got their employees more money/benefits that the company has to pay resulting in less money to go towards employees resulting in cut jobs or the state of the economy which would raise or lower the costs of goods, etc. But these aren’t important to Moore who has an axe to grind, facts be damned!
Moore pulls out his best trick several times: tugging at the heartstrings of the viewer. He does so here using his own father, walking with him down a broken sidewalk where the plant his father once worked in now stands demolished. When he asks his father what he remembers most, what his best memories of working there were he responds “The people”.
He also takes us to meet people who have been evicted from their homes. I have a great sympathy for anyone in this position. But Moore uses them, making them look like poor innocents who have been mistreated. With the exception of one family who fell on hard times, he never explains why they were forced into this position or even if the bank tried to work with them. Cue violins, pass the tissues.
I will grant that documentaries are supposed to come with the film maker’s point of view. But Moore has done such a shoddy job of avoiding numerous facts while using outlandish ones to support his ideas that it’s become hard to take him seriously. He also tends to attempt to advance his ideas using emotions rather than facts. Toss in the fact that he’s biting the hand that feeds him and you have to wonder why he continues or why those companies would give him money.
Your politics and beliefs will skew the way you look at this film. At one time I was a big Moore fan, loved ROGER & ME (before I found out about the short cuts and alterations of truth contained in it), loved his TV series and thought Moore stood for something. The more I look deeper into the man and his films, the more I discover that he’s less for telling the truth, for getting to the bottom of things and more about pushing an agenda. I was taught that documentaries were to promote and objective look at a topic with perhaps a slight tilt towards the beliefs of the film maker. In Moore’s case we get all the film maker’s beliefs and little objectivity.
With several web sites taking the time to point out the twisting of facts and outright lies told in Moore’s past films, one has to wonder just how much he’s done so on this one. In this film he avoids the fact that greed, not capitalism, is the heart of the problem. And there is greed on both sides of the issue.
Perhaps the only thing different about this film than others Moore has done is who he attacks. This time around he doesn’t limit those to Republicans but goes after both sides. Chances are this will result in fewer people taking him seriously. Then again with the box office returns on this film, I think that’s been demonstrated already.
For a fair and objective observation on the topic, pass this one by. If you think capitalism is terrible though, you’ll love it. And if you are a die hard Moore fan, you’ll get what you are looking for.
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