CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY
My daughter asked me this morning why Michael Moore calls his film a love story. Well, I said, sometimes relationships between people that are supposed to be based on love become abusive because one person is more powerful, mean and even violent to the other. And that’s the story as Michael Moore tells it with his usual combination of outrage and humor.
It all starts with nice archival, nostalgic footage of Moore’s childhood back in the good old, Reagan-fantasy days of the 1950s when moms stayed home, and people bought cars every three years and had four weeks of vacation. That’s if you had a union job at a GM plant like Moore’s dad did. Of course, people looked the other way at race discrimination and carpet bombing in Southeast Asia, but even that stuff changed. That’s how some like Moore himself fell in love with capitalism. But then right when our generation grew up, the abuse really heated up. Reagan came along and handed the government to Don Regan (chairman of Merrill Lynch) and his corporate friends and it’s been like falling off K2 ever since.
I love Michael Moore because I recognize the child of the I Dream of Jeannie generation that he is. Even those of us who think we’re really activists were so fully brainwashed by TV, that we still hope the medium can send a message, and get us to do something. Moore employs his familiar style, offering us a patchwork glimpse of the evils, horrors and tragedy that have been the result of rampant and unregulated capitalism, as bad as anything Karl Marx imagined.
Did you know that the biggest corporate players in the U.S. routinely take out life insurance policies on their employees, often leaving the survivors in debt while they collect a nice payoff. Did you know that the criminal entrepreneur, Angelo Mozillo of Countrywide Savings routinely gave Congressman and other Washington insiders interest and fee breaks on mortgage loans? Then there are the visits with families who are being evicted from their homes and retaking their homes; workers fighting back and even a couple of utopian examples of non-exploitative workplaces. One of my favorite scenes involved Catholic priests and their opinions about Jesus and what he would think about capitalism. I won’t spoil it but it doesn’t seem to be in line with Sarah Palin’s religious philosophy.
But Moore is tired, he has said so. It’s been 20 years since Roger and Me, and he still can’t get in the door. It’s just that this time the security guards and cops don’t really give him a hard time. Maybe it’s because he’s a celebrity, but it’s more likely that it’s because these are exactly the people who have been and are always screwed by the jerks upstairs.
In the end Moore seems to be calling for some kind of socialism and he’s most definately calling for the end of capitalism. He probably lets Obama off too easily as he skewers the rest of the Congressional Democrats, singling out a few independent minded and of course the man who is not afraid to cloak himself with the S -word, Bernie Sanders. If you want a clear explanation of the complex instruments responsible for the recent mortgage meltdown, check out American Casino. If you want to laugh as you become increasingly enraged see Capitalism. . In fact you must see it and then go join the Democratic Socialist Party or maybe start packing those bags for Canada.
Capitalism: A Love Story opened September 23, 2009 in New York and Los Angeles.
Written, produced and directed by Michael Moore; produced by Anne Moore; edited by John Walter and Conor O’Neill; score by Jeff Gibbs; archival producers, Judy Aley and Pearl Lieberman; camera, Daniel Marracino and Jayme Roy; sound by Francisco LaTorre, Mark Roy and Hillary Stewart. Released by Overture Films.
