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"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies." -- Thomas Jefferson
He's baaack -- Michael Moore, the bad boy of docs -- with his most frontal assault yet on the corporate folks (and their government facilitators) who, in his mock-humble opinion, brought us the Great Recession.
- Starring: Michael Moore.
- Rating: R for language.
- Web site: www.capitalismalovestory.com/
Class warfare? You betcha, as Sarah Palin would say. There's nothing secret about the socialist bent behind "Capitalism: A Love Story," opening this week on the 20th anniversary of Moore's celebrated debut film "Roger & Me." General Motors was the target of that one. This time, he's after bigger game -- going in for the kill on what he sees as unfettered corporate greed and its impact on Americans' daily lives.
Focus is the 2008 financial crisis and subsequent Wall Street bailout, of course. But why "a love story"? Moore's metaphor casts capitalism as a cherished, once-integral element of the American dream. Early on, he treats us to a mellow middle-class montage of the '50s and '60s, when people's jobs and pensions felt safe, and their kids could go to college without taking on a lifetime of debt.
Cut to today's dream-turned-nightmare: lives and livelihoods destroyed, families losing houses and savings and jobs to the sour tune of 14,000 a day. Moore takes us painfully into some foreclosed homes -- milking the pathos of an economic love betrayed by its own system. Where are the culprits and the explanations?
Moore goes looking for them in Peoria, Washington, Manhattan and Florida, where a "bottom-feeder" company aptly named Condo Vultures deals exclusively in bargain-basement foreclosures. His point: that unregulated mega-capitalism, far from rewarding excellence, has turned America into a culture consumed by the pursuit of money -- a place where happiness is not defined by what one does, but by what one owns. Fifty years ago, Jonas Salk gave his polio vaccine to the nation for free. Nowadays, most of our brightest students forsake science for "business." It's all very Christian -- minus the parable of rich man and camel going through a needle.
In any case, there's no denying the power of his method, part-humor and part-outrage. Less is more with Moore -- and the less outrage and more humor, the better. With his patented confrontational antics, he asks the Wall Street suits and Harvard economists to explain "derivatives" and "credit-default swaps" (they can't). His best moment is driving an armored Brinks car to AIG corporate HQ with an empty money bag, demanding they return bailout funds (they don't); that, and stretching yellow "crime scene" tape around the whole Wachovia-Merrill Lynch-Bank of America complex.
Outrageous, but hilarious. Ditto the segment called "When did Jesus become a capitalist?" in which he over-dubs an old biblical epic with free-market maxims. To coin a pseudo-Soviet phrase, I'd call it Socialist surrealism.
More serious -- and arguably correct -- is Moore's accusation that Ronald Reagan and the Bushes presided over the wholesale destruction of America's industrial base for short-term profits, resulting in the top 5percent of the population "earning" more than the bottom 95 percent combined.
This polemic comes with more personal revelations than we've come to expect from Moore: the fact that Daniel Berrigan inspired him to want to be an activist priest; a visit to an extinct AC spark-plug plant in Flint, Mich., with his dad, who spent decades on its long-gone assembly line.
The film is graced with footage of fiery Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), who calls the multi-billion bank bailout "a financial coup d'etat" and robbery of the public in which the Treasury acted as an arm of Wall Street to underwrite its profligacy. An equal-opportunity offender, Moore also trashes Tim Geithner, Robert Rubin, et al. former Goldman Sachs executives who figure in the current administration after failing miserably in previous ones. In that regard, "Capitalism" suggests a strange, full-circle point of agreement between the disgruntled left and right wings alike.
The American premiere of "Capitalism" actually took place in Pittsburgh during the AFL-CIO convention a fortnight ago at the Byham, where Moore received a long, raucous ovation -- and led a labor parade for health-care reform. Detractors found it ironic that this huge, hulking guy doesn't care enough about his own health to slim down and save the system the cost of his own inevitable heart attack; and that he rails against capitalism while enjoying the money and luxuries that come with it.
Points taken.
But in the end, Michael Moore is no Marxist. He's just an old-fashioned New Deal Democrat. Perhaps the most spellbinding moment of his film is the inclusion of hitherto lost footage of FDR's extraordinary "second Bill of Rights" speech toward the end -- a plea for comprehensive health care, housing, job security and pensions.
Moore is a reformer, not a revolutionary. But he's also an unabashed champion and propagandist for the working class -- an agent provocateur of a documentarian whose "Bowling for Columbine" (2002), "Fahrenheit 911" (2004) and "Sicko" (2007) are major consciousness-raising achievements. He sees GM's bankruptcy as a vindication of what he exposed in "Roger & Me."
"Capitalism: A Love Story" -- both a culmination and recapitulation of his previous work -- tackles a huge subject with bias and a blunderbuss. Self-indulgent? Preaching to the choir? You betcha. But the choir's getting bigger. This time, a Michael Moore film is opening in 1,000 theaters -- the most ever for him.
He has decreed that unemployed people who can't afford the ticket price are to be admitted for free. I'd like to see some Moore-type candid cameras record how well that plays, in and out of Peoria. But you've got to admire him for even saying it, and for making this heavy-handed, heartfelt movie in the first place.
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