Michael Moore has one hell of a reputation. Republicans and conservatives alike do not like him and will not talk to him, especially after Fahrenheit 9/11. However, Moore has not left politics out of his documentaries, but he has focused on issues and debates that take place in the United States that both sides can agree on and are aware of. Sicko dealt with healthcare, a big part of the discussion today and now he has made a documentary about our economic crisis. Capitalism: A Love Story is about greed and corruption. And how this could have been prevented or stopped. Maybe.
He talks about how the richest 1% of Americans have more than the bottom 95%. Moore wants corporations and banks to take responsibility, but no one man can do such a thing. And it is no secret that these businesses take advantage of Americans, and we just watch it happen. Moore encourages everyone to do something. A type of revolution and he shows examples. So it can happen, but easier said than done.
Overall, this documentary is good. Of course, it is told from Moore’s perspective. That’s the whole point. It is going to be up to someone else to make a movie that will fight against his view. However, whether you like him or hate him, he gets everyone’s attention when one of his documentaries comes out. So, he has a bigger stage than any other documentarian.
Also, Moore is good at putting a face with the statistics. He could show numbers all over the screen and the audience wouldn’t get much out of it. So he goes and finds examples so you can see what is happening. He may find the extreme cases, but they are real people going through a very difficult time. One example is a family who is losing their farm that has been in their family for over 40 years. You feel for these people, and that is what Moore wants you to do.
Moore wants to get a point across. I mean isn’t that the point when you make a documentary? He makes a good argument about the issues we are facing, and he puts blame on both parties. Well maybe a little more on Republicans. Well definitely on Ronald Reagan. But, Moore also knows how to make his documentary entertaining. He uses a megaphone to yell outside of the big banks and demand the country’s money back. He uses yellow crime scene tape to put around the Stock Exchange. Do these things make a difference? Nope. Does it ruffle some feathers? I’m sure it did.
There are a lot of opinions about Moore and the films he makes. But I think Capitalism: A Love Story should be seen by all at some point. I think it’s worth watching with an open mind to form your own ideas when it’s over. Are there some details left out? I’m sure there are. At the same time, there’s some truth to all of this. We can probably all agree that there are greedy people who lie out in this world. And when those people are in powerful positions, they abuse that power. We do not have to put up with it if we do not want to.
There are two things that will make me remember this documentary. The first is about companies taking out life insurance on their workers, and when their employee dies they make money off of them. And what may be worse is the name of this: “dead peasant insurance.” What a way to describe one of your workers. A deceased worker.
The second is Franklin D. Roosevelt. There is footage of him discussing a Second Bill of Rights. This footage has never been seen publicly until now and of course the Second Bill of Rights was never passed or even discussed further because FDR died less than a year later. But he mentions every American citizen having rights to a home, education, job, and healthcare. And I can’t help but imagine what kind of America we would be living in if we had that Second Bill of Rights today. I guess we’ll never know.
“Nature Boy” Brandon Vick is the resident film critic of the SoBros Network, and star of Brandon’s Box Office In Your Mouth. Follow him on Twitter@SirBrandonV and be sure to search #VicksFlicks for all of his latest movie reviews.
Check out the SoBros Shop. Subscribe to our Patreon. Give us money for no reason. Like us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter @SoBrosNetwork. Listen on SoundCloud. Watch on YouTube.
