Capitalism: A Love Story

I have been a fan of Michael Moore's since I saw "Bowling for Columbine" in the theatre. I know many people don't like him, and I understand that, often when his name is mentioned people bring up Communism, since Moore's views contradict most of the current, or at least the last 20 years social changes he is taken to be a trouble maker and radical.

In my opinion he is anything but, his views are pretty middle of the road. The thing is, is that many of the blue collar people of the country don't think he is on their side, since "Roger and Me" he has pretty much cemented himself of being in the corner of the working man, and the underdog. With other issues examined by him, such as health care in "Sicko" and now the economic state of the country in "Capitalism: A Love Story" he shows just how much he cares about the average middle class, and lower class member of our society.

Problem is, he is also a self promoter, he likes to appear in his own film, and why not? But showing issues that the conservatives disagree with, and doing so in such a grating manner attracts attention. So if he is standing in the center of the frame then he makes an easy target. He smartly in this, like he did in "Sicko" removes himself from much of the movie, his narration comes into the movie after a while, its another few minutes before he steps in front of the camera. When he does it is mostly as a humble observer, or comic relief in an otherwise seemingly hopeless picture.

The movie is not kind, it takes off the gloves and hits hard. It names names, literally pointing out the people he thinks are at fault, and basically painting a bulls eye on their back, and I say more power to him for doing it. Here are men who while the rest of the country and world are suffering are on the flip side worth hundreds of millions of dollars, are taking tax money as bail outs and using it to give themselves bonuses.

The film in that way is very upsetting, but luckily for me as an observer I watched it today, they only passed the health care bill days ago, so part of this doc is already being taken care of in the social realm. So the film is already a little dated, but only slightly. There are still many other problems that the film brings to light that need to be resolved. Clocking in at only over two hours it leaves a lot out, or doesn't in my opinion spend enough time on certain things. Other films do a good job, and at times a better job of really coming full circle and showing a much larger section of the whole issue. An example is "The Corporation"

It was pretty good, it has all the familiar things in it that Moore's films have, so if you've seen any of his others then this will feel the same. It had a good message, but lacked a solution, but he didn't really need to give one I guess. 8/10 stars.

Director: Michael Moore