Film Review - Capitalism: A Love Story
Michael Moore Takes on the Financial Crisis, Stimulus, and Greed
Sep 25, 2009
Capitalism: A Love Story, Michael Moore’s latest documentary film, ostensibly concerns the recent financial crisis and its underlying causes, but at its core the film covers the strong for-profit mentality of the U.S. economic system. With such a broad topic, one that does not lend itself easily to visual images, Capitalism is undoubtedly Moore’s most ambitious film to date.
Moore’s strength is his ability in making documentary films palatable to a mainstream audience. Capitalism is no exception to his long list of engaging films that champion the workers over the wealthy. His first, Roger & Me (revisited in Capitalism through brief clips), worked because the footage Moore had shot was so compelling. Here, where the story is fragmentary and the narrative less clear, Moore is forced to manufacture laughs through manipulation of stock footage and comedic segments made by others (the video montage “tribute” to the city of Cleveland comes to mind). This is done to keep a dry subject engaging and Moore manages for the most part to keep the pace up as he moves from topic to topic.
The most valuable moments of the film come not from Moore’s antics on Wall Street or Capitol Hill as in the film trailers, but rather in the presentation of a history lesson of the recent past, which includes tax cuts for the rich, private banks in confidential documents bemoaning the one obstacle to unimpeded profits (democracy), and the abhorrent practice of major corporations benefiting financially from the deaths of their employees (“dead peasant insurance”). Particularly interesting is Moore’s excavation of archival footage of Franklin Roosevelt proposing a “Second Bill of Rights” in 1944 that went far beyond anything being suggested today in terms of worker protection.
“I thought I’d just cut to the chase and propose that we deal with this economic system and try to restructure it in a way that benefits people and not the richest one percent,” Moore has been quoted as saying. Unfortunately, the film does not cut to the chase in terms of solutions and Moore's general proposal is covered extremely briefly at its closing. Hints are scattered throughout, however, including a presentation on co-ops, where workers run plants democratically and everyone is paid relatively the same amount. Moore's most compelling footage taken with his cameras is of a factory sit-in strike where workers sought their back wages, which they had been told would not be paid out. For all its hopefulness, the viewer is left with the sense that a democratic revival in the American political and economic systems is a long way away. In terms of the art of filmmaking, Moore continues to demonstrate a keen eye for appealing footage and a natural sense of what it takes to explain issues affecting citizens every day in an interesting and sometimes revealing light.
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