Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Capitalism: A Love Story

Capitalism: A Love Story, is Michael Moore's latest exposing documentary.  After taking on General Motors, the Bush Administration, and the health care industry in some of his previous films, he this time tackles the issues of greed, capitalism and corporate dominance.  He shows us real life examples of people losing their homes, jobs, savings and hope, powerless in front of the great, evil, out of control machine that capitalism has become. 

As is his habit, Moore narrates and conducts his own interviews.  There are funny bits, like when he asks a few bankers to define derivatives and credit default swaps and no one seems able to give an explanation that makes any sense.  Other parts were more repetitive such as when he visits the headquarters of big banks with yellow "Crime Scene" tape and tries coming into the buildings to make "citizen's arrests".  This was mildly funny for a few moments but it came up too many times throughout the film.  Also I found that the footage of what happened to some hard working Americans- though very sad- was not edited enough and too long.

The rest of the movie highlights what led the United States to the grim financial situation it is in now- going back to FDR and his proposal for a Second Bill of Rights guaranteeing certain basic economic freedoms, through a more comfortable time for the middle class in the 1950's, followed by immense deregulation during the Reagan years which resulted in gambling by financial institutions, enormous inequalities between the rich and the poor (the part about low pilot salaries was particularly frightening) and finishing with the icing on the cake, the huge tax payer funded bailouts.  

Overall this film is a very important one to have made and to be watched but I did not think it was one of Moore's finest.  I am not in love with it nor am I sufficiently outraged by what I learned.  The movie felt flat.  In my opinion it went to too much length to prove a point we already know- greed is not good.  

My rating: 6
Fabio's: 6
Total score: 12

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