Michael Moore's documentary Capitalism: A Love Story provides archival television and film footage artfully edited into current video to give us an historical perspective of America's long time love affair with the free market. How did we go from having one income as adequate to provide for an entire family, including all health care, to a nation that has a high percentage of homes in foreclosure, citizens unemployed, cities abandoned, and health care unavailable? How did the top 1% of wealth citizens take more than the bottom 95% of America's wealth? What led to runaway CEO compensation and deregulation of financial institutions? What tactics allowed people to support this horrendous change? What happened to the middle class and the American Dream?
Michael Moore's Documentary of How to Save Capitalism: Democracy
If there is one way that Michael Moore displays his talent, it is in his ability to highlight a tragedy in a way that makes the viewer want to both laugh and cry, simultaneously. This film is no exception. While it does not display the same carnage of human life as did Fahrenheit 9/11, it does have the same underlying theme of innocent people suffering at the hands of a greedy few, of corruption, of incredibly selfish people who disparage the very people that are making them quite rich. When one small company of 250 people are laid off, and laid off without their earnings, they decide to strike back and stage a sit-in. Day after day, they remain at the plant, unwilling to leave without their pay. While they will never get back what they had (a sense of security, pride in their job, friends at work that feel like family, trust, an income), they become empowered. They find that their camaraderie enables them to strike back. While the top 1% may have all the money, the do not have all the votes. This is a call to citizen action.
Capitalism: A Love Story and a Call to Action
Whether Mr. Moore is trying to make citizen arrests of CEOs, or trying to get back the money that Wall Street took from the American people, his baseball cap and "regular guy" appearance are the perfect counterpoint to the executives in their suits looking down from behind their glassed in towers. Watching as U.S. senators and congressional leaders discuss the pending financial collapse, the calculated and pressured way that the bailouts were pushed through and forced on an unwilling American public with little time to discuss or peruse or develop grassroots opposition to the bailouts, and the current state of the American economy are enough to get the viewer on his or her feet, regardless of political bent. The ability to tell a story in two hours which has taken decades to unfold, to reach citizens from every background, and to touch our humanity is the talent that is Michael Moore. Unless you made a lot of money recently on Wall Street, don't miss this one.
Winner of Little Golden Lion, Open Prize, 2009 (Michael Moore)
Nominated for Golden Lion (Michael Moore)
127 minutes
Written and Directed by Michael Moore
Overture Films with
Weinstein Films
Dog Eat Dog Films
Barbara DeGrande - Barbara DeGrande is a writer, film critic, and blogger, with years of experience as a program developer. She has a Bachelor of Arts in ...
Join the Conversation