It seems right that “Capitalism: A Love Story†would hit theaters 80 years after the stock market landed in hot water back in 1929, and 20 years after the release of director Michael Moore’s first documentary, “Roger & Me.†That dealt with problems in his hometown of Flint, Mich., a place that Moore would revisit time and time again during his 20-year career as a filmmaker, making it an improbable lightning rod for a variety of issues that affect the whole country. As well as Moore does when it comes to seeing the big picture, in “Capitalism,†he still gives the details the attention they deserve – for all of the financial experts and politicians who get interviewed about the economy, Moore wants to know what the little guy has to say, too.
As it turns out, the little guy has a lot to say. Moore finds people in dire straits who air their grievances about a system that left most of them high and dry, like a family that gets arrested for squatting in its own home after it’s foreclosed upon, or factory workers who get their jobs taken away and miss out on the money they’re contractually obligated to get when the plant dismisses them. Even though Moore’s known for editorializing whenever he puts these kinds of movies together, he has enough faith in the intelligence of his subjects to know that they don’t need him to speak for them, and that what they’ve been through is absorbing enough to hold up by itself without him jumping in at every turn.
In light of the panic that engulfed Wall Street last year, it’s easy to understand why so many people are either out of money or scared of losing it, but there were some who managed to make out like bandits. Moore scolds politicians who approved a bailout for the same banks that scammed unsuspecting Americans, and both democrats and republicans are called out for putting their jobs first during an election year. As if rescuing a bunch of crooks weren’t enough, the banks wouldn’t say how the money was to be spent. When Moore likens the bailout to a robbery, it seems as accurate an analogy as any.
Even though Moore’s criticisms hold up pretty well, what’s amazing is how he avoids falling into any traps that might make him look like a communist – in spite of what he was taught to believe as a kid in the Midwest during the Cold War, capitalism and democracy aren’t interchangeable. In fact, he says democracy is a key factor in putting money back in everybody’s pockets, and that the election of President Obama demonstrates that we’re headed in the right direction. That sounds more saccharine than he realizes: Only time will tell if we get the change that we hoped for.
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