I like Michael Moore. I appreciate what he is doing and I like how he thinks. His methods can be a little a shticky sometimes, a little vaudevillian and over the top, but I give him credit for at least having a valid point to make.
There is really nothing new in this film, at least to those of us who have been paying attention to the last decade. We know all about how what we call “capitalism” in this country is actually “corporatism" (especially now that the Supreme Court has dangerously decided that corporations are just like individual human beings--oh, but without that pesky individual tax burden!), how unbridled greed from Wall Street/ the financial sector/ corporations destroyed the world economy and a way of life, how the stock market is simply a thinly veiled gambling casino (and when you bet against the house, you never win), how derivatives and credit default swaps are deliberately made so complex and complicated so as to avoid understanding and thus escape detection by the SEC or the government or any watchdog group (in the film, an actual former VP at Lehman Brothers is unable to even begin to explain what a derivative is), and how, left unchecked, capitalism will eat its own. Proponents of capitalism often ignore the sharks circling, waiting for looser restrictions and loopholes that allow them to abuse and ruin those they can without thought of consequences, even if it means that it will hurt themselves in the long run. These proponents naively think everyone is nice and will play by the fair rules of Capitalism--when it has been the American Way to cheat the rules whenever and however you can. And then they act shocked when the rules are vivisected... shocked I tells ya!
Moore’s valuable observations, insights, and telling interviews are bookended by his usual tricks like trying to approach a corporate headquarters in order to protest or to talk to an authority figure, only to be denied entry. It’s awkward and a tiny bit unnecessary but like I said earlier, at least he is trying to make a valid point and bring some understanding and justice to a situation that is, even in the best of times before the economic crash, grotesque.
It has since been pointed out that three facts in the film are incorrect having to do with Goldman Sachs’ return of bailout money, Wal-Mart’s “dead peasant” insurance policies, and Sen. Christopher Dodd’s possible involvement in questionable financial dealings. They are minor and do not in any way change the other indisputable facts or negate the main point of the film. Besides, even though Wal-Mart may have stopped the practice of “dead peasant” insurance policies in 2000, and Moore notes that in the closing credits, there are PLENTY of other reasons never to step foot in a Wal-Mart in your life.
Recommend? Certainly.
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