Film Review: Capitalism: A Love Story
Written, Directed and Produced by Michael Moore 2009
A progressive interviewer recently asked Michael Moore, 'Are you a socialist?' He avoided a direct answer, which he typically does when questioned like this. This time he responded defensively, “I never read Marx.” The short of it, Michael Moore is a filmmaker. A damn good one too.
Moore's latest screen gem, “Capitalism: a Love Story,” may be the most he has moved away from support for capitalism and the closest he has come toward advocating socialist solutions. His final comment on the matter? “Democracy is the system” he likes best.
But, interestingly, in the background of those closing comments and leading us through the film credits is a great, upbeat version of the working class and Communist anthem, “The Internationale.” When the final words are sung, – the culmination of our struggle will be a universal “human race” – the final cog in the film's machinery fits together.
Michael Moore is truly an amazing American original. He is the modern-day, working-class Mark Twain.
His films speak to us, and for us
This year also marks the 20th anniversary of his first widely acclaimed major release Roger and Me. In that documentary he predicted with great foresight the downfall of the General Motors dynasty. He also told the story of laid-off autoworkers and the decline of communities impacted by the corporation's decisions.
Since then, he has taken us through thoughtful, humorous and poignant visual commentary on gun violence after the Columbine High School shootings in Bowling for Columbine (2002) and the disastrous consequences of the Bush administration's drive for war in Iraq in Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004).
The former film was a highly creative film whose highlights included the senile Charlton Heston, clearly exposing his fascist beliefs, as well as millionaire entertainer Dick Clark’s greedy scheming against people on welfare. Fahrenheit 9/11 revealed the militarist methods and schemes of the Bush administration and its allies, including its use of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks to further the ultra-right agenda.
Moore’s 2007 documentary on the broken US healthcare system, Sicko, compared conditions here with the national health care programs in the UK, France and much of the rest of Europe and Asia. Not to mention Cuba. The honest depiction of socialized medicine in Cuba was unique for a US filmmaker. The film enjoyed tremendous popular and financial success, grossing close to $40 million worldwide. Documentary filmmakers are supposed to lose money; Moore made millions, suggesting the enormous size of the audience intrigued or moved by his ideas. Since that film, every national poll, the 2008 elections, and all of organized labor supporting health reform with a public option or a single-payer system leave no doubt what the vast majority of people in the US want.
Only the power of state monopoly capital has had the strength so far to beat back the will of the people on real health reform. Their financial and political strength in the halls of government is totally transparent. Many political leaders in Washington, from both sides of the aisle, emphasize the belief that any cutback or elimination of the health insurance industry would be too disruptive. Few emphasize that the disruptions, diseases and death caused every minute of every day by the greed and power of the private health insurance and pharmaceutical industries; even fewer agree that healthcare is a human right.
Moore's depiction of the episode in which Dr. Jonas Salk, inventor of the polio vaccine, turned his discovery over to the drug companies to manufacturer on the one condition that they not profit from its use was particularly important. Salk's moral stance starkly contrasts with the too many drug makers who are looking for vaccines and another drugs simply to cash in, with humanity an afterthought.
Moore takes on the 800-pound guerilla
Capitalism: A Love Story, as the ironic title suggests, takes on the political economic system of capitalism. With the typical Moore touch, the film examines the grim and devastating stories of victims of the capitalist system.
As usual, Moore allows the victims to tell their stories. Stories of foreclosures, employers who take out life insurance policies on their own employees and make themselves the beneficiaries, the ascendancy of the Goldman Sachs on Wall Street and in Washington. The power brokers at Goldman Sachs simply have no shame. Moore just gave the raw facts without phony talk of capitalist philanthropies intended to make greedy corporations look better.
Capitalism also reveals Merrill Lynch's role in the Bush administration, with footage of a Merrill Lynch CEO instructing President Bush on his comments to the media about the financial crisis.
Moore also shows the corporate role that current Obama administration economic adviser Larry Summers and US Secretary of Treasury Timothy Geitner played in the 1990s. Wall Street is willing to back either big political party in elections in order to keep their grip on national policy, the film explains.
90 percent tax bracket for the wealthy
Moore is old enough to remember when the richest Americans saw a 90 percent tax on portions of their income. And, in those days, the country's economy grew and industries grew. When Reagan and too many Democrats insisted on cutting the highest tax brackets, that only wetted their appetites for greater profits and more inflated salaries, stock options and other perks. The drive to enrich the few at the expense of the majority saw the country head into the present downward spiral.
What makes Moore’s films so powerful?
First of it is Moore himself. His own first person involvement brings the film viewer, up front and personal with every aspects of his films. A large percent of viewers identify with many of Moor’s frustrations and rages against the injustices of capitalism. Moore comes across as a real person, not a film huckster trying to make millions.
Raised a Catholic, Moore spares no time in ripping the role of the Catholic church. In Capitalism, he puts the obvious question: what would Christ do with all the greed in the world? He answered that question by showing a more positive picture of the church which played a good role in supporting the historical worker sit-in at the Republic Windows and Doors plant in Chicago. After receiving billions in Wall Street bailout money, the Bank of America refused to extend credit to the owners of that factory, forcing it to close down and lay off the union workers without paying contracted wage and health care benefits.
The workers occupied the plant and convinced even President Obama to condemn Bank of America's actions. Within days, the money was released and the owners of the factory agreed to pay what they owed to the workers. Eventually the factory was sold to a California 'green energy' company that agreed to rehire the laid-off workers.
In addition, Moore paints a positive picture of the liberation theology still held by many in the Catholic leadership in the city of Detroit.
Labor and Moore
Capitalism: A Love Story also highlights union busting by capitalists for the first time in a Moore film. In previous films anti-worker and anti-union actions were documented, but here, they took center stage as a direct cause of the economic crisis. Again, by highlighting Republic Windows and Doors in Chicago and comparing that worker action to the sit-ins in the General Motors plant in Flint, Michigan in the 1930s, Moore comes up 100 percent on the side of workers and their unions.
The film was shown at the AFL-CIO convention in Pittsburgh last month after a march led by the nurses union demanding health reform. It had a limited opening in Los Angeles and New York City last week, and opens nationwide October 2nd.
See this film as soon as possible.
