Dir. Michael Moore, US, 2009, 127 mins
Review by Philippa Bradnock
Like his hit Fahrenheit 9/11 , Michael Moore's Capitalism taps into the zeitgeist – this year's bogeyman comes in a suit, rather than a beard. It traces the shenanigans of the banks, and the fallout for the ordinary guy who lost his job to the recession or home to sub prime small print. Moore's central premise – that there is nothing inherently American about capitalism, and that a socialist state would serve the people better – is radical and intriguing. In the aftermath of such financial devastation could the American people abandon their deep-seated suspicion of socialism? Has the dream been wrecked?
With his eighth documentary, Moore returns to his favourite theme: the value of individual and community action. He also revisits his signature techniques: the human interest case study and the stunt. Many of the case studies are interesting and relevant. Heads of cooperative businesses explain the model, factory employees strike to demand the pay they're owed, and families evicted from their homes tell of their desolation. Expert interview subjects include congresspeople and a former financial regulator, all with interesting things to say.
But Moore wants badly to convince us of the evils of capitalism, and he flings in anything which has the smack of corporate misdeeds, relevant or not. There are long sequences about companies taking out life insurance on their employees which pays out if they die. Crass, yes, but not the cause of any recession. Likewise, the footage of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is nothing to do with corporate incompetence, but provides a shortcut to cheap pathos. As in Bowling for Columbine , Moore pushes the emotion to a queasy limit, telling one widow that her husband's corporate life insurance policy is called 'Dead Peasants Insurance' and then filming as she tries to hold it together. This is gratuitous cruelty, and only makes Moore look bad .
The stunts are of a type familiar from Moore's previous films. He turns up at General Motors unannounced and demands to talk to the bosses. He wraps crime scene tape around the New York Stock Exchange. But he looks a bit dejected, tramping about on his own, knowing it won't come to much. At GM headquarters a security guard tries to block the camera with his hand, and another guard pushes the hand away. They are wise to the editing tricks which can turn reasonable rejection into brutal corporate cover-up.
And that's the problem. Moore's outraged everyman antics might have been a new approach when he made his breakthrough Roger and Me , but they look fairly worn now. There is too much Moore in Moore's films: too much personal befuddlement and not enough explanation, too much reminiscence and not enough analysis. His onscreen persona lacks the veiled perception of Louis Theroux's extended interviews or the seductive excesses of Adam Curtis' baroque theorising (although they share a love of kitschy montage). Capitalism has many moments which make you want to rise up and fight. Too bad they're hemmed in by ones which just make you want to go home.
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