Capitalism: A Love Story

( 12 )

Overview

Twenty years after his influential debut, Roger & Me, Michael Moore returns to his roots by pulling back the curtain on capitalism to reveal the insidious role it has played in the destruction of the American dream for many people. Back in 1989, auto workers in Flint, MI, were lamenting layoffs and wondering how they would support their families without jobs to pay the bills, or benefits to ensure their health. Flash forward two decades, when cities all across the country are feeling the same pressures that ...
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More About This Product

Overview

Twenty years after his influential debut, Roger & Me, Michael Moore returns to his roots by pulling back the curtain on capitalism to reveal the insidious role it has played in the destruction of the American dream for many people. Back in 1989, auto workers in Flint, MI, were lamenting layoffs and wondering how they would support their families without jobs to pay the bills, or benefits to ensure their health. Flash forward two decades, when cities all across the country are feeling the same pressures that Flint residents were back when GM left them high and dry. With an average of 14,000 U.S. jobs lost every day and taxpayer money constantly being pumped into failing financial institutions, the question must be asked: how long can this go on before the entire system collapses? Is there really any hope for Americans who are losing their homes to foreclosure and seeing their savings get wiped out at an unprecedented rate? In order to seek out an answer to this question and many more, Moore takes a trip to our nation's capitol, engaging average Americans in conversations about the prospect of repairing America's failing, debt-ridden economy along the way.
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Special Features

Exclusive Bonus Material Written and Directed by Michael Moore; ; Sorry, House-Flippers and Banks- You're Toast in Flint, MI; ; Congressman Cummings Dares to Speak the Unspeakable; The Omnivore's Dilemma? It's Capitalism; The Rich Don't Go to Heaven (There's a Special Place Reserved for Them!); ; How to Run the Place Where You Work; Commie Taxi Drivers - "You Talkin' To Me?" - in Wisconsin; ; What If, Just If, We Had Listened to Jimmy Carter in 1979? ; ; The Socialist Bank of - North Dakota?; The Banks Kick Them Out, Max Kicks Them Back In; ; NY Times Pulitzer Prize Winner Chris Hedges on the Killing Machine Known as Capitalism
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Editorial Reviews

All Movie Guide
Since the release of Roger & Me in 1989, Michael Moore's name is rarely heard in the media without the preface of "controversial filmmaker" -- and that's when they're being kind. Less receptive outlets tend to use terms like "left-wing lightning rod," and, occasionally, "lying bastard." With a 20-year career that's taken on some of the most polarizing issues in the United States, Moore's reputation as an incendiary liberal isn't surprising, nor is it undeserved. While that reputation has made it difficult for his films to garner an objective reception, they've rarely, if ever, been boring. Bearing that in mind, the premise of Capitalism: A Love Story -- two hours dedicated to the evolution of economic theory between 1932 and 2008 -- threatens to be at least a little tedious. Any trepidation one might have going into the film, however, is unwarranted. Capitalism passionately incorporates elements from virtually all of Moore's past efforts, from poor health care and mass layoffs to the devastation of being evicted from one's home, giving it a cohesiveness that makes for a movie as inspiring and forceful as anything the director has done in his past. While it's unlikely that this will be Moore's last documentary, it feels like an opus, or, less dramatically, the end of an emotionally charged cross-country road trip that began and ended in Flint, MI, peppered with unsuccessful attempts to get inside the headquarters of General Motors. Though less focused than Bowling for Columbine or Fahrenheit 9/11, the film is never scattered. Whether lampooning the abysmal wages of airline pilots or following a Peoria couple through a gut-wrenching home foreclosure process, the message is consistent: capitalism has been distorted from the free enterprise it used to represent into a cartel comprised of America's wealthiest industries and individuals, whose shared goal is to continue amassing wealth for themselves, at the financial and spiritual cost of average Americans. According to Moore, the so-called socialism that this top one percent of society is so adamantly against is not a form of liberal extremism bordering on fascism, but a true democracy in which all Americans are able to share in America's wealth -- and that America's wealth isn't limited to money in the bank. Moore posits that this brand of democracy began to deteriorate after the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the consequent death of his proposed Second Bill of Rights, which would have given all Americans the right to health care, a living wage, and a decent home ironically, members of FDR's administration would implement many of these policies in Europe during its reconstruction after WWII. The second factor, in an eerie echo of Roger & Me, was the election of Ronald Reagan. In an interview, former U.S. banks regulator Bill Black implies heavily that Reagan's presidency caused a "seep in the dam" that eroded through the years and finally broke in 2008, nearly taking America's economy with it. Moore's solution, unfortunately, is a little too simple. All society needs to do, he says, is organize, strike, rally, and vote against the industries responsible for depriving them of what FDR considered basic American rights. It's not that the sentiment is untrue, or that his examples of such movements aren't inspiring -- they are -- but they feel like a drop in the bucket. Though the film doesn't suggest that a large-scale revolution is easy, neither does it impart how monumentally difficult such an undertaking would be. Then again, footage capturing the laid-off employees of SK Hand Tools' victory after a long battle with financial powerhouse Bank of America brings something to the table that may, in the long run, be more effective than the gritty realities of causing nationwide political upheavals: hope. If a factory of working-class citizens can stick it to corporate America, maybe the good guys can win in the end. Sure, it's idealistic -- but in a post-bailout America, even a drop in the bucket goes a long way.
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Product Details

  • Release Date: 3/9/2010
  • UPC: 013132136592
  • Original Release: 2009

    • Rating:

  • Source: Starz / Anchor Bay
  • Region Code: 1
  • Presentation: Wide Screen
  • Time: 2:07:00
  • Format: DVD
  • Sales rank: 4,192

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits
Michael Moore Participant
Technical Credits
Michael Moore Director, Producer, Screenwriter
Rod Birleson Co-producer
Carl Deal Co-producer
Jeff Gibbs Score Composer
Kathleen Glynn Executive Producer
John Hardesty Co-producer
Francisco Latorre Sound/Sound Designer
Tia Lessin Co-producer
Daniel Marracino Cinematographer
Tanya Ager Meillier Editor
Alexander Meillier Editor
Anne Moore Producer
Conor O'Neill Editor
Mark Roy Sound/Sound Designer
Jayme Roy Cinematographer
Hilary Stewart Executive Producer, Sound/Sound Designer
John Walter Editor
Eric Weinrib Associate Producer
Bob Weinstein Executive Producer
Harvey Weinstein Executive Producer
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Scene Index

Disc #1 -- Michael Moore: Capitalism - A Love Story
1. Intro / Main Titles [2:25]
2. Imperial Parallels [1:55]
3. Home Loss [6:05]
4. Condo Vultures [2:43]
5. What Is Capitalism? [4:34]
6. New Sheriff In Town [4:51]
7. General Motors Revisited [5:01]
8. Jail A Kid For Profit [7:41]
9. Poverty Pilots [5:24]
10. Dead Peasants [8:05]
11. Mike Gets Religion [5:55]
12. The Plutonomy Theory [3:42]
13. Democracy At Work [4:03]
14. Derivatives For Dummies [3:42]
15. Greenspan Gone Wild! [1:47]
16. From Red Tape To Robbery [5:34]
17. Friends Of Angelo [3:00]
18. Elite Crime Spree [3:35]
19. American Financial Meltdown [4:22]
20. Wall Street's Ruling Class [6:08]
21. Financial Coup D'état [4:19]
22. Armored Avenger [2:13]
23. Eat The Rich [2:09]
24. The Spectre Of Socialism [3:21]
25. Seeds Of Revolution [:55]
26. Workers Occupy Factory [3:34]
27. FDR's Economic Bill Of Rights [6:13]
28. Crime Scene/ End Credits [6:54]
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Menu

Disc #1 -- Michael Moore: Capitalism - A Love Story
   Play
   Set Up
      Subtitles
         English for the Deaf & Hearing Impaired
         Spanish
         Subtitles: None
   Scene Selections
   Special Features
      Sorry, House-Flippers And Banks -- You're Toast In Flint, MI
      Congressman Cummings Dares To Speak The Unspeakable
      NY Times Pulitzer Prize Winner Chris Hedges On The Killing Machine Known As Capitalism
      The Rich Don't Go Heaven (There's A Special Place Reserved For Them!)
      What If, Just If, We Had Listened To Jimmy Carter In 1979?
      The Omnivore's Dilemma? It's Capitalism
      Commie Taxi Drivers -- "You Talkin' To Me?" -- In Wisconsin
      How To Run The Place Where You Work
      The Socialist Bank Of -- North Dakota?
      The Bank Kicks Them Out, Max Kicks Them Back In
      Trailers
         Teaser Trailer
         Theatrical Trailer
      Credits
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Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4
( 12 )
Rating Distribution

5 Star

(8)

4 Star

(1)

3 Star

(0)

2 Star

(0)

1 Star

(3)

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Sort by: Showing all of 12 Customer Reviews

  • Posted October 1, 2010

    A MICHAEL MOORE MUST SEE FOR ALL AMERICANS

    Michael Moore is a national treasure. Those who have the guts to stand up and clearly and convincingly speak truth to power should be listened to and celebrated. For over 20 years Michael Moore has been doing just that, and in CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY he takes on his biggest, most powerful subject yet - the crippling inequities of our entire economic/political system.

    In ROGER & ME, BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE, FAHRENHEIT 9/11, SICKO, and now CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY, Moore has explored subjects that strike at the heart of who we are as a country, using the documentary form in an entertaining and often heartbreaking fashion. Though rarely able to refute the facts or substance of his work, his detractors have vilified him, accusing him of being a self-aggrandizing, partisan buffoon. But while Michael Moore is always the conscience-driven guide through his films, the films are not about him. They're about us.

    In CAPTALISM he takes an unblinking look at how our economic system is completely and utterly rigged to fail and exploit the majority of the people while further enriching the already wealthy. Moore contends that the roots of our contemporary economic malaise reach back to our cowboy/corporate shill of a President, Ronald Reagan. The most recent result is the billions and billions of your tax dollars handed over to greedy failed banks and insurance companies by unelected government officials who ignored a Congressional vote against those very bailouts. Of course, these are the same figures (Hank Paulson, et al.) who once fed like pigs at the trough of those corrupt financial institutions and who are currently making economic policy (Geithner, Summers) in the Obama administration.

    If Michael Moore was a dry, academic documentarian rather than the populist provocateur he is, no one would pay much attention to what he had to say. It's his ability as a filmmaker to show us the human element behind the nightmare that makes him so effective. It's also what has turned him into a nemesis of both the rich and powerful whose obscene practices he exposes and the average Americans exploited by fear into believing those commanding forces have their best interests at heart.
    But Moore is never all about the negative. Showing us successful examples of populist empowerment (employee-run companies, neighbors defying banks to keep people in their homes), he is saying there is an alternative. And as a filmmaker, he keeps us totally involved on an emotional and intellectual level for the 2-plus hour running time of his movie.

    In the end, Moore's thesis is simple. We live in a democratic political system in which the people are supposed to decide their fate. But we also live under a capitalist economic system in which wealth decides people's fates. In 21st century America, capitalism has crushed democracy. and it's time to take our country back!

    4 out of 5 people found this review helpful.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Posted October 1, 2010

    Capitalism

    Anybody who makes this much money off of a movie stating that capitalism is evil is an obvious joke.

    2 out of 6 people found this review helpful.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Posted December 16, 2012

    Honest truth, and can happen to anyone who is not part of runnin

    Honest truth, and can happen to anyone who is not part of running the former White House. Thank-you Michael Moore for the truth! I keep getting emails, to purchase homes for less than $10,000.00 in the United States of America and I live in Canada. Try to figure that one out. Yes, some Canadians have jumped on board and see their real estate on the news for another shooting has taken place across from their new property that they purchased.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Posted November 19, 2012

    Thank God for Michael Moore and for Current TV which has been ai

    Thank God for Michael Moore and for Current TV which has been airing this important movie for the past several weeks. This film should be required viewing in every high school in the United States. This eye-opener takes the pieces of our broken democracy and creates a mosaic to show us how far we have fallen as a Nation. I grew up in the 70's in the midwest. I experienced first-hand and truly believed in the American Dream. Unfortunately, I and the rest of the 99% have been struggling our entire adult lives against the Evil Empire that is Wall Street and the Banks. The dream has been moved out of reach and we are just now beginning to wake up to this alarming realization. It is not a level playing field -- a fact that must change or the American Dream will be gone forever. Michael Moore, for his gutsy and determined effort to expose the truth, is my hero and is, indeed, a national treasure.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Posted September 23, 2012

    amazing to believe it could happen in america. god forbid that i

    amazing to believe it could happen in america. god forbid that it happens here in Australia too

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

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    Posted September 11, 2011

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    Posted August 13, 2011

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    Posted March 4, 2010

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    Posted February 22, 2010

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    Posted February 4, 2011

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    Posted May 13, 2010

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