Before I start writing, I wanted to say that I began watching this movie (documentary) with an open mind and I'm not a Michael Moore hater or a capitalist or anything... Actually I come from Europe, but I'm not a socialist either!
I just finished watching this and I was thinking when is this going to end, it's just way too long. As I like watching good documentaries, I thought this was a very bad documentary! There were nearly no facts presented and it felt kinda awkward a lot of the time. Their were a lot of emotions in it, watching poor people lose their homes, lose their jobs or getting screwed by idiots (example the corrupt judge). Yeah sure you need to feel sorry about them, with all the rhetoric Michael Moore uses and all the drama he builds up, who doesn't feel bad for them!? But assuming it was the fault of "capitalism" is just pure bullshit! And that some people worship money more than anything else and are greedy as hell, hasn't a thing to do with capitalism! It's the nature of some people that behave like this. Also the American culture provides the perfect breeding ground for things like this to happen. So it's the fault of the society that these things happen and not capitalism! Let me give you another example, in very socialistic countries like Venezuela you also have greed, corruption and an very elite top that have control and power over the majority. I don't want to defend capitalism or anything, but to make it short... Every system has it pro's and con's, there is no perfect system out there, but capitalism is as good as it gets. It's the society (politicians, media, culture, education and the people) who make the difference!
That is also the problem of this documentary, you can see and feel that Michael Moore made this documentary with a clear goal in his mind: To defame capitalism by any means possible. And that is not how one should make a documentary! You can have your opinion but you should stay neutral and let the audience make up its own opinion, rather than shoving your agenda down peoples throat. I think this documentary becomes more awkward the more the time passes... For example he more than ones stated that capitalism is now over because of the financial crisis and with Obama now being president we leave capitalism and everything bad behind us and America will become the social "happyland"! I was thinking "WTF", nothing much has changed! Yes, we had an economic downturn, but as soon as business is up on its feet again, everything will be back as before and a lot of people will worship money and praise capitalism again... Nothing has changed! Thats why I say it's society not the system, but Michael Moore doesn't understand that concept! Instead he is using emotions and polemic to make a point! He for example asked some priests and a bishop what they think about capitalism and what Jesus would think about capitalism. Their answer was for example "capitalism is evil" and he continued and showed a short film about a capitalist version of Jesus where Jesus uses all the clichés of greed and capitalism. WTF!? These are not arguments, this is bullshit! Since when does it matter what a priest thinks!? Yes, the priest can have his opinion, but this doesn't make it an argument against capitalism.
At the end of the movie he showed the pictures of New Orleans after Katrina with sad music in the background and said: "Why is it always the poor who have to suffer the misery? Why isn't Madoff up on the roof screaming for help? Or the head of Citibank?" etc etc... Yeah that is the kind of juxtaposition Michael Moore uses to brainwash the audience. What does Katrina have to do with capitalism? And why not stick with the truth? The people stuck in the NYC World Trade Center on 9-11-2001 screaming for help or jumping out of the window out of desperation were not what I would call poor people... And these kind of arguments and bullshit continues to the whole movie, so why is Michael Moore doing this?? Because he cannot argument on an intellectual level and thats why he uses emotions, drama, juxtaposition and polemic to get his point down. This is not what I call a documentary, it's more like a conspiracy or propaganda movie.
If anybody wants to see a well made documentary about the financial crisis on an intellectual level, I would recommend watching the 3 part series of BBC called the "The Love of Money".
I just finished watching this and I was thinking when is this going to end, it's just way too long. As I like watching good documentaries, I thought this was a very bad documentary! There were nearly no facts presented and it felt kinda awkward a lot of the time. Their were a lot of emotions in it, watching poor people lose their homes, lose their jobs or getting screwed by idiots (example the corrupt judge). Yeah sure you need to feel sorry about them, with all the rhetoric Michael Moore uses and all the drama he builds up, who doesn't feel bad for them!? But assuming it was the fault of "capitalism" is just pure bullshit! And that some people worship money more than anything else and are greedy as hell, hasn't a thing to do with capitalism! It's the nature of some people that behave like this. Also the American culture provides the perfect breeding ground for things like this to happen. So it's the fault of the society that these things happen and not capitalism! Let me give you another example, in very socialistic countries like Venezuela you also have greed, corruption and an very elite top that have control and power over the majority. I don't want to defend capitalism or anything, but to make it short... Every system has it pro's and con's, there is no perfect system out there, but capitalism is as good as it gets. It's the society (politicians, media, culture, education and the people) who make the difference!
That is also the problem of this documentary, you can see and feel that Michael Moore made this documentary with a clear goal in his mind: To defame capitalism by any means possible. And that is not how one should make a documentary! You can have your opinion but you should stay neutral and let the audience make up its own opinion, rather than shoving your agenda down peoples throat. I think this documentary becomes more awkward the more the time passes... For example he more than ones stated that capitalism is now over because of the financial crisis and with Obama now being president we leave capitalism and everything bad behind us and America will become the social "happyland"! I was thinking "WTF", nothing much has changed! Yes, we had an economic downturn, but as soon as business is up on its feet again, everything will be back as before and a lot of people will worship money and praise capitalism again... Nothing has changed! Thats why I say it's society not the system, but Michael Moore doesn't understand that concept! Instead he is using emotions and polemic to make a point! He for example asked some priests and a bishop what they think about capitalism and what Jesus would think about capitalism. Their answer was for example "capitalism is evil" and he continued and showed a short film about a capitalist version of Jesus where Jesus uses all the clichés of greed and capitalism. WTF!? These are not arguments, this is bullshit! Since when does it matter what a priest thinks!? Yes, the priest can have his opinion, but this doesn't make it an argument against capitalism.
At the end of the movie he showed the pictures of New Orleans after Katrina with sad music in the background and said: "Why is it always the poor who have to suffer the misery? Why isn't Madoff up on the roof screaming for help? Or the head of Citibank?" etc etc... Yeah that is the kind of juxtaposition Michael Moore uses to brainwash the audience. What does Katrina have to do with capitalism? And why not stick with the truth? The people stuck in the NYC World Trade Center on 9-11-2001 screaming for help or jumping out of the window out of desperation were not what I would call poor people... And these kind of arguments and bullshit continues to the whole movie, so why is Michael Moore doing this?? Because he cannot argument on an intellectual level and thats why he uses emotions, drama, juxtaposition and polemic to get his point down. This is not what I call a documentary, it's more like a conspiracy or propaganda movie.
If anybody wants to see a well made documentary about the financial crisis on an intellectual level, I would recommend watching the 3 part series of BBC called the "The Love of Money".