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capitalism: a film, or summin...

Started by Lee Van Cleef, May 22, 2010, 04:45:03 PM

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Lee Van Cleef

That "Capitalism: a love story" film by mr moore is on 4 tonight. I've not seen any of his films since Bowling which, whilst entertaining got a little bit tired with all his stunts.

Given I'm at work overnight I figured I may as well watch it rather than wear out my Peep Show dvds. Just wondered what thoughts people may have on the film if they'd seen it, or anything else Moore did after Bowling.

biggytitbo

Not sure I'd want to sit through another semi informed smugathon from the bloated buffoon.

Lee Van Cleef

*puts on Captain Obvious hat*
Well we've all remained seated through reading your posts, why shouldn't you?

biggytitbo

Well at least I had the good grace not to make a major film about my ramblings, and belive me I did consider it.

Lee Van Cleef

The idea of you bumbling around Sheffield (best Detroit approximation I could come up with) asking people why they bothered voting and playing pranks on Nick Clegg amuses me.

biggytitbo


dredd

I watched it, some interesting bits, but was not convinced by the financial crisis as banking conspiracy angle. He drew parallels between the case for the Iraq war and arguments in favour of the bailouts, which seemed a bit facile and wrong.

biggytitbo

Well the bailouts were certainly a huge lie, whether the politicians themselves believed it or not.

An tSaoi

As usual with Michael Moore some of it was right-on, and some of it was way-off. I liked the part where he showed a list of important politicians who had special accounts with some dodgy bankers, the bit where he highlighted how deliberately confusing the various lending(?) formulae were, and the section where he showed the major banking players who were high up at the Whitehouse.

On the other hand I really hated when he showed up in Wall Street with a sack of 'swag' and demanded they hand all the money back. That was typical Michael Moor stunt-work, and only served to remind me what a pillock he is. I would have had some respect for him if he actually had the balls to carry out a citizen's arrest like he kept threatening to do. Playing sinister music over footage of the 'bad guys' was a manipulative trick.

We were supposed to side with the family who broke back into the house they didn't keep up their payments on, and were meant to boo the big bad bank man who tried to stop them trespassing on what was now the bank's rightful property. I wasn't so sure - while I sympathised with the situation the family found themselves in, you're warned your home may be at risk if you don't keep up the payments. The Evil Fat Cats™ didn't just steal the house from under them.

Also, I thought the portrayal of Obama's election victory as some sort of earth-altering event that would Change America for good was bollocks. Suffice to say I have mixed feelings about the documentary.

Lee Van Cleef

If he stopped pratting around with his TV Nation antics and stopped making those facile comparisons the work he did would carry more weight.

All that said I found the bit about the companies taking out life insurance on employees to be rather ghoulish and disturbing.  Should that kind of thing be illegal?

Shoulders?-Stomach!

Some of it- the actual facts he researched, were tragic and heartbreaking and made you angry and despondent and want to hit things. I was genuinely in tears at one point. It's bizarre and unfortunate he thinks he has to go further and make ludicrously over-wrought interviews and conflate other tragic events/horrible figures that aren't pertinent. As stated above, the stuff with him putting police tape and going to the banks HQs was the most pathetic meaningless shit I've ever seen.

His final call about FDR's 2nd bill of rights never coming to pass was a masterpiece of polemic though.

So yes, another mixed bag. Michael Moore isn't quite a ludicrous figure, nor is he a people's champion, sadly for both sides, he's a bit of both.

thepuffpastryhangman

I saw this at t'Broadway - yup, it did exist before Four Lions - coz there was a talk and a Q & A session with some local profs afterwards. Y'know the kind, £45 quid an hour and they've not changed their outfits for twenty years.

Talk about clueless, they had a righty prof and a lefty prof, neither of whom had any real idea about "the economic crisis". When someone asked what they could do personally, lefty prof says 'A lot of my students ask me that, I ask them 'where do you bank?' and suggest they move to the Co-op'. Errrr, prof, students tend to be overdrawn, and for free, the last thing the Co-op needs. And personal, let alone student, banking isn't the issue.

Anyway, the movie, yeah, worra disappointment. All that time paid to the sit-in, whereas the history of international finance was conspicuous by its absence, not a Rothschild mentioned. Moore wants to say something but never seems quite sure what. Is he promoting worker unity? Is he proposing revolution? Or is he just shaking a public fist?

The Wall Street stuff was fucking ridiculous, I can't remember the actual line - something like Moore asking 'you got any advice?' met with 'Don't make any more movies' - but it was the best bit in the movie. Moore, there, all prepared, making a movie, is put down in an instant by someone who just happened to be there. Moore's never sharp enough and that defeats his purpose. The 'police incident' tape wrapping was dreadful, he's so fricking vague.

What he should've done is explain, in terms everyone appreciates, explain the effects of high finance on the lives of us all. Picking victims at random is too abstract, we need it bringing home not trying to imagine what it's like in Flint or wherever.
He needs to make it more international too, show the effects on the developing world. He operates neither locally or globally, he's lost in the middle when he could address both ends. He dilutes his own message. Still, Madonna likes him.