Blu-ray Review: Capitalism - A Love Story

There is a certain joy in watching a Michael Moore movie. Moore, with his definitive point of view, lives in a simple world — a world of great evil, but it is still a simple world, a world with no gray, only easy to understand black and white. It is a point of view which provides a definite amount of comfort, even if the world is an evil one.

Moore, the writer and director of a multitude of well-known and well-regarded documentaries, constructs clear, concise stories in which he places himself in the center as the white knight, the good guy who is there to remove all evil – which tends to consist of the rich and powerful cheating "regular folks" – from the world. His latest film, Capitalism: A Love Story, keeps the theme going perfectly.

The basic story that Capitalism tells is that of evil corporations who have managed to wrest control of our government from the people by purchasing elected officials. Moore explains how this process was grossly accelerated during Ronald Reagan's time and brought our country to the massive financial issues it faced in 2008, which were then "solved" by the country wrongly bailing out the corporations that had started the mess in the first place.

Moore goes beyond this, delving not only into the evil that corporations do, but giving examples of how they don't have to be quite so evil. He shows how some companies are run by the workers and successful, conjuring up that much maligned word, socialism. Though it won't actually placate any capitalist devotees in the audience, he does manage to include a bit about how our Constitution doesn't actually mention capitalism as our economic system anywhere, no matter what we have been taught.

Interestingly, and as is the case with so many of Moore's films, the film boils down a very complicated story, one with multiple sides, into not just a black and white story, but a black and white story which features the American public being treated as stupid. Moore, of course, with his overly-simplified account, is also treating the public as stupid. It is not the place of this review to argue whether Moore and his point of view are right or wrong – that is most definitely a discussion for economists, politicians, and eventually historians – but unquestionably the argument Moore constructs is a simplified one.

Article Author: Josh Lasser

Josh Lasser, formerly known as "TV and Film Guy," and complete with a Masters Degree in Critical Studies in said areas, gives his opinions on TV, Film, and Entertainment in general. All of which he does in a shameless attempt to try to get paid to do the exact same thing. …

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