Michael Moore, the rotund documentary polemicist whose films include Bowling for Columbine, Fahrenheit 9/11, and Sicko, has premiered his latest left wing epic at the Venice Film Festival. It is called Capitalism: A Love Story.
Michael Moore has concluded that capitalism is evil, capitalism must be overthrown, and has a made a movie that will likely net him millions of dollars telling us why these things are so. By all accounts, Capitalism: A Love Story has all of the classic Michael Moore tricks; the out of context sob stories, the artfully edited scenes, the publicity stunts, and the utterly clueless analysis, such as it is. Most if not all of the horrors Michael Moore depicts are the result of big companies collaborating with government.
Mind, Michael Moore has morphed from a celebrated auteur, to an outrageous propagandist, to a kind of cinematic joke. And his films, while generating a lot of praise in the politically correct circles and a lot of money for Michael Moore, have not actually effected any social change. In fact, they have tended to have the opposite effect.
Bowling for Columbine, an assault against the private ownership of fire arms, has led to more laws protecting that ownership, including a recent Supreme Court decision overturning Washington D.C. draconian gun control laws.
Fahrenheit 9/11 was followed by the reelection of George W. Bush and the current consensus on fighting the War on Terror.
The aftermath of Sicko is playing itself out. The current revolt against Obamacare suggests the defeat of government run health care proposals. Even in Canada, a quiet kind of privatization is occurring.
So what will happen with Capitalism: A Love Story? If the pattern of every other one of Michael Moore’s films holds true, it will premier with a big splash and impressive box office. Then, likely when Barack Obama is replaced in 2012 by Sarah Palin, free market capitalism with reign supreme, with a flat tax, the privatization of Social Security, school vouchers, and other capitalistic innovations.
In any case, Michael Moore makes a very unlikely Lenin, by all accounts living the lifestyle of the rich and famous, abusing the help, and behaving with all the entitlement mentality of a Roman Senator. Michael Moore would be the first person to be horrified if the proposals suggested by Capitalism: A Love Story were ever to be enacted. The last thing Michael Moore wants to do is to give all his money to the poor and work for the Ministry of Documentary Film Making at minimum wage.
But that’s not the point of Michael Moore’s films. The purpose of any film is to put as many posteriors in seats as possible in order to generate money for the people who make them. And Michael Moore has served his own purpose indeed.
Source: “Capitalism is evil,” says new Michael Moore film, Mike Collett-White, Reuters, September 6th, 2009
