"Capitalism" a Cathartic Crescendo for Moore Audiences

[Joanne98]

Mon Sep 21, 2009 at 03:22:51 AM PDT

Last night I attended a private screening of Michael Moore's new documentary, Capitalism: A Love Story, opening on October 2nd for general audiences.

Depending on where we are in a news cycle when this carpet bombing of every vile capitalistic image since the death of FDR is released to the public, this could either begin us marching in the streets (the real marches this time, not the Wal*Mart pre-fab ready made marches), or we could find ourselves so exhausted by the revelations that we will just need a month to mourn.

That will be the key.



Detroit Mark's diary :: :: Moore makes much more use of vintage media in Capitalism than he did in his triumphant Fahrenheit 911. Juxtaposing seemingly ancient Cecil B. DeMille style docu's about the rise and fall of Rome with the present day, for example ... and the parallels are just tantalyzing enough to take you hostage for much of the film. I didn't find myself wondering if I had to pee or wanting more popcorn until 2/3 into the film from that moment on, and even those impulses passed quickly.

He also takes more liberties with the use of humor, in some places quite successfully. There are at least 4 points where the audience will have no choice but to laugh because if they don't, they'll cry. And ... yes ... I'm afraid you can pretty much resign yourself to that, too. After all, this isn't a topic so focused as Bowling for Columbine, Moore's rant against the use of minorities to create fear and the gun toting NRA there just in time to clean up. And in some ways, it deals with an even heavier load than the roundhouse kick to George W's head he gave in F911. In fact, you could say F911 was just the prequel that gave us the setup to understand what unfolds in Capitalism. We are, after all, staring down the ugliest beast of all now. The prospect of being snuffed out by fellow Americans who just happen to be richer than us makes dying at the hands of terrorists seem almost surrealistically preferable.

It takes you through all of it, the Reagan years and the beginning of the assault on the Middle Class when conservatism deliverd us into the festive harvesting baskets of Wall Street, the insolence of GW Bush which served as not much more than a distraction from one of the truly most evil manifestations of human destruction in several lifetimes, in the form of Dick Cheney, all the way through the most breathtaking example of illusion and slight of hand that appeared and disappeared from before our eyes 2 months before the election of one of our own who promised to bring hope and change.

And it's at that point where the film delivers some moments of some pretty undeniable pleasure. It's the classic battle against two forces, one good and one not, and the one you're routing for stands out against a pretty dark background.

One thing I can almost guarantee, though. You remember when you saw SiCKO, and you left the theater thinking, "Wow. This is going to piss people off. And I mean everybody"? This will have that effect to the 10th power. Because it has an almost Apocolyptic scent to it that draws both from the teetering toward collapse every man, woman, and child living in a household with less than $100k annual to survive can feel to their bone, as well as from the fact that Moore has made it clear that this may be his last documentary. It very much has a palpable, All Leading Up To This Moment In Time flavor.

If you've ever dared to ask the question, "What has Capitalism done for me lately" it might have seemed like there were 12 libertarians standing in the shadows waiting to appear to confront you for daring to speak its name, and 2 republicans there to represent the lobbyists paying billions just to get you to change your mind about speaking at all. Moore smashes all boundaries holding back the innate, primordial instinct to revolt. Without even actually saying it, he defies the teabagger (who conspicuously gets no screen time in this latest effort) to dare gurgle up the Socialist meme. Placing himself between the pillars of power of Capitalism, and the long forgotten face of Democracy, he gently suggests to us in so many words, "Look! Look you poor, simple fools! There is no bolt of lightning! You are in charge! They can not harm you! It's all a lie!" And by the way, if there is any sense of fatality in Moore's latest, it's this: You are not in charge now, and any delusion you have that your government is running this republic needs to be snuffed out before you can see and think clearly.

There is a deliciously poignant and nostalgic moment where you find yourself gazing into the failing, darkening eyes of the increasingly ill President Franklin Roosevelt as he lays out his "2nd Bill of Rights". It would be as close as we would come to having a Middle Class that is not only a majority, but also one that calls the shots, that thrives, and prospers. Because he would take the embattled idea to his grave one year later, leaving us the New Deal as the best chance for survival against an ever more ravenous Corporate Plutocracy. And except for the tempestuous labor movements, there have only been ghostly whispers of that kind of audacity since, such as that which beckoned to us from behind the rising barricades in Hugo's Les Miserable, a depiction of common cause in any language.

Continued>>>
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/9/21/784617/-Capitalism-a-Cathartic-Crescendo-for-Moore-Audiences