Screen Scene: “Capitalism: A Love Story”
By Daily Bruin Staff
Oct. 5, 2009 9:29 p.m.
Beware ““ merely watching “Capitalism: A Love Story” could be considered an act of socialism.
The documentary’s writer, director and leading man Michael Moore has stated publicly that no one should pay to see the movie but that they should instead barter or steal it.
I wholeheartedly agree, and the best way to not pay for the movie is just to not see it at all. “Capitalism: A Love Story” promises to educate you about the financial crisis and critique America’s infatuation with capitalism, but the only love story you’re going to get is the one about a man and his microphone.
Moore seems to take delight in nasally proclaiming the winning half of a one-sided argument as if he came up with it himself. He takes stands such as: “We should have responded better to Hurricane Katrina,” and “airplane pilots should be paid more because they have important jobs.”
What do airplane pilot salaries and Hurricane Katrina have to do with capitalism? Beats me. Moore’s chain of reasoning is consistently poor, and it’s clear that he has overreached himself in this endeavor. Airplane pilots aren’t paid very much. Thus, according to Moore, capitalism killed all of the people who died in the Buffalo-area commuter-plane crash last winter. He gives voice and a fair amount of screen time to the plight of the poor in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, but it’s not clear why. Is he suggesting capitalism caused Hurricane Katrina? This conflation of capitalism with corruption, greed and tragedy is persistently presented without explanation. This overly blunt chain of reasoning pervades the entire film. It’s like watching someone trying to fix a circuit board with a sledgehammer.
You might expect that economists or financial experts would at some point appear in a documentary about capitalism to give the film at least a patina of expertise. After all, you need more than a snotty attitude and a megaphone to confront nebulous social and systemic problems such as insurance fraud and poor disaster response, right? Wrong. Moore does not speak to a single professional economist in the entire film. In fact, one of the most authoritative sources he speaks to is his friend Wallace Shawn, an actor who in addition to giving voice to Rex the Green Dinosaur from the “Toy Story” movies, took a few economics courses in college. Moore also consults the family preacher, who dutifully tells the camera, “Capitalism is evil.”
The documentary’s argument clearly suffers from the lack of expert opinion. Moore’s grand solution for the economic downturn and the global financial regulatory problem is to replace capitalism with democracy, which is like saying we can cure cancer if we just call it by a different name.
This much is clear: Moore doesn’t know anything about capitalism, and the documentary, which purports to critique just that, is a confused mess. However, he’s passionate, clever and possesses a certain jaunty showmanship that will elicit at least a few laughs during the documentary’s two-plus hours. The only funny scenes are when he tries to force his way into buildings that he’s not allowed in, but chances are you’ve already seen this before in “Fahrenheit 9/11″ and “Bowling for Columbine.” The best moments of the film come when Moore tempers his smug tirades with some much needed humility, such as when he sits with a hilariously blank expression on his face as various experts attempt to explain how a credit default swap works.
But besides these fleeting moments of mirth, there really isn’t any reason to see this movie, even if you can actually barter your way into the theater.
““ Frank Shyong
