MichaelMoore.com

Michael Moore takes aim at capitalism

'Capitalism: A Love Story' takes on politicians of all stripes.

By Andy Klein / Los Angeles Times

It's been 20 years since "Roger & Me" turned Michael Moore into a national figure and -- as a nice side effect -- opened up the commercial potential of non-concert documentaries. And it's been five years since his "Fahrenheit 9/11" became (by far) the highest-grossing documentary of all time.

So it's probably safe to say that Moore is the only filmmaker in America who could get a wide release for a movie with the clearly ironic title "Capitalism: A Love Story" -- the first Hollywood feature, in fact, to have the word "capitalism" in the title. (Well, Steven Spielberg or Ron Howard have the clout, but they'd be less inclined to.)

Moore has suggested that he may give up making documentaries, and, though I hope he doesn't, the new film is in many ways a perfect bookend to "Roger & Me." Whereas his intervening movies have mostly focused on specific issues -- gun culture, the Iraq war, healthcare -- "Capitalism: A Love Story" is a broader critique. Yes, the fallout from last year's Wall Street nail-biter crops up throughout, but Moore began work on the movie before that. His real target is the system that has caused the problems.

As usual, he is funniest when manipulating stock footage to sugarcoat his more academic points: Here, the credits are followed by clips from a Britannica Films production about the decadent decline of the Roman Empire, intercut with recent footage that fits right in. But before long we are forced to watch families in the Midwest being evicted from their homes, ruined by having fallen for deceptive mortgage practices.

Even though the trailer emphasizes Moore as "star" -- showing him talking to members of Congress and trying to gain access to the AIG building in order to make a citizen's arrest of its chief executive -- he is not aggressively (or egotistically) on screen much more than he was in "Fahrenheit 9/11." In fact, when he does get personal, it's in a decidedly heartfelt, non-wiseacre mode. We see pre-adolescent Mike in home movies as he gives a few details about the notion of the American Dream that he was raised on. And, quite touchingly, he takes a walk with his very old dad, past the site of the demolished factory where the latter worked for 30 years.

Of course, the problem with knocking capitalism is that, in America, capitalism is so relentlessly paired with communism that to knock the one is to praise the other, as though there were no third option. It's a false equivalency, and it's impossible to imagine Moore embracing the latter. It's not even clear that he's entirely opposed to capitalism; what he's really going after is the corporatism that has made profit a goal beyond all ethical considerations. (Whether this is an inevitable result of all stripes of capitalism is a different argument.) And his alternative seems no more radical than an extension of 70-year-old New Deal ideas.

Given the political events of the last few decades -- he by no means gives the Clinton administration or the Democratic Party a pass -- "Capitalism: A Love Story" should be a complete downer, even with its humor. Moore tries to avoid this by presenting the stories of a few recent cases in which workers have successfully acted to improve their lot.

But what's most moving comes at the end. Moore's researchers found film footage, long thought to be lost, of FDR presenting his "second bill of rights" during a 1944 fireside chat. It's a simple list of rights -- to healthcare, a job, education -- that almost no one could disagree with . . . except, unfortunately, all the people with the most power.