Fahrenheit 11/9

First Hit: Covers a lot of stuff but I think it was mostly about Presidents and people in power managing and acting poorly.

This film seemed all over the place, and I was never quite sure of the primary focus or target of this recent offering by Michael Moore. It includes some of his typical stunts, like an attempted citizen’s arrest of the Michigan Governor Rick Snyder who poisoned the people of Flint, Michigan by changing their community water source from Lake Huron to the Flint River. There was also the spraying of Flint water at the Governor’s mansion.

Much ado was made of this in the press and the outcry of the act and Governor’s inaction when poisons were discovered in the water was audible throughout the United States. One of the saddest parts of the film was when, then President Obama came to Flint and pretended to drink water to ensure that the problem was fixed. Instead of coming to help and rescue the people of Flint from an arrogant governor, he placated everyone.

Another part of the film was how Hilary lost the election to our, now, President Trump. This re-telling shares virtually no new information and only reminds us of how an election went wrong.

Then there are his hits on President Trump. There is little new shared here that helps us understand his manipulation of disenchanted, mostly white, people. The disenchanted are rich conservatives that want more money in their pocket and partially educated people who are feel disenfranchised.

The best is his explanation as to how Trump deflects by offering alternatives. For instance his admiration for people who have a lifetime rulership of their country and he laments that he would consider this if offered.

Moore does some things well in this film, like his honoring of the Stoneman Douglas high school kids that are creating change. And other things are more bombastic and overdone without pinpoint clarity of purpose.

Overall: Not one of Moore’s better films.

Where to Invade Next

First Hit:  Very one sided view of other countries and the social programs their governments have implemented to improve their country’s well-being.

Documentarian Michael Moore travels to European countries to see what social programs their governments have implemented that improve their populations health, education and happiness.

In Italy the discussion is about vacation time and that the US has no law requiring minimum vacation time. In Italy 4 weeks is minimum and many have 8 weeks of vacation.

There is Slovenia where all college education is free. Iceland prosecuted all the of bankers that caused their country to go bankrupt (unlike the US).

Finland’s students have no homework. In Norway prisoners are guarded by officers that do not have guns while they endeavor to have as normal a life as possible away from the population of the country.

In most all countries Moore visits prisoners get to vote for elected officials. Lastly, all the countries he visited had free healthcare for all.

Moore also points back to the US where all these ideas had their germination many years ago. It isn’t that none of these things weren’t true, it is that the film doesn't point out the difficulties in each of those countries as well.

One item that stands out is that almost 60% of our tax dollars support "Defense" (think military and war based activities). I was left wondering what we would do with even 1/3 of that money spent for the good of the country’s infrastructure.

Michael Moore is his usual smart and silly self. I thought the planting of the American flag and claiming to take these ideas back to the US seemed contrived.

Overall:  It was very interesting to listen to people of other countries about the programs they have in place – you know they believe in what they are doing.

Capitalism: A Love Story

First Hit:  Michael Moore, in his own funny yet insightful way, reminds us that our unquenchable thirst for more stuff may lead our nation into consumptive oblivion.

Michael has a way to telling stories.

Generally I like the intent but I’m not always enamored with how or the way in which he tells the story on film. However, in this film his way of storytelling makes a very sad and horrible set of events seem interesting and accessible to a wide audience. He is not afraid to point fingers at both Republicans and Democrats alike, because they both approved the bailout.

Both parties approved the deregulation that led us into much of our national financial problems. Yes, the brunt of the deregulation blame is squarely with the Republicans (Reagan) but it is also the influence of election contributions to members of both parties and their re-election mentality which drove numerous bad decisions and “we the people” get to suffer for it today.

I do wish we would have gotten more information about some of the exotic financial instruments that major financial institutions use on Wall Street, but we didn't. The picture presented is that Wall Street financial companies are a basically a sophisticated gambling casino, which bet and lost our money and now we have to pay their debt. 

The film presented a plethora of charts which were thrown on the screen but they went by so fast I couldn’t digest what they all meant and there was little explanation about each one. The grandiose attempts to get into AIG, GM (one last time), and other major financial houses is typical Michael Moore and, at times, funny.

I really enjoyed his driving in an armored car to these financial companies trying to get the tax payers, “our”, money back. And I enjoyed the police crime scene tape being wrapped around the buildings.

Some of the interviews were very enlightening and gave a wonderful perspective of how corrupt our government officials are when it comes to taking care of their personal needs versus our needs.

However, the truth of the story is this, capitalistic greed and our consumptive nature have driven us to this point and each of us needs to pay attention to our government and the freedoms they allow our financial businesses.

Michael Moore did a wonderful job of creating a picture of how we got ourselves into this financial mess. Although he doesn’t and couldn’t cover everything, the point he brings home is that capitalism has been trouncing our economy. And if we don’t come together and take our democratic ideals, as a nation, and really look at what a few have done, we’ll be in more trouble soon.

Overall: This film was entertaining and provocative and I left the theater shaking my head at our government’s inability to curb its own interests over their constituents interests.

Sicko

First Hit: Thank you. Despite turns towards the dramatics, Michael does us a favor. Everyone needs to see this and we need to change our healthcare system.

Despite the flair for the dramatics, this film brings up an important subject – health care in the United States.

It is shameful that even one of the families shown in the film goes through what they went through. The parents who moved in with the daughter was very really sad on two levels.

One that the health care system let them down while pushing them into bankruptcy, and two that the daughter was minimally supportive and didn’t even clean out the room where the parents were going to stay.

I cried off and on throughout this film, although the scenes about Cuba and Guantanamo Bay didn’t hit me like I think Michael wanted them to. It just seemed a little over done and dramatized.

However, the truth is this; the health care system in this country is in very bad shape and Michael opens the door for us to see how and why.

Overall, this is a must see and we need to begin to hold our government accountable. I want the same health care coverage that our congress men and women get. Don't we deserve it?