Capitalism: A Love Story

[hobo8675309]

I am amused by the lack of posts on revleft regarding this wonderful work of anti-corporate proletarian truth.

Yeah, even if Mike Moore isn't a full-socialist like the rest of us (he could be defined as a socio-capitalist, i suppose), he makes very well-developed and honest arguments in the film. And, yet, he does not get the appreciation he deserves here on a website for Communists, Anarachists, and really pissed off Democrats.

[JerryBiscoTrey]

It was great how he got all those religious leaders to say their opinions on capitalism. He also dismantled the Reagan years which was cool

[Stand Your Ground]

Yeah C:ALS was a super good movie. I loved it because it brought everything we want to show the working class to the main stream. Although I'm sure everyone who watched it already knew most of it anyway, the people who don't know are going 'Oh man another stupid politic movie.'

[Tablo]

It was okay outside of the Obama worship. I enjoyed watching.

[kibbutznia]

Because Americans tend to see socialism, marxism, and communism and terrible and oppressive, despite not really understanding them, the best way to bring them around is to explain socialist ideas and without using these words, which to some extent is what michael moore did, although i would have liked it to be more radical.

The film focused on the problems with capitalism, rather than the virtues of socialism, which was probably wise considering the target audience.

[KurtFF8]

I am amused by the lack of posts on revleft regarding this wonderful work of anti-corporate proletarian truth.

It was actually discussed quite a bit on RevLeft in multiple long threads in various sub-forums when the film came out.

[Catillina]

It was a realy funny movie, I showed it once to some friends, they enjoyed it too, but it didnt changed much about them in fact...

[Bardo]

I saw this a few weeks ago. I grew up in the Flint, Michigan area and I can definitely feel where he is comming from in reguard to that town.

I really enjoyed his bit about the bread factory in California, where a worker owned factory is actually working well and all hell hasnt broken loose :scared:. I wonder how many assembly line bakers make over $65k a year elsewhere.

[Amphictyonis]

Goldman sachs evil. Obama good! Even though Goldman Sachs and other Wall St banks and law firms were the driving force behind Obama's campaign. Micheal Moore needs to do the math. His silly film will make a liberal feel some self righteous hypocritical moral indignation inbetwen checking their portfolio online and watching the Jon Stewart show.

With the amount of exposure that man had, national theaters DVD sales etc he should've put a more honest critique of capitalism forward but I guess, perhaps, he was trying to keep it 'generic' as to not confuse the prole masses? It juts seemed like a bunch of obvious liberal/conservative partisan tomfoolery to me.

[KurtFF8]

Goldman sachs evil. Obama good!

Not quite. The film certainly did have a "maybe Obama will fix things!" sentiment, but at the same time it criticized Obama for surrounding himself with wall st. folks to deal with the crisis. Also, since the film's release, he has moved further and further to the Left (and even the film ends with a version of the internationale in the background after all, that was certainly a major wink to the Left)

[Manic Impressive]

I actually found the film quite boring regardless of the message, Sicko was a much better film. But the content didn't go far enough first 1/2 should have been capitalism sucks second half should have been what else is there.

[Sosa]

it's good considering who the audience is. this is the movie that actually acted as a catalyst for me to move more and more to the left. at the time I saw the movie I would've considered myself a liberal/social dem and it def made me look at socialism more out of curiousity. keep in mind that the majority of people who went to see his movie are not communists nor socialist, etc. they are regular, probably working class people who aren't associated with any political leanings necessarily and and could serve as the catalyst for them to go deeper into anti-capitalist critiques.....


I dont know if that makes sense, I'm kinda drunk right now :D

[MellowViper]

It was okay outside of the Obama worship. I enjoyed watching.

I think he had optimism about Obama, but he pretty much left it open ended. He was hoping that the democratic process would work, but I didn't think he jumped to conclusions and said he'd, without a doubt, fix everything.

[MellowViper]

Not quite. The film certainly did have a "maybe Obama will fix things!" sentiment, but at the same time it criticized Obama for surrounding himself with wall st. folks to deal with the crisis. Also, since the film's release, he has moved further and further to the Left (and even the film ends with a version of the internationale in the background after all, that was certainly a major wink to the Left)

Yah, exactly. If it was all about Obama worship, he wouldn't have made any mention of his involvement with Walstreet.

[MellowViper]

I saw this a few weeks ago. I grew up in the Flint, Michigan area and I can definitely feel where he is comming from in reguard to that town.

I really enjoyed his bit about the bread factory in California, where a worker owned factory is actually working well and all hell hasnt broken loose :scared:. I wonder how many assembly line bakers make over $65k a year elsewhere.

That's how socialism should be achieved in my view. On the political end, I'd like something like a Scandanavian democracy that provides raw materials and basic services, but on the economic side, I think worker control should be attained through a new partnership model of free enterprise. If a worker had an option between a factory that pays them 30 dollars an hour with a voice in company policy or one that pays them 7 bucks an hour that makes a mere commodity out of their time and labor, they'd go with the first option.

[Jimmie Higgins]

Michael Moore is soft on Obama compared to us, but he is a rock compared to most of the liberal-left. He has claimed that he would make his next movie criticizing Obama if he doesn't move decisively to the left... I think on a practical level Moore can't do that in the absence of a general break away from the Dems and Obama by prominent progressives. But we'll see... liberals are pretty disillusioned now so it would be interesting to see the reaction to a film that criticized Obama from the left. If he had a TV show he could get away with it, but I can't imagine it would be very easy to raise funds in Hollywood for a film that's against both parties from a leftist perspective. I'd love it if he broke from the Dems and made a movie called "Why Democrats Loose" that could go through the whole history of the Dems in Moore's pretend-innocent musings... "And then I read about how the Democrats were leading segregationists... how can that be, aren't Democrats the friends of working people and people of color..?" Cue stock footage of President Clinton at a black church juxtaposed to images of segregationist Democrats in the South. But like I said, I doubt that movie could be made even if Moore shifted back to the left.

Despite his political unevenness and flaws, at least Michael Moore is even talking about the "infallible" profit system during this crisis... that puts him well in advance of most in his position. He may not be organizing an emergency brigade, but at least with "Capitalism" he's yelling fire as the profit system crashes and burns and the politicians are demanding more gasoline to throw on the working class.

[Rooster]

I loved the opening with Iggy Pop.

Anyway, it was good for the target audience as has been mentioned. But, it only really spouted same sort of stuff people like David Harvey go on about.

Hmmm, might have to watch it again to get a better opinion.

[thesadmafioso]

The actual flow of the film was decent, and it was quite watchable. It strayed off into gimmicks a bit too often for my tastes, and some of the interviews sort of droned on without any real direction to them though. The whole thing came off as relatively scattered in its effect and message, and the actual progression of things was more sporadic than not. The theme was invariably devoid of some much needed force due to such, but given the broad target audience I suppose that all of that was needed to make it feel less like a documentary and more like entertainment.

[Red_Devotchka]

I quite liked the movie. Well, of course isn't zealously leftist and sure can't say that it "enlightened" me. But you have to admit tht brings up few things tht I don't think everyone (and i mean everyone among concerned ones :P ) knew about. Well, sure the general message isn't anything new and sure didn't make people get up and start a revolution, but i bet Moore had to hold back lots of comments and suit the content to the audience as he's addressing it to the vastest group of spectators possible.