“Capitalism: A Love Story” could be described as a documentary, a comedy and perhaps even horror. Anything but a love story.
It begins with a warning to those in the theater about the movie’s shocking content, although it doesn’t need one. From the minute Michael Moore’s name flashes on the screen as the writer, producer and director, the audience knows what it’s getting.
With Moore, you usually can count on a few heartbreaking stories, liberal-slanted arguments and, of course, an overweight guy in a frumpy coat, jeans and a baseball cap pulling off what one might believe to be impossible stunts, like backing an armored van up to various banks and demanding the bailout money back.
Perhaps that is part of the reason Moore’s name has been big in the business for the past 20 years — if you take his view, you are moved to action, and if you oppose it, you are just as moved to action to prove him a moron with a megaphone.
Unfortunately, a great deal of the two hours and seven minutes the film runs does more to entertain and less to inform.
In addition, Moore chalks up the stock market crash to a government conspiracy run by the banks that traces back to President Ronald Reagan, yet he mentions nothing of the housing bubble burst, or Americans who thought it was a good idea to continue spending money they did not have, choosing to bash capitalism as an evil institution.
Yes, evil.
He gets two priests and a bishop to say it themselves. Again, it makes for great entertainment, but just how factual is it?
One point Moore brings up that is worth mentioning are “dead peasant” policies, a shorthand term for life insurance policies that a company takes out on its rank-and-file employees, often without the employee knowing. This means when the employee dies, the company receives the life insurance while the family is left with funeral costs and sometimes the loss of a family provider.
The phrase “dead peasant insurance” is not a new one, and already has been
challenged in the courts, but no significant progress has been made thus far. It is an indicator that Moore is not completely askew in his blame of banks and Capitol Hill. But a guy who goes around wrapping caution tape on Wall Street’s biggest banks will hold your interest.
No matter how you place Moore on the political chart, he is always careful to have everything explained in layman’s terms, demanding straight answers with no jargon used in the business. The film was informative and very entertaining, though as Moore usually goes, a little unrealistic.
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