Roger and Me (Documentary)

I finally watched Michael Moore’s first documentary, Roger and Me. What happened to that guy? It is a good documentary. Why can’t he make them like that anymore? The Michael Moore formula is certainly there. (The little guy is being put down by the man. Michael Moore is willing to heroically confront the man. The man is to cowardly to confront Michael Moore. Will the man ever speak to the issues?) The reason I think this movie is so much better than anything he’s ever done after, is that is it obviously a work of passion. He was watching his hometown be destroyed by outsourcing, while billionaires got richer. That will tend to make you passionate. Also, there was a clear protagonist (the Flint autoworker), and a clear villain (General Motors CEO Roger Smith). Unlike his other movies, where the villain is a nebulous issue like FEAR, or vast conspiring global network of politicians, or the entire infrastructure of medicine, in Roger and Me the villain is one clear person who decided to outsource thousands of jobs to make more money for GM shareholders. In other words, he was doing his job.

I read The World is Flat, and I’ve drank the globalisation kool aid. But it doesn’t make the story of Flint any less heartbreaking, and it doesn’t make the ethics of big business seem any less troublesome for the average american. It’s a good documentary and I can see why it kickstarted Moore’s embarrassing career.

4 out 5 Annoying Fat Guys in the Faces of Old White Guys in Expensive Suites.