Review: Michael Moore's New Film

>> You don't have to do this inaudible can't tell you.

>> I'm just going up to see the chairman.

>> No sir.

>> Film maker Michael Moore's newest documentary Capitalism, A love Story premiers nationwide this weekend and the movie trailers have been everywhere.

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>> This fall the most feared film maker in America.

>> Can I talk to you sir for a second? Can you tell me what a credit default inaudible is? Can you explain a derivative for me?

>> We'll reveal what happens when Wall Street tanks.

>> Stock markets crashed.

>> Bankruptcies

>> Foreclosure.

>> A global meltdown

>> And a government bail.

>> As Moneywatch.com editors we thought we better go check out the film ourselves to see if Moore really got the story right.

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>> What do you think? Jill.

>> Well I think that Michael Moore is a great story teller. He is not a documentary film maker because of course there's only 1 side of the story. I found it to be pretty entertaining but we have left out a ton of the other side in the telling of this story.

>> Oh well it was propaganda.

>> Right.

>> It wasn't really meant to be . . .

>> exactly

>> . . . a real examination of whether capitalism was dead but there were some effecting moments. Rich

>> Yeah although I was disappointed it was not a love story. It was more of a horror story I thought actually. But I the thing that bothered me I thought he could have actually used one of us. He needed an editor. There were too many stories in this movie and you didn't really know the full story and so I wondered whether the victims who seemed blameless really were blameless. I'm sure there's lots of blame to go around.

>> Yeah I agree with Rich. I think where Michael Moore's films are really great is when he has when he interviews regular American's talking about and putting sort of the human face on a lot of these financial stories but he obscures that a lot of the times with you know over simplifications or conspiracy theories or just facile thinking that I think detracts from the overall effectiveness of his arguments.

>> Conspiracy theories.

>> Laughter They are rampant and I think the fundamental flaw in this movie is that he attacks capitalism and pokes some valid holes but he doesn't have a solution.

>> I would like to give him credit just for taking on the subject because money, personal finance, the economy is a very hard topic to make interesting visually and you don't see a lot on television about it and so I think you know it was a hard subject for him to do I don't know if he did it all that well. I think there were moments that really worked and some that didn't but I think it's good that people now are going to see him movie about this because its gonna educate people a little bit.

>> Well one problem I have is I think there's a lot of venality or there's a lot of conspiracy theories in this country propagated by the far right and the far left. You know Obama is planning to make us all socialists. On Michael Moore's part he suggests this scam that you referred to. The bank wasn't scamming to take someone's house. Greedy people were selling terrible products and taking advantage of less sophisticated people. It's happened as long as history has been around and it was terrible but the solution is not to make everybody think that there's a conspiracy. The solution is to educate people and probably to have a few regulations to make it not possible to do what that bank did.

>> Moore devotes a lot of time in the film to the housing crisis. Let's take a look at this clip.

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>> The scam to swindle people out of the homes they already owned was masterful. Here's how it worked. First tell these home owners that they own a bank and that bank is your home. So if your home is worth $250,000 that makes you a quarter millionaire. You're sitting on a gold mine. You own your own bank. The bank of you and you could use you bank to get more money. Just refinance. Everyone's doing it. Of course hidden in the dozens are hundreds of pages of fine print or tricky clauses that allow the bank to raise your interest rate to a number you didn't know about perhaps so high you wouldn't be able to repay your loan. But that's ok if you can't repay it, we'll just take your house.

>> The bank of me really? Rich.

>> Um I don't really buy that. I just yes a lot of people own homes and maybe some of them have been told that they could you know refinance and for some people it was a good idea but not everybody did it and not everybody did it badly and not every bank you know should be considered a villain for offering refinance loans.

>> Home equity loans are useful . . .

>> Exactly.

>> . . . most of the time if you don't abuse them.

>> But again we didn't see the personal responsibility part so it was the bank is trying to do this to you whereas we all know that there were plenty of people who were extracting money from their homes to do other things and that may have been to buy another piece of real estate it may have been to send your kids to school and maybe they didn't really understand the loans but it was too one sided for me. It was this: There were people who used their homes like ATMs, it wasn't everybody and those people are paying a terrible price right now and I get that but there's no point in the movie where we say here's what got them into this place.

>> Let's listen to what Moore had to say at the New York Premiere of the film.

>> This is a movie about everybody right now. What we're going through. What we're faced with. So I think, I think this is a movie for all kinds of people regardless of their political view points.

>> So what do you think? Is the film really for everybody?

>> Well it's for anybody who wants to go and get a certain sliver of a view point about how the crisis unfolded and it's a particular view point. It is not he's right in that of course that there is a left and a right and there are a few bashing on both sides but it's his particular and very narrow view. It is not it's not watching a huge MoneyWatch special on the financial crisis that takes into account everything that happens it digests it and spits it out to you in a balanced way.

>> I've been surprised at reporters for the Wall Street Journal who said they've enjoyed this film. I would think if you were a Wall Street Journal reporter or especially since 1 Wall Street Journal reporter got a little skewered in the film. Do you find it kind of uncomfortable?

>> Well I think there's a difference between enjoyable and smart or useful laughter. I think at times as Nelson said his key skill is pulling on your heart strings and he tells some good stories. They're not always told in a balanced way but they're certainly compelling.

>> And he's funny. He is a funny guy.

>> I mean the wrapping the police tape around Golden Saks, all of his interaction . . .

>> Megaphone

>> . . . security cards are great.

>> We're here to get the money back for the American people.

>> I understand sir but you can't come in here.

>> Can you just take the bag?

>> No.

>> Take it up there.

>> Absolutely not.

>> Fill it up. I got more bags; 10 billion probably won't fit in here. We want our money back.

>> Alright. Final judgment: Let's give the movie a thumbs up or a thumbs down 1 by 1. Jill you start.

>> Ok entertainment thumbs up. Real content thumbs down. I'm going for the middle.

>> I give it a thumbs up. No movie is perfect but this was fun, entertaining and I thought he did a pretty good job.

>> Entertainment value thumbs up. Accuracy of the material thumbs down, so sideways.

>> I'm a sideways guy too. It had its great moments but I think it was truly misleading in some ways and I can't give it a thumbs up for that reason.

>> Alright well as editor I have to give it a thumbs down. Accuracy counts for me and there are better ways to spend 3 hours on a weekend night.

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==== Transcribed by Automatic Sync Technologies ====