Michael Moore's 'Capitalism' Flick Rips into Crimes of Wall Street

[marmar]

via AlterNet:



Michael Moore's 'Capitalism' Flick Rips into Crimes of Wall Street

By Xan Brooks, The Guardian. Posted September 9, 2009.

Moore's latest documentary drew tumultuous applause at the Venice film festival, suggesting that the veteran tub-thumper has lost none of his power to whip up a response.




The bankrobbers caught on camera at the start of Capitalism: A Love Story are a forlorn and feeble bunch. We see a bedraggled old man in a Hawaiian shirt, and what looks to be a 12-year-old boy wearing a balaclava. For all their flailing efforts, they've got nothing on the real crooks: the banking CEOs who recently absconded with $700bn of public money, no strings attached. That's what's known as a clean getaway.

Michael Moore's latest documentary drew tumultuous applause at the Venice film festival, suggesting that the veteran tub-thumper has lost none of his power to whip up a response. If the film finally lacks the clean, hard punch provided by the record-breaking Fahrenheit 9/11, that can only be because the crime scene is so vast and the culprits so numerous.

Undeterred, Moore jabs his finger at everyone from Reagan to Bush Jr, Hank Paulson to Alan Greenspan. He drags the viewer through a thicket of insurance scams, sub-prime bubbles and derivative trading so wilfully obfuscatory that even the experts can't explain how it works.

The big villain, of course, is capitalism itself, which the film paints as a wily old philanderer intent on lining the pockets of the few at the expense of the many. America, enthuses a leaked Citibank report, is now a modern-day "plutonomy" where the top 1% of the population control 95% of the wealth. Does Barack Obama's election spell an end to all this? The director has his doubts, pointing out that Goldman Sachs – depicted here as the principal agent of wickedness – was the largest private contributor to the Obama campaign. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/movies/142496/michael_moore%27s_%27capitalism%27_flick_rips_into_crimes_of_wall_street/

[Soylent Brice]

1. K&R

[jeremyfive]

2. Can't Wait to See

It will be interesting to see the fall-out from this one.

Last time out with "Sicko", I lost all respect for Sanjay Gupta who attacked Moore will false "facts" and was later compelled to apologize for the blunder.

I can no longer watch Sanjay Gupta.

It is obvious that Moore is a patriot who loves his country. His detractors are looking for ways to distract the public from the obvious state of affairs that Moore presents.

Can't wait to see this one. If we as a nation keep making the same mistakes, we will keep getting the same results.