Starz / Anchor Bay | 2009 | 127 mins. | Rated R
Arguably one of the best known documentary filmmakers in the western world, Michael Moore is a man who stirs up strong emotions. People tend to love or hate him, with little room for a middle ground. The strong feelings he evokes means that he becomes the focal point of each film he makes, regardless of its subject matter, technical merit, or message.
In his latest film Capitalism: A Love Story, Moore takes dead aim at the problems with the free market system. Entertaining, disturbing, and thought provoking, the film explores what price the United States pays for its unbridled love of the capitalist system. Families are paying the price with their jobs, their homes and their savings. Moore takes us into the homes of ordinary people whose lives have been turned upside down; and he goes looking for explanations in Washington, DC and elsewhere.
Moore’s thesis is simple: “Capitalism is an evil, and you can’t regulate evil.” To prove his theory, the filmmaker takes us to a family in Peoria, Illinois getting evicted from the home that has been kept in their name for several decades. It’s one of the saddest moments in the film, and to add insult to injury, the family ends up getting thrown out of their home much earlier than they had expected. They were originally given two weeks notice, but the bank that repossessed their home had sold it to another family who were eager to get settled in their new place of residence.
One of the most troubling practices Moore exposes is are what he calls “dead peasant insurance” and “derivatives”—both of them ways that corporations can profit by employees misfortune. In the case of dead peasant insurance corporations like Wal-Mart take out life insurance policies on some employees (whose death would pay the biggest benefits) and then actually profit from an employee’s untimely death. Moore sits down with a family that experienced this–one that was in debt for hospital and burial costs-while the corporation walked away with $1.5 million. With derivatives, mathematical programs chart people who might be at risk to default on their mortgages and then corporations bet on the default, the bank gets paid whether the mortgage gets paid or not.
Throughout the film, Moore juggles heartbreaking personal stories, presentation of material he uncovered through his investigative reporting, and the use of vintage footage to illustrate how much things have changed. As with his previous documentaries, Moore ambushes those at the top of the food chain for some sort of explanation—at one point, he shows up at AIG headquarters to make a citizen’s arrest of the CEO, or when he tries to enter GM Headquarters in order to “talk” to the CEO, who’s always ignored him.
While much of Moore’s information isn’t new, he does discuss President Franklin Roosevelt’s proposal for a second Bill of Rights that never came to fruition due to his death soon after. As the director tells it, America would be a far different, more prosperous place had that bill gone through, giving all U.S. citizens rights that, instead, went to Europe and Japan following World War II. Meanwhile, our government’s greed has put us in an undesirable position with limited options. ”
“I refuse to live in a country like this,” Moore says near the end, “and I’m not leaving.” Hardly an objective film (though I doubt Moore would argue the point), it’s hard to deny that the personal stories told throughout Capitalism: A Love Story pack a punch. It’s up to the individual viewer to decide where they stand on Michael Moore’s thesis.
Capitalism: A Love Story is presented in full 1080p using the AVC MPEG-4 codec in the 1.78:1 aspect ratio. The newly shot footage shows a large amount of detail with a solid black level, accurate fleshtones and a very vibrant color palette. The archival footage looks as though it may have almost been transferred digitally and/or up-converted to Hi-Def as it looks pretty remarkable at times, namely the 1979 televised Presidential address from Jimmy Carter.
The new footage though is where Hi-Def detail shines. Capitalism: A Love Story looks great, but at the same time it shows us some very depressing images as well; such as the towns that have been hurt the most by this economic downfall, like Moore’s hometown of Flint, Michigan where the GM (General Motors) plants were his father worked are now just a pile of scrap metal, and garbage in an empty lot.
The DTS-HD Master Audio is quite impressive. The musical selection really takes full advantage of the higher resolution and spreads itself across the entire soundstage with some light bleeding in the rear speakers, pleasantly enhancing the soundfield. Dynamic range is clean and wide while low bass is adequate in providing some depth to the lossless mix. Being a documentary, vocals are of the utmost importance, and they are clear and intelligible from beginning to end.
Special features are presented in (HD) unless otherwise noted.
The special features are really 80 minutes of outtakes given segment titles.
• A Digital Copy is included on a second disc, a DVD-ROM and is ONLY compatible with Windows PC and Windows Media portable devices.
• Harvard Professor Elizabeth Warren on How Wall Street Got Away With Murder (8:20)
• Sorry, House-Flippers and Banks — You’re Toast in Flint, MI (5:32)
• Congressman Cummings Dares to Speak The Unspeakable (7:07)
• NY Times Pulitzer Prize Winner Chris Hedges on the Killing Machine Known as Capitalism (8:43)
• The Rich Don’t Go to Heaven (There’s A Special Place Reserved for Them!) (8:29)
• What If, Just If, We Had Listened to Jimmy Carter in 1979? (17:50)
• The Omnivore’s Dilemma? It’s Capitalism (6:10)
• Commie Taxi Drivers – “You Talkin’ to Me?” — In Wisconsin (5:48)
• How to Run The Place Where You Work (11:16)
• The Socialist Bank of — North Dakota? (4:43)
• The Bank Kicks Them Out, Max Kicks Them Back In (10:51)
• Teaser Trailer (1:15)
• Theatrical Trailer (2:00)
• Credits are listed here in a pop-up window where you can scroll and see all of the film’s credits listed.
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