Details from Roger & Me

Here's the story:
General Motors planned to close eleven old factories in the U.S. and open eleven new ones in Mexico where they would pay their employees $0.07 an hour. As the lay-offs began, Michael Moore set out to convince Roger Smith, GM's chairman, to spend a day with him in Flint, MI, a town whose main job source was GM, and meet the people who were losing their jobs. As Mike did this, his camera was rolling, filming his first documentary, Roger & Me.

Flint, Michigan was not only Michael Moore's birthplace, but General Motors' as well, and they were closing their old factories, putting 30,000 people out of work. Since the primary employer in Flint was GM, the downsizing hit Flint hard. Many of its residents were evicted, many of them moved, and it's crime rate became the highest in the nation. In Roger & Me, Mike listen's to the people of Flint (and others) speak about the situation.

One of the most shocking interviews was with Tom Kay, the corporate fat cat who Mike spoke with. He said (this is a loose quote), "If you're proposing, which, obviously you are, that the corporation owes the worker premium to the grade security, I don't think that can be accomplished in the free enterprise system." He also speaks to a woman who was making a living by raising and selling rabbits and training doberman pinchers, along with receiving a small monthly social security check. In this one graphic scene, you watch her kill and skin one of her rabbits as she gives her view of why Flint had become the way it had.

At the end of the film, Mike finally gets to invite Roger Smith to come to Flint. Smith says, "I've been to Flint, I feel sorry for those people, I don't know anything about it...I cannot come to Flint, I'm sorry."

Roger & Me is a must-see film for everyone. Rent it today. If don't rent movies, or "don't want to give Michael Moore any money", find someone who owns it and borrow it. Do the same with Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11.

If you would really like to be able to reasonably criticize Mike's work, you MUST SEE IT first.

Roger & Me

I'm going to break away from my New Progressive Party posts for a second here.

I finally got around to renting Roger & Me, Michael Moore's first film, Sunday night. I watched it, and was not suprised. Once again I was moved by what Mike had found and what he saw.

This film is probably more like Fahrenheit 911 than Bowling For Columbine. In the way that F911 convinces the audience to despise Bush, Roger & Me convinces the audience to dispise corporate America, particularly Roger Smith, chairman of General Motors.

Mike mostly speaks to the people of Flint, Michigan who worked for GM and were laid off when Roger Smith closed many of his American factories and built more in Mexico so he could make a larger profit. One woman that he met was reduced to raising rabbits and selling their meat and selling some as pets. He also follows the local sherrif as he evicts many of the residents.

Throughout the film Mike tries to find Roger so he can speak to him. He goes to the headquarters in Detroit, goes to a few country clubs, even poses as a stockholder and goes to one of their stockholder question/answer meetings and almost gets to ask him one question before they ended the meeting abruptly. He finally gets to speak to him at the GM Christmas Party where he manages to ask a few short questions from a quite annoyed Roger Smith, who is trying to converse with the crowd of party-goers and the local news press.

Mike asks him if he knew about the horrible situation in Flint, Michigan. Keep in mind I've only watched it once so far and I can't really remember what Roger says to him.

IN FACT. COME BACK LATER AND I'LL POST QUOTES FROM ROGER & ME.