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.