Capitalism: A Love Story, like most of Moore's films (Farenheit 9/11 excepted) needed to be made.  And Moore brings a sensationalism to documentary filmmaking that gets his films a wide release, which in turn, gets his films a larger viewer base than most documentaries could ever dream of.  My parents, for example, saw this - and I think in their 60+ years of life, have only seen two documentaries (both of which I showed them).  That said, Moore should be commended for his ability to tap this expanded base and begin a dialogue amongst those who normally wouldn't be talking.

 

There is, of course, an irony about Michael Moore - the obese white guy (a very all-American convention) - criticising the all-American way of life...  But this may be the key to his success.  The other obese white folks who don't normally see documentary are not threatened by this guy.  He's not some thin intellectual like Obama feeding them leftist politics.  He draws constant attention to the fact that he grew up working class in an industrial city that's now collapsed.

 

As always, Moore makes an entertaining, sarcastic film.  His opening credits - which juxtapose the fall of Rome with the modern state in America - are perhaps more sarcastic even than the opening moments of Bowling for Columbine, when he opened a checking account and got a free rifle. 

 

Unfortunately, Moore's conclusions are somewhat cloudy.  He delivers up a scathing criticism of capitalism that is most convincing (and not as slanted as one might expect).  He pulls back the curtain on some of capitalism's more disgusting trappings - like "Dead Peasants" (life insurance policies taken out by companies on their employees so they can profit in the event of their death), and juxtaposes them with companies that operate by an ideal of shared ownership.  These

 

Despite the content of the film approaching ideas of shared ownership, free public health care, etc, Moore never goes so far as to suggest Marxism as an alternative.  At one point, he did go so far as to say "that sounds like that other -ism..."  But it seemed he went out of his way to avoid specific mention of Communism, for fear of being dismissed as such.  But everything he was saying - especially his notion of America's lower and middle class binding together to achieve class consciousness - are right in line with Marx's teachings.