"Capitalism: A Love Story" -- A Brigid review

[Brigid]

I haven't been around much in recent months, what with a busy work schedule and a computer at home that seems to have caught a virus (I'm using a computer at the library right now), but I finally got a chance to see Michael Moore's "Capitalism" now that that it is out on DVD and can't resist putting in my 2 cents worth.

I think it is Moore's best yet. It reminds me of "Roger and Me" made by a now more experienced and seasoned film maker. If it is his last film (God forbid), these two make perfect bookends.

Perhaps the most chilling part of the film is the sequence at the beginning in which parallels are drawn between the Roman Empire and the United States. If they can fall, what makes us think we can't? This sequence quickly segues into a heartbreaking segment about a family being evicted from their foreclosed home. And remember the folks from Republic Doors and Windows in Chicago, who occupied the building when the place suddenly closed and refused to leave without the wages, vacation pay, and sick pay promised them? They make an appearance, complete with a Catholic bishop offering Mass and Communion to the strikers. One worker said in effect, "Bad business decisions may have been made, but we didn't make them. We make doors and windows." Several clergy also appear, bluntly branding capitalism -- at least as it is practiced currently -- as a sin, completely incompatible with the Gospel. No, Jesus was not a wealthy white Republican living in a gated community somewhere.

If you already saw this movie, get the DVD anyway; as usual, the extras are must-sees. Many of the interviewees insist, anda I think that they are right, that capitalism can die of its own weight just as communism did.

At the end, Moore hints that this may be his last film. Please say it isn't so, Mike! :(