10. Capitalism: A Love Story - Michael Moore
You might already have inferred that Moore will have more than one entry in this list and youre right; he will. But lets start with this stirring documentary from the filmmaker provocateur concerning the evils of capitalism and its inherent quest to kill off the little guy We know that Moore excels in an agitprop, populist style of documentary film and we have learnt to brace ourselves for the prospect that his films do not contain facts. Still, Capitalism; A Love Story took the Moore fury to new heights of delusion and falsehood. For Moore somehow achieves the impossible and makes us feel a bit sorry for the bankers he accuses. Moores attack on Wall Street starts off in grand visual style. It takes the form of a hi-jacking where he tries to enter Goldman Sachs via an armoured bank truck, redolent of a bank heist, and ordering $10 billion dollars that the bank stole from average Joe. Although entertaining, Moore is rather vague about the underlying facts behind this theft. In fact, Moores targeting of Goldman Sachs is doubly puzzling since they were actually one of the first-movers in the U.S banking system to repay their borrowings. Moores later claim that only 10% (of this borrowing) has ever been repaid is just plain wrong. And Capitalism; A Love story is a plain wrong pretension of a documentary when it isnt satisfied with being a gross simplification of assorted facts. Take Moores handling of the victims of the subprime mortgages. Although the images of families having their homes repossessed is moving, these personal stories are unfairly linked to a distorted grand narrative Moore inexpertly spins. Moores suggests the bankers tricked people into buying these homes (although certain underhand tactics were undeniably used) and that the poor were targeted since bankers knew they would find it the hardest to pay back the loans. Moore then suggests that even the bankers were fooled by capitalism innate self- trickery and that the U.S had caught itself up in some kind of tornado of a Ponzi-scheme. Its so loose on its economics that oftentimes the film becomes a mere rant. What Moore really does with Capitalism; A Love Story is attack the central tenets of capitalism through the example of the financial crisis-particularly subprime loans. But does he think were totally thick? Loans are loans are loans- always have been, always will be. They always come with an inherent sense of in-built collateral (i.e. a house is collateral for a mortgage loan) or theyd just be free money. Moore should have stuck with tackling some of the excesses of Capitalism rather than trying and failing to put the entire economic process on trial. Moore bizarrely concludes that capitalism should be replaced by democracy which is a bit like saying our reliance on cheese should be replaced by leaving the milk out of the fridge. How, exactly, could a political system based on capitalism ever replace its most suitable economic model? Capitalism and democracy go hand in hand. Moore, it seems, has finally lost his marbles. What might have been a brazenfaced, personalised documentary about the fallout from the U.S economic crisis became instead an under-researched war-cry based on half-truths and exaggerations.