Load of rubbish!!

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

This film has aged horribly and phenomenally. In order to expose the total inhumane and non-empathetic attitude of The boss of General Motors, Roger XXX, in 1988, when GM closed eleven factories in the USA, including the one in Flint, Michigan, and then opened eleven factories in Mexico and other foreign countries where labor was cheaper than in the USA, Michael Moore in this film appears today as defending a position that is bringing a whole vision of the world to ruin and chaos.The working class in those days, up to the 1990s and at times even beyond, be it blue collar or white collar, had been educated if not tamed or broken-in and enslaved into the ideology that you had to get a job at 18 or 20 or even 22 and 24, and it was THE ONLY job you'll have all lifelong and you will retire and even die in it. They then stopped learning, stopped improving, stopped being dynamic and athletic. They started getting fat, enjoying hours in front of TV and the satisfying though humdrum routine of a life that was a descent into hell. Then you can imagine the drama if they lost their jobs. It is true the whole system was based on that planting these human plants in permanent places since human beings are perennials as is well known. And you can imagine what this ideology, this life style could produce as for distortion and inhumanity, like sexism and genderism, racism, nationalism, and so many other -isms including rebellion- ism, provocation-ism, jingo-ism (and dingo-ism), antisemitism, anti- intellectualism, etc.-ism. These human beings became chattel, human possessions of the business that exploited them, and pumped them dry of all resources. Came the big recession of 2008-2009 and it luckily produced at first Obama-ism or "Yes-You-Can-ism" and after eight years of not coming out of the hole by going back to the good old days when you were born in any no-matter-which-industry to retire and die in it they moved to Trump-ism and Political-Hollywood-ism. And a millionaire braggart and his band of circus-and-menagerie millionaires were able to capture their attention with fake promises, like reopening the coal mines, which he could do but not with human miners, rather robotized coal-diggers, or reopen the car factories, but not with human blue collar workers like in Mexico where they are cheap but with robotized blue collar workers who are even cheaper than workers in Mexico. What the Chinese are doing because they have to cope with the one child per family policy and replace three or four out-going low qualified workers by one highly qualified worker, that is to say shifting to highly automated and robotized, in one word or acronym AI-ed or should I say AI-zed, industry, administration, commerce etc., just as they shifted from a cash economy to the most virtualized monetary exchanges imaginable on earth, Trump and his acolytes are going to do it in order to even increase some more their profit margins. The millionaire in the White House, and all his millionaire pals, know that but they think that in four years the naïve blind monkeys who elected them will have forgotten the promises and hopefully there will be no inflation, for what it may matter, and hopefully the people will be so drunk with fury that they will start breaking everything and they will be dealt with the National Guard and real bullets. Because, and here Michael Moore shows it so well, cynicism is the first and main characteristic of the "ruling class," capitalistic, elected or not, appointed or just social climbing. Good morning the post-hang-over era and good afternoon the pre- delirium-tremens curse. We only have the leaders we deserve and I must say that the ideology birth-life-death-in-one-job only deserves leaders who are ruling over our toilet habits. And they will certainly not invent like in Brussels the common toilet, serve everyone and all people indifferently. Look at North Carolina.Dr. Jacques COULARDEAU

Michael Moore recounts his prosperous working middle class life as a child in GM company town of Flint, Michigan. Everybody worked for GM except for Michael. He leaves his small paper he created to go to San Francisco. It doesn't go well and he returns to Flint. In 1985, GM CEO Roger Smith closes factories in Flint. Michael goes on a quest to get an interview with Roger Smith.The criticism has centered on Michael Moore's manipulation of events in the movie. It's a valid argument if this is being measured against traditional documentaries. As a journalistic documentary, this has many flaws and possibly fatal flaws. As a reality-TV persuasion, this is a real ground breaker. While not every line is correct, the overall sentiment hits on a greater truth. Michael may portray himself as the underdog but he's a real giant.

Roger & Me (1989) *** (out of 4) Michael Moore broke onto the scene with this satirical look at Flint, Michigan, the director's hometown, which pretty much crumbled to the ground after General Motors laid off 30,000 workers and shut down the factories. Moore, with his camera crew, travels to various locations to meet the people effected by this but he also tries to track down GM chairman Roger Smith so that he come back to Flint and see what impact his decision had on the town. When viewing ROGER & ME today it's easy to spot all the familiar Michael Moore touches but when this was first released people just saw this as a new sort of documentary. When viewed today the freshness might not be on high alert but for the most part I think it remains fun just seeing Moore work his magic. It's even fun to look at this film today and compare the tricks of Moore to the type he'd be pulling in his most current films. I think the one thing working so well for this movie is that Moore is able to get his message across loud and clear. One such example is going around with the local Sheriff to kick people out of their homes. Moore is right there are the eviction notices are handed out and we see people being forced to leave their items behind and move to only God knows where. Another thing going for the film is Moore's dark sense of humor and the way he's able to be sarcastic even in the darkest of moments. One such example is the way that he's trying to get the interview with Smith by constantly being asked to leave private clubs, events and of course the GM building. This type of thing is something we've seen Moore do throughout his career and it's fun to see where it started. With that said, there are a few problems with the film and I think some of the interviews go nowhere and really add very little to the film. I also think you have to put up with some one-sided moments throughout the picture. No one is saying the lay offs weren't horrible but nothing is ever mentioned about packages that the people might have been given. ROGER & ME remains an entertaining documentary and worth seeing even if you can't stand Moore's current behavior.

As a prototypical youngest child I have an affinity for feather-ruffling and rabble-rousing. As such, I love these types of movies hence the 8-star rating. Still, this film bothered me in a few ways; the primary one is the basic question of exactly what do corporations owe their employees? Tastes change, technology changes, and not surprisingly business tactics change. I am not sure if Moore or the employees stated this, but what exactly did they want/expect? Of course they wanted to retain their jobs but as I understand it the owners of corporations are looking for increased profits. Cutting costs are one way to do that. One way GM found to cut costs was to manufacture abroad. So, why wouldn't GM do that? Due to employee loyalty? I'm not sure a corporation can exist if employee loyalty comes before profits. I think Moore should have also gone after primary stockholders/owners as well.As I watched, I had a similar thought that I had to consider the source and remember that Moore is a business man and being controversial sells tickets. I had that same feeling watching Sicko. It's like Moore's documentaries outcomes are predefined and he will see to it that it turns out that way. I thought Moore's asking those presumably rich people(and Miss Mich) their impromptu thoughts on the situation was unfair. I would welcome more intelligent debate where both sides are given some time to prepare. Why Roger didn't talk to Moore surprised me maybe Moore liked it that way. After all, did Moore truly do all he could to get an interview? I will bet you this. If on hiring day, every employee was informed that in the future GM may adopt tactics that would result in job losses, but that if this occurred laid-off employees might receive a severance package, the vast majority would still have taken the job regardless of these known pitfalls.To me, going to work for a corporation is a buyer-beware situation. As employees we need to maximize our time there. Take your vacations, max out your 401K, take advantage of tuition assistance, get physicals, and watch the behaviors of those successful counterparts who always seem to be in the right place at the right time. Also, if corporations worry you, don't work for them, go to work for a private firm but don't get there and complain about all the benefits your buddies at Verizon (or wherever) are getting.On a side note (perhaps somewhat relevant considering all the layoffs we're experiencing), we Americans need to start living more practically. If you make $50K/year live like you make $43K. If you participate in a 401K plan remember that a 401K is not a rainy-day account, it is a retirement plan. If you do not need a 2000sqft home, don't buy one. Cars and kids don't need their own bedrooms. Smaller homes encourage us to get out of the house which is not a bad thing. While having your own bathroom is convenient, it is so for about 30 minutes/day: SHARE them.Gas prices fluctuate. If you find yourself stressing about that, buy a smaller car and drive less....it can be done. Instead of packing up the bikes and kids and driving them to a bike trail, ride your bikes to the store, bank, video store, zoo, etc.... Also, smaller cars get you from point A to point B exactly like big cars do...only cheaper. While driving smaller, efficient vehicles is not considered cool is beyond me, this means the driver is smart and may have more money to spend...on you. This is not to say that you shouldn't have a comfy car....the problem is when people pull out food-stamps then hop into a brand new Maxima or Escalade.