Michael
Moore exposes the capitalism racket
MICHAEL MOORE spoke about his new film,
'Capitalism: A Love Story', after it opened in the U.S. in September.
HAVING
spent the last year-and-a-half quietly putting together this movie
for you, it is heartening, to say the least, to read the early
reviews where Time magazine called it "Moore's magnum opus", the
Los Angeles Times has declared it my "most controversial film
yet", and Variety has said that Capitalism: A Love Story is "one
of Moore's best films". Wow. Honestly, I didn't know what to expect,
considering this film is an all-out assault against the racket
that polite people like to call "Wall Street".
My crew and I had one thought in mind while we were filming Capitalism:
What if the powers-that-be refuse to give us funding for the next
movie after they see what we've put in this one? And if that was
the case, knowing that this documentary might be our last one
for a while, what would we want to make sure we put in this film?
That's a heavy thought, I know, but we did, indeed, set about
making this movie and giving it everything we got, with an attitude
that said loud and clear: "Take no prisoners!"
The film is now complete and we left our world premiere at the
Venice Film Festival with two of its prizes. Capitalism: A Love
Story won the Leoncino d'Oro award, given to one film each year
by a jury of young adults in Venice (we were the top film among
the young people at the festival). We were also awarded the Open
Prize, given to the film that best honours the art of cinema (a
group of Italian artists at the Venice Biennale hand out this
cherished prize).Then,
at the North American premiere in Canada, the film was met with
wide critical acclaim and thunderous applause at the screenings
(no, it wasn't just the sound of Canadians trying to keep their
hands warm).
But it wasn't until the annual convention of the AFL-CIO in downtown
Pittsburgh, PA, that a packed house of rank-and-file union members
including plumbers, nurses, steelworkers and 73 other trades -
watched the U.S. premiere of our film and the roof practically
came off the place as the credits rolled. I've never witnessed,
in my 20 years as a film-maker, such a response to one of my movies.
I'm sure the theatre management must have been thinking a riot
was going to break out.
After years of being mistreated by this country, the working-class
crowd in Pittsburgh was ready to rumble after watching two hours
of cinema that laid it all out about how corporate America gets
away with murder. I set out to show you things the nightly news
doesn't dare show you. There will be some very wealthy men who
will not be happy about this film's release. So be it. It's a
free country, but more importantly, it's our country. It doesn't
belong to the richest one percent who now - are you ready for
this - have more financial wealth than the entire bottom 95% of
the country combined!
Contact Moore at MMFlint@aol.com or MichaelMoore.com
