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Roger & Me

Roger & Me

List Price: $19.98
Your Price: $15.98
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Car makers ruin towns?
Review: A nice, funny way of approaching a truth that isn't very funny at all, namely the raping of Americans by companies like GM, who have now exported their jobs to other countries where laws against "rape" haven't been enacted yet . . .

A basic question to those who might happen to read this review - our country was founded on the myth of one person, one vote. Does the admixture of boatloads of cash into the political process make our republic a plutocracy? Is freedom, in the political sense, illusory as long as money is allowed to buy votes, congress, and whole administrations? When the very "enemy" who directed aircraft into buildings are in business with the leader of the country? Where the vice-President's company breaks the law in dealing with the verbotten Iraqi govenment before he was elected, and yet still gets elected?

Finally, notice how towns in which the big three car makers set up shop, are dying? Ford Heights, in Chicagoland, is a nice example . . . one of the poorest cities in the land of freedom, named after the old anti-Semite himself . . .

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Didn¿t we see this plot in Star Wars?
Review: I was born and raised in Flint, Michigan and after watching Michael Moore's movie "Roger and Me." I have came to the conclusion that;
We must all be like Michael Moore and blame GM management for all of Flint's poverty and unemployment; it wasn't the greed of the unions. It was the devil that ruined Flint; Old white men dressed in huge suits playing the role of the evil alliance while Michael Moore plays a fat sloppily dressed Luke Skywalker cutting down the alliance with his camera - light saber. Hollywood stories are entertaining but the reality is that the Auto Unions got so corrupt toward the end that GM Management could not afford to work with them. They controlled factory jobs to the point that you had to be accepted like a mafia Goodfellow to get an auto assembly line position. If you had a family member working in the factory you where guarantee a job, all other need not apply. The birth right would have granted you a membership to live the auto work force lifestyle in Flint; the uneducated shop rat making 35-65 dollars an hour screwing bolts into defective cars. Having two General Motors cars in your driveway at home and a weekend cottage up north on an over populated lake. You had to be connected with the "Union Family" for such a life. The union's main job was to keep the auto assembly line jobs running like they did in their hay day of the 70's, where a line worker could play cards all day on the factory line and take breaks at the local bar across the street during work hours to pound down a 40oz beer and/or enjoy a lap dance from a local stripper. It got to the point that they built fencing around the auto factories with razor wire not to keep robbers out of the factories but to keep the workers out of the bars during working hours.
Yes the "Great Flint Sit-Down Strike" in 1939 did improve the inhumanin conditions of the auto factory worker only to get abused by the half wited off-spring of the strikers. Flint should not have blowned it's amusment park "Autoworld" just because the local poticians where imbarrassed by it, it should stand proud symbolizing the ignorance of the generation that created it.
The movie taught me that we all need to be hip like Michael Moore and point our fingers of blame at GM management for all of Flint problems. He made a Hollywood style movie out of it so it must be true. He was speaking up for the unemployed autoworker of Flint. The only thing is that Michael Moore's life story also ends like Star Wars. Michael Moore's father is General Motors teaching Michael how to exploit the Flint Autoworker and run off with the profits. GM went to Mexico to find cheap labor while Roger ran off to New York with the profits of the exploitation of Flint's poverty.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Did we see this plot in Star Wars already?
Review: I was born and raised in Flint, Michigan and after watching Roger Moore's movie "Roger and Me." I have came to the conclusion that;
We must all be like Michael Moore and blame GM management for all of Flint's poverty and unemployment, It wasn't the greed of the of the unions. It was the devil that ruined Flint; Old white men dressed in huge suits playing the role of the evil alliance while Roger Moore plays a fat sloppily dressed Luke Skywalker cutting down the alliance with his movie camera - light saber. The Auto Unions in Flint got so corrupt to the point you had to be accepted like a mafia Goodfellow to get an auto assembly line position. To become a member and live the highlife work force in Flint during the 80's - 90's; the uneducated shop rat making 35-65 dollars an hour screwing bolts into defective cars. You had to be connected with the "Union Family" for such a life. The union's main job was to keep the auto assembly line jobs running like they did in their hay day of the 70's, where a line worker could play cards all day on the factory line and take breaks at the local bar across the street during work hours to pound down a 40oz beer and/or enjoy a lap dance from a local stripper. They built fencing around the auto factories with razor wire not to keep robbers out of the factories but to keep the workers out of the bars during working hours.
Yes the "Great Flint Sit-Down Strike" in 1939 did improve the inhumanin conditions of the auto factory worker only to get abused by the half wited off-spring of the strikers. Flint should not have blowned up Autoworld just because the local poticians where imbarrassed by it, it should stand proud symbolizing the ignorance of the generation that created it.
We all need to be hip like Michael Moore and point our fingers of blame in the wrong direction and run off to New York with the money from the exploitation of Flint's poverty.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: What? Pat Boone isn't God??
Review: I had to start with a grabber. Sorry. Moore starts this masterpiece with his childhood supposition that three people worked for GM, Pat Boone (whose career included hyping Chevrolet who provided him with a Corvette and a station wagon for his ever-growing family), a second person (not so relevant that I would remember him now) and Moore's dad.

It's the third time I've seen this tape. I always liked it, but now, after I've been terminated from a terribly run corporation
for essentially disloyalty ("A bad mix between corporate and you."), it struck a more familiar chord.

Moore is a real Flint personality, though he said in the film that he felt he'd get out, like Grand Funk Railroad, Bob Eubanks and a few other choice Flint-born personalities. He left for California where he found that everyone has a job yet no one works. He was "terminated" from his job there as quickly as he could load his U-Haul and head back to Flint. But things had changed there.

Michael reflects on the history of GM there. In 1937, his uncle was part of the 44 day strike from which the UAW was born. But today (i.e., the making of the film), while the company is making record profits, factories are closing, to send the jobs South of the Border where workers make 70 cents an hour, to leave about 30,000 in Flint without work.

Throughout the film, Michael was attempting to make contact with Roger Smith, the chairman of GM which is, needless to say the largest employer of the area. He and his crew went to the most elaborate suburbs (with enormous homes) of Flint where there were quite a few "Smiths." They went to the country clubs and the society events, where the "more fortunate" in the area talked about how warm and cuddly the area is, and if the GM workers would just try, they could find another job. That attitude confirms my appraisal of "conservatism, that "I made it and if you didn't, there's something wrong with you and that's not my responsibility." Ironic that such an attitude nearly always comes from people who already have a great deal of money.

The "witnesses" on whom Michael calls are amusing. I mean, did you know that, before she was a spokesperson for oranges, Anita Bryant was a great advertiser for GM? She rambles on too about how the people of Flint are so nice, they'll make it if they just try. And Bob Eubanks. Some friends were part of the audience of The Newlywed Game years ago and talked how crass Eubanks, a Flint native, was. He confirmed that in his role in this film. Then there's Pat Boone.

After the entire community was failing, Flint built, at taxpayers' expense, a large hotel. Then, at even greater expense, they built the world's largest indoor theme park dedicated to the automobile. Inside a year both of them were closed.

Back on the planet earth, people who had been GM employees were getting hired, then fired, from a Taco Bell, as prison guards (a growing profession, what with increased unemployment and destitution--therefore crime--in Flint. In all of these positions, they were making a fraction of what they made at GM. GM's lead PR man (laid off before the film was released) was praising the opportunities for people in Flint to make the locally produced lint-picker. This was something that Moore found, shall I say, challenging. Then there was the young woman who was trying to make a go of it by selling rabbits for food and pets, while she also raised Dobermans (Dobermen??) until the health department closed her down. There were the poor souls who went to "give" plasma a few times a week for a few bucks. And then there were the countless who were being evicted from their residences.

While there is a witty element to the film, it's not a comedy--nor is it intended to be. Smith's inaccessbility was the recurring theme of the whole film. Toward the end, Smith is giving his Christmas speech, while Michael showed people being evicted on Christmas Eve. Moore finally had access to Smith by then and all Smith could say was that "GM didn't evict them." Oh, and that's not long after Smith had given himself a $2 million raise.

If nothing else, one needs to challenge the power of corporations in these days of globalization. Of course, we can challenge the media too who aren't in the least bit honest about these dismal facts. In the meantime, we need to thank Michael Moore for his series of documentaries, beginning with this one, who challenges the "conventional wisdom" which is leading to disaster of which the majority is not yet aware.

Oh, I think the last items in the credits speak millions: that "This film cannot be shown in Flint, Michigan....All the movie theatres have closed.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: I bet Roger Smith uses this dvd as a coaster
Review: If he's still alive that is. Michael Moore did a great expose here. I was not unfamiliar with corporate greed before watching this film but I was a little shocked at GM's level of nonchalance displayed here.

There were a lot of causes for the layoffs that destroyed the city's economy; GM consumers, the global economy, GM shareholders, the list goes on. But what was really lamentable was GM's ready disassociation with Flint. As if the town that was part and parcel in creating one of the world's wealthiest companies was something they could just dispose of like a worn out part of one of their cars.

Any and all investments GM made in Flint were shallow and solely for the purpose of PR. If nothing else they proved to be humorous. But absolutely meritless.

What is left of Flint, MI today, and if what is left is salvageable, I can't tell you. It doesn't look like this film will wind up being Flint's eulogy but it'll be a long time before it returns to the prosperity it once enjoyed. Great indictment or Roger Smith and those like him.......even if he doesn't care.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: junk
Review: MOORE IS A LUNATIC...MAKES MONEY OFF THE DOWN TRODDEN. THINKS HIS LIBERAL VIEWS ARE IMPORTANT...DID I MENTION HE IS A LUNATIC?

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Just the necessities, but a worthy DVD
Review: Classic documentary. Much more subtle, tactful, and honest than the brilliant Bowling for Columbine.

Moore's commentary is focused and (surprisingly) non-combative, discussing the making of the film and his personal connection to Flint.

In regards to the full-screen presentation: The movie was shot entirely on 16mm, with the apect ratio of 4 x 3 (standard television size); it was then cropped and matted for its 35mm theatrical print. The DVD presents the film in its original 16mm format, so while it *is* modified from its theatrical version, you are by no means getting shorted.

Enjoy.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wach it
Review: Moore is one of the most thoughtful film makers of our time. Does that sound generic enough? This is a great documentary with all the elements of a great drama, from the idiotic spokesman for GM, to the clueless security guards for GM, to the unfurtunate woman with kids evicted for being one month late on rent. Moore is not an outsider there to make trouble and gain ratings. He was born and raised in a town for which he has a lot of sympathy. I think that this gives him the credibility to make a film like this and not look like a jackass.
Thanks for reading

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: warning:PAN & SCAN ONLY
Review: This movie is wonderful, that is not why I'm writing this. But I had no idea that they released this in pan and scan, and not the original widescreen. Why? Why would anyone want this version in this format?!?!?

I hate to be one of those people, but several times titles and captions are cut off, and for me, this really distracts from a film I have been waiting to come to DVD for years.

the film is again fantastic. I am just very disapointed in this release. Thought I would warn likeminded purchasers.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Truly Remarkable
Review: A scary sense of truth about American and are serious gun problem. A art form is brought out in Michael Moore's classic. I love the comedy and the hate, it creates a feeling of depression and fire. 5 stars all the way. Scarier than any other movie this year, by far. Go see it!!!


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