The Big One

Rating:
Summary: Response to 3/8/99 review calling The Big One "a disaster"
Review: America needs more movies like the Big One. We've have been lulled into complacency by corporate, political, and media propaganda. This isn't conspiracy, it's reality! Michael Moore simply and effectively demonstrates the numerous ways in which workers are screwed daily by the interests of corporate capital. One must remember that to effect a game, one must be a part of it - Michael Moore does work within the system, but he at least attempts to do good for the majority of working people. As far as the interviewees being more "clever" and "genuine" than Michael Moore - asking him to leave and refusing to answer questions (with the exception of Nike's CEO) is not appealing or genuine. If politcal cliches and avoidance is clever and appealing to you, then I imagine the status quo, oppresion, and greed are too. This film charmingly and humorously addresses the question of how far the majority of citizens will let the corporate community go. What is enough profit, and at what expense? These are important questions people need to consider. Vote, become politically active, educate yourself! Don't just fall in line. Question why things are done, for whom, and why. These are the realms this movie enters into and tries to expose for thought and debate. To simply label this conspiratorial or Marxian is a classic right-wing counterpunch based on half-truths, ignorance, and propaganda. Social obligation is at the heart of the message, and it is what is missing most in today's politics and policies.

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Summary: michael moore for president?
Review: i thoroughly enjoyed this documentary. i believe it is my first, so i didn't know what to expect going into it. michael moore, hands down, is a genius. not only in the literally sense, which quite honestly, he is, but also in his direction and style of directing to keep an audience. i was absolutely enthralled. i loved how he so easily mixed in humor with the serious subject of corporate downsizing. this documentary could have bored me to death, with in depth interviews that had no depth. enter michael moore, who adds in his humor, his satirical voice, as a guiding light in his effort to find out the truths to the reason why major companies, posting hefty profits, decide to lay off workers or ship production off to some foreign country. moore has a gift. he has the gift to make extremely hilarious documentaries, that in turn, help to shed some light on important issues. the way he can pose questions to bigwigs of large corportations that leave them completely speechless, you can't script that. you cant script that at all. he knows the questions that will leave bigwigs stunned and is not afraid to pound away at asking them. so thank you to moore, for creating a documentary that is both entertaining and informational. i felt i learned more from "the big one" than i have learned in a few weeks worth of school.

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Summary: Moore targets hypocrisy again, WAY before Bush and "F 9/11"
Review: Like Moore's earlier film "Roger and Me", "The Big One" (Moore's tongue-in-cheek term for the large, all-encompassing corporate bohemoth that this country may eventually become) takes a disturbing yet often comical look at how Big Business is running roughshod over whatever is left of Corporate Responsibility in this country.

This film is alternatingly funny and deeply depressing. Mainly, however, you want to shake Moore's hand for having the chutzpah to shove a microphone and camera in Corporate America's faces and demand they explain their "outsourcing" actions directly to the faithful and long-term employees (generations of them, in some cases) who were unceremoniously dumped in favor of cheaper overseas or over-the-border labor.

These large corporations are selling America off piece by piece, in a way. They are giddily happy to lay off American workers by the thousands to make a few extra bucks, line their pockets a bit more, or hasten their Golden Parachute paydays.

Sure, a primary function of a business is to make money. But when doing so to such excess involves actions that could undermine America's already fragile socio-economic fabric on a relatively grand scale, then it becomes an issue of Conscience. Moore, like many of us, realizes this. Moore rushes up to the Corporate Big Dogs (or at least the highest-ranking ones he can find or the nearest media outlet he can find) and asks the questions we wish we could ask -- he expresses the common-man outrage we wish we could express. We all have motive, but Moore has motive AND opportunity.

Few of his theatrics will actually result in actual change, but perhaps they serve a higher purpose: to get us to wake up and realize that all is not well in America, that Big Business is making DAMN sure that the economic chasms between the haves and the have-nots will continue to expand, and that YOUR JOB IS NEVER, EVER GOING TO BE SAFE. The days of working for the same company from college 'til the day you retire are all but over. Your job can be taken away from you AT ANY TIME as soon as the powers-that-be at XYZ Corporation figure out that it can be economically profitable to throw your entire town out of work.

And the attendant problems that go with massive layoffs: increases in crime, suicides, etc.... Well, sorry! You should have gone to Harvard Business School, got an MBA or something, and snagged one of those rare, hard-to-get jobs where you just show up, meet with your Accounting, Finance, and Legal Departments, and start divvying up the pie you are about to share.

Enron, Worldcom, Pillsbury, Nike...... they aren't unique in their business practices. They are just the higher-profile ones we have all heard about. This kind of "morally and socially questionable" business practice happens everywhere.

Your company may be next. How much do you have in savings right now? You'd better check. And be afraid. Be very afraid.

Rating:
Summary: Does Moliere know about this guy?
Review: Michael Moore should be in the presidential cabinet. I don't care as what. Invent a position for him. First of all, he's funnier than...well, than a lot of people. Moore has a way of finding fault with some accepted part of the status quo and pointing it out in a way that one wonders why they didn't realize that it was ridiculous a long time ago. "The Big One" is hilarious, but it's a pointedly persuasive movie, too. An example: Moore recently (this is as of May 2000) became the campaign strategist for several Ficus plants running for office against incumbent and unopposed candidates. Moore says that the plants will do a far better job than the candidates who have been entering congress by default, and it doesn't need all the money that the candidates get, anyway. It does need, though, a little fertilizer, which according to Moore, it "should find plenty of in Washington." And of particular note is the segment on the video of Steve Forbes...just watch for it. Buy this movie!

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Summary: The truth about the suits that run your life
Review: This excellent work details and exemplifies the statement by Kurt Vonnegut that, "The average American has stuffed his conscience down a manhole and wielded the lid shut." Michael Moore has shown that if he be a "Suit" as well, he's probably hired an assasin to shoot it if it ever miraculously emerges.

This is an excellent flic, and well worth watching. The next time the heartless corporate jerks who own your apartment building raise the rent another 25%, you'll have a better insight into the kind of people they really are; weak, cowardly and greedy. Michael reveals these hiding-behind-the-media-flak types for what they truly are. If you think all is well in America, this will profoundly upset your thinking, and will make you want to think about taking America back from the bankers and insurance companies who currently own it, and _you_. Mike shows that patriotism can also mean loving your own country enough to save it from the money-mad.

A very worthy effort!

Rating:
Summary: A humorous look at corporate greed
Review: This film follows Michael Moore's book tour for "Downsize This: Random Threats from an Unarmed American." Michael Moore shows thousands of Americans that have been downsized (unemployed) because big corporations shut down their factories in America and make new factories in foreign countries and pay foreign people a criminally low wage like eighty cents a day. He confronts the big wigs and shows his anti-corporate views humorously. If you agree with Moore's political views (liberal) and are sick of big corporations putting people out of work, you will love this movie. Conservative/Republican people probably won't enjoy this movie.

Rating:
Summary: This Time Moore Is Less
Review: While frequently funny and quite insightful, Michael Moore's follow-up to "Roger and Me" (1989) isn't quite up to the level of its predecessor. His take on corporate America's ruthless tendency to slash U.S. jobs in favor of low-cost labor overseas and his considerable sympathy for American workers is highly commendable - even laudatory in the age of "Armageddon". But, too often, Moore makes himself the subject of the docmentary and the film constantly pushes us to see him as the champion of the underdog. His confrontations with security personnel and junior hirelings at various corporate headquarters is becoming an old schtick by now - he acts perplexed every time he's ejected from some sleek office building although he knows darn well that he's not going anywhere: these scenes are inserted simply for a cheap shot at the impersonality of the conglomerates.

For all that, though, Moore has developed an appealingly rambanctious style of cienmatic populist muckracking using pranks, jokes, and anything else to "pull the p..s" out of his adversaries. He's effective when interviewing the very people squeezed out by the vicious "downsizing" of the 1980's and 1990's and his frank talk with Nike CEO, Phil Knight, eerily shows that even corporate ruthlessness can be embodied in an affable human personality. And he gets a lot of mileage with his stand-up routine against on-the-take politicans and self-justifying white-collar bosses. But he misses as many opportunities as he grabs - spending more screen time strumming with the guitarist from Cheap Trick than talking with Studs Terkel, who could have added a valuable historical perspective to the contemporary situation, and spending time playing shenanigans on his press agents when we'd really like to learn more about the working people whose cause he's defending. ("Roger and Me", which followed the lives of several people thrown out of work, provided a stronger human foundation for Moore to lob off his zingers). "The Big One" is like "Roger and Me"-lite. Moore give us more of his trademark stunts and humor and compassion but doesn't add anything that we haven't seen before. Moore's heart is in the right place and, based on the evidence presented here, he looks to be on the verge of becoming the first populist folk hero in some time. "The Big One", however, shows up the danger of taking your self-appointed role too seriously. The title may stand for America but I'm inclined to think Moore sees it as a self-tribute.