Michael Moore goes on a political road trip in 'Where to Invade Next'
I imagine Michael Moore has been in a bit of a bind since 2009, when he dropped his magnum opus, Capitalism: A Love Story, an extraordinary critique of America's political, economic, and social structure that had the former autoworker tilt at the ultimate windmill: American capitalism itself.
I imagine Michael Moore has been in a bit of a bind since 2009, when he dropped his magnum opus, Capitalism: A Love Story, an extraordinary critique of America's political, economic, and social structure that had the former autoworker tilt at the ultimate windmill: American capitalism itself.
It marked the culmination of a 26-year career devoted to a single-minded, even obsessive, quest to put a finger in the eye of corporate America.
Armed with a ready wit, an excess of bilious sarcasm, and a willingness to make a fool of himself, Moore has unleashed his righteous wrath on Wall Street, multinational corporations, the health-care industry, the military-industrial complex, and the National Rifle Association.
Could Moore top himself after Capitalism: A Love Story? Where could the social critic go next?
That question was answered rather nicely Friday with the release of Where to Invade Next, a graceful, witty, and strangely upbeat film that attempts to jump-start a daunting task: to find possible solutions to the problems Moore diagnosed in his previous films.
He finds them in Europe.
On the road with Michael
Yes, Where to Invade Now is a road story of sorts. It's a colorful travelogue in which Moore visits factories and workers, pundits and experts, school dietitians and teachers, politicians and bureaucrats, in a bevy of locales in Italy, France, Germany, Finland, Slovenia, and Portugal.
Fans of the Flint, Mich., native will find the film a welcome break from the unutterably bleak critique Moore unleashed in his strongest films, including Bowling for Columbine, Fahrenheit 9/11, and Sicko.
Using a silly conceit, Moore goes about invading each country so he can seize their best social policies and bring them back home.
In Italy, Moore spends time with a middle-class couple who extol the virtues of having six weeks of paid vacation a year - as required by law. Employers also are required to provide 22 weeks of paid maternity leave. Moore says America is the only country besides Papua New Guinea that doesn't have paid maternity leave.
All these benefits are mandated by the government. Surely it's an expensive intrusion that rankles employers?
Moore asks three siblings who own an Italian clothing manufacturer that supplies labels such as Dolce & Gabbana. Not so, the trio say. Employees who are well-rested are more productive, happier, more loyal.
At a pencil factory in Nuremberg, Germany, Moore learns that half the people who sit on the governing board of all German companies must be rank-and-file workers. Another law forbids German bosses to call employees who are on vacation.
Surely - Moore asks several CEOs - isn't it logical to squeeze more profits by cutting costs on all fronts, say, by eliminating the paid two-hour lunch enjoyed by employees of Ducati's motorcycle factory in Bologna?
This is where things get interesting. Over and over again, employers across Europe tell Moore that they were raised to believe in the idea of the social good. They believe that the welfare of workers is as important as corporate profits. They openly mock the American practice of squeezing a company for the last possible dime of profit or investor return it can produce.
"Why do we need more money?" one company owner says. "We're already rich."
It's obvious Moore's film features people sympathetic to his own views, and he throws them only softballs.
Still, we are left to wonder just how different our values are from those of Europeans.
On human dignity
Moore may be discussing concrete subjects such as school systems or health care, but his film touches on a much deeper point.
By limiting corporate power in the name of human dignity and offering citizens free services such as health care, European governments foster a very concrete form of equality between rich and poor that's nonexistent here.
We may pay lower taxes in America, Moore says, but we still need to secure the same essential services from private companies - for a lot more money. That money goes into corporate pockets.
The immense cost of health care, college, day care, and nursing homes enmesh Americans in a prison of debt. It's no wonder we equate freedom with wealth. Our European counterparts are free of such financial anxiety.
As Moore's interlocutors keep stressing, they aren't as fixated on money as Americans are. It leaves them free to focus on the things that matter most - enjoying friends and family, sitting down to a two-hour meal, or going on lots of vacations.
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