Moore's Latest a Bit too `Big' for Its Own Good

THE BIG ONE

Produced by British Broadcasting

Corporation (BBC) [uk]/Dog Eat Dog

Films

Runtime: USA: 96

Distributed by Mirimax Films

Directed by Michael Moore

"Michael Moore is a floor sample of what we all could be," notes a Random House press official in Michael Moore's new documentary film, The Big One. Well, luckily, it's only a floor sample. A far cry from Moore's well-crafted, pro-labor bullseye, Roger & Me, The Big One's camera seems to be more interested in Michael than in socio-economic reportage (and is unfortunately almost as annoying as those Clinique salespeople at Saks). Of course, The Big One is not a commercial, it's a sermon, and it might be quite effective for some people, but probably not for anyone who's ever read The Economist.

Roger & Me, for those of you who were not treated to it in your AP Economics class, is a thorough documentary about the rise and fall of Flint, Michigan according to the whims of General Motors. Moore focused on the human effects of unemployment, showing broken families and auto-workers turned rabbit skinners. The entire film builds to a single question: "What right does GM have to close its factories in Flint, ruining thousands of lives, all for the sake of corporate profits?"

In The Big One, Moore repeats this theme relentlessly, riding roughshod over dozens of helpless front desk PR agents whom he harasses in his 90-minute film. Structured around the seedy corporate book tour and Moore's Downsize This!, interspersed with discontinuous side trips to local, downsizing Fortune 500 companies, The Big One wears Moore's economics thin. He asks the same questions over and over. Moore bullies unsuspecting PR men and security guards, apparently forgetting how similar these representatives are to the laid-off workers Moore unquestioningly hugs throughout the movie. When talking to workers, Moore is a Sunday school teacher; when talking to corporate representatives, he is an attack robot.

Far too confident to be convincing, Michael Moore's humor is based on the same presumptuous cameraderie that Rush Limbaugh uses at the other end of the political spectrum. Laid off Payday workers (the gods of irony smile on Moore) cantankerously predict disappearing markets, and Moore smiles and nods, marching off to recite such stellar observations to the front desks of corporate America, never stopping to introduce the complexities of these problems to his audience. There is no mention of inflation or of developing labor markets, except from the equally prejudiced mouths of corporate representatives. When talking to PR workers, Moore feigns naivite, asking questions as if he doesn't expect them to be upsetting or threatening. This is the height of annoyance.

In the question-and-answer session Michael Moore gave after the Institute of Politics (IOP) Forum screening of The Big One, he said he thought corporate America was operating with a "get rich quick now" philosophy. Well, Moore is operating with a "get to the moral high ground now" philosophy. Taking the stammerings of front desk receptionists for the authentic response of corporate America, Moore blames big businesses' lack of eloquence on their "indefensible position." But when a Law School student asked Moore whether what he was advocating would lead to Western Europe's inflated economic mess, Moore was only able to get out that Europe "has a lot of things that are a whole lot better than what we have" and explained that he simply believed if jobs left America, American companies wouldn't be able to sell their products anymore.

On top of this gloss, Moore comfortably muttered, "I don't think I've satisfied him," and moved on to the next question. Moore seems proud of his minimal educational back-ground, as if it gives him some humanistic understanding of the working class, which professional analysts cannot see. This may be, but there is a lot of analysis that Moore apparently cannot see either.

Still, the question that Moore asks is well put. Moore asks whether, when a corporation is not in danger of failure, it is morally acceptable to sacrifice jobs for profit. This is original and useful. But it needs to be couched in a mature treatment of the issues. Even if his confrontations with corporate representatives are only slightly more interesting than sober Geraldo reruns, at least Moore shows the ubiquity of job loss and corporate apathy--in every city Moore's book tour leads him to, he has no trouble unearthing some corporate atrocity that the rest of us took for granted. The movie climaxes in a rare interview between Moore and Nike CEO Phil Knight, in which Knight admits that he thinks it's okay for fourteen-year-old Indonesian girls to make his shoes. But Moore mishandles even this scene, relentlessly fishing for some explosive soundbite instead of trying to debate Knight.

But Moore's insights into the human element are precious. The people he interviews while they are eating dinner at The Hearty Platter make rather simplistic economic comments, but they're obviously in bad shape; and it's not really their fault. A band of welfare mothers march into the Milwaukee State House, offering to clean the governor's office as an illustration of their eagerness to work. One mother recites the government retraining programs that have left her as unemployed as when she began. This is real, and hearing it from the mouths of real people rather than from Democrats is indispensable.

It is too bad Moore did not separate the good from the campy. After the genius of Roger & Me, which had the same lightheartedness and Dick Dale/Beach Boys soundtrack but was also expansive and responsible in its poignancy, The Big One is insulting. Michael Moore said he thought Roger & Me was a failure, but unfortunately his current approach is ultimately only going to satisfy depraved pro-labor fanclubs. Of course, the audience at the IOP Forum applauded The Big One enthusiastically, and except for those mentioned above, their questions were remarkably indulgent. Moore is obviously getting at something that should be said. But labor needs a voice that does not elicit indulgence. Michael Moore is guilty of reductionism. He has villified corporate America, and his only evidence comes from the unemployed and for PR drones. His spare comments on real incomes are valid and merit elaboration, but they are not met with any depth. That the human moments and glimpses of common sense in The Big One are sandwiched between annoying, carelessly composed confrontations and stand-up routines is a shame.