Michael Moore's Exploitation of Capitalism: Today's Outrage
NEW YORK (
) --
Capitalism
(the movie) came to New York on Monday and I missed the premiere.
I'm not too disappointed, mind you, since I haven't seen any of Michael Moore's movies. I can only take so much faux outrage (how's that for irony?).
I do love a good dose of hyprocrisy, though.
For that, I will turn to Michael Corkery, who
did
attend the premier of
Capitalism: A Love Story
at New York's Lincoln Center.
Corkery notes in The
Wall Street Journal's
blog that "before the film, the crowd sipped champagne and cocktails in the "
Morgan Stanley
Lobby" and then headed to their seats in the "
Citi
Balcony." Movie tickets were available at the "
Bank of New York
Box Office" and there's outdoor seating at the "
Credit Suisse
Information Grandstand."
So Moore owes the glamour and hype of Monday's event to the very institutions he brands as evil in the film. Let's hope Moore selected the venue on purpose to be ironic.
From what I can tell, the idea that capitalism is evil is pretty much the plot of Moore's film. On the movie's
official Web site,
Capitalism
is described as an exploration of the "price that America pays for its love of capitalism."
I love this line from
Kenneth Turan's review in the Los Angeles Times:
Moore "lays the ills of American society that he's chronicled over all that time at the feet of an out-of-control free-market system he so detests that he puts priests on camera to talk about capitalism as morally evil."
All this makes me wonder where Moore keeps all the money he earns from his films, considering that he seems to hate banks, Wall Street and capitalism with such passion. Frankly, I don't really buy all that posturing. I think he secretly enjoys the fruits of capitalism.
I recall bumping into Moore at the 2004 Democratic party convention in Boston. He was the officially uninvited hero of the day because of his Bush-bashing film Fahrenheit 911. He was rather full of himself and certainly enjoying the spotlight. Was he engaging in the time-honored capitalist tradition of self promotion?
I didn't see Moore later that summer at the Republican convention in New York, but I'm sure he would have enjoyed the attention of being the anti-celebrity at the event if he could have found a way to get in.
Earlier this year, I almost bumped into Moore again when I unwittingly stepped onto the set of
Capitalism
as the film crew staged the scene of Moore driving an armored truck in a trumped up gesture to get taxpayer money back from the offices of
AIG
(AIG) - Get Report
and
Goldman Sachs
(GS) - Get Report
.
I didn't see Moore. In fact, I hardly saw anyone except for the film crew. No one on the streets of lower Manhattan seemed to care. But then again, I'm sure Moore's message isn't for the folks in New York's financial district anyway.
In any event,
Capitalism
the movie begins a limited engagement for general audiences in New York tonight.
I won't be going. I prefer the real thing.
--Written by Glenn Hall in New York.
Glenn Hall is the New York-based Editor in Chief of
TheStreet.com
. Previously, he served as deputy editor and chief innovation officer at
The Orange County Register
and as a news manager at
Bloomberg News
in Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Washington, D.C. As a reporter, he covered business and financial markets, worked in both print and television in the U.S. and Europe, and conducted in-depth investigative coverage at
The Journal-Gazette
in Fort Wayne, Ind. His work also has been published in a variety of newspapers including
The Wall Street Journal
,
The New York Times
and
International Herald Tribune
. Hall received a bachelor's degree in journalism and political science from The Ohio State University and a certificate in project and program management from Boston University.
