Roger & Me
The story of a rebel & his mike.
"America has an irrepressible new humorist in the tradition of Mark Twain, he is Michael Moore. Roger & Me is rude, rollicking...witty...leaving the audience roaring with laughter."
-Vincent Canby, The New York Times
In 1989, Michael Moore, winner of 2002's Best Documentary Feature Academy Award and Cannes Film Festival Special Jury Prize for Bowling For Columbine, triumphantly burst upon the American moviemaking scene with Roger & Me, a hilarious, penetrating forerunner of the independent film movement.
Moore doggedly and hilariously tried to do what every working stiff dreams of; talk to the man at the top. His efforts to meet General Motors Chairman Roger Smith and persuade him to visit Flint, Michigan, frame a film that uses humor to devastating effect. Roger & Me champions people over profits and slyly lampoons corporate America as it shows how the Flint folks cope with economic setbacks. As The Village Voice's J. Hoberman wrote, the result is "gutsy, populist, outraged and outrageous."
Member Reviews
Meh - Christob
As a big fan of his other movies, I was exciting to see his first film, but thoroughly disappointed.
His main argument that the big three were pocketing huge profits at the expense of working class people doesn't really make sense (especially in light of their impending bankruptcies).
It is interesting to see his first film though. This movie is for die hard fans only,Good op-ed piece, but not a documentary - wienerdog
Like all Michael Moore films, Roger & Me can't be taken at face value. Michael Moore's movies are editorials, which is not a bad thing in and of itself, but he pretends to be a documentary filmmaker, which is simply deceptive.
As an indictment of General Motors and corporate culture in general, it falls short of making any convincing arguments (watch The Corporation for a much better and fairer investigation of corporate sociopathy) but it does paint a sobering and, I suspect, reasonably accurate picture of the human cost of large-scale layoffs, and raises some valid questions about corporate responsibility to the communities they create and which become dependent upon them.
On top of that, I am quite amazed at some of the utterly stupid things Moore managed to get people to say on camera, including game show host Bob Eubanks and other supposedly media savvy people who really ought to know better. At times, I almost felt as though I were watching Borat.Roger and Me an Influential Documentary - TheShamus
Michael Moore is a unique individual who can illicit a full gambit of emotions. You might call him anti-Big Business, or Pro-Union, or Pro-"Little Guy" or "Fact Twister" ... but regardless of how you feel about him, this is a guy who knows how to elicit a reaction from his audience.
Roger and Me focuses on GM closing auto plants in Flint, Michigan ... causing over 40,000 people to become unemployed. It tells human stories about how individuals are impacted by this closure.
Is Michael Moore biased? Absolutely. He argues that the world's largest corporation (at that time) was making hundreds of millions of dollars of profit, yet, closing these plants to make more money.
At the time, documentaries were rarely released in theatres ... this film held the box office record for documentaries until Moore broke his own record.
Moore knows how to evoke a reaction, he is funny, and he makes some valid points. Many times, the points are more "emotional' than "factual".
Regardless of your stand on these issues, this is a film worth seeing ... and somewhat of a landmark which laid the foundation for theatrical releases of movies like "Super Size Me", "Hoop Dreams", "Crumb" and "March of the Penguins".
/\/\/\/\ the Shamus /\/\/\/\
Member Reviews
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Meh - Christob
As a big fan of his other movies, I was exciting to see his first film, but thoroughly disappointed.
His main argument that the big three were pocketing huge profits at the expense of working class people doesn't really make sense (especially in light ...Good op-ed piece, but not a documentary - wienerdog
Like all Michael Moore films, Roger & Me can't be taken at face value. Michael Moore's movies are editorials, which is not a bad thing in and of itself, but he pretends to be a documentary filmmaker, which is simply deceptive.
As an indictment of General ...Roger and Me an Influential Documentary - TheShamus
Michael Moore is a unique individual who can illicit a full gambit of emotions. You might call him anti-Big Business, or Pro-Union, or Pro-"Little Guy" or "Fact Twister" ... but regardless of how you feel about him, this is a guy who knows how to elicit a ...