Roger & Me (1989)

I guess if you watch this post 2016... it is going to be very, very confusing.

After all, this is a movie about protecting the working class, about saving factories, about the devastation that outsourcing does to communities... and, as of writing this in 2019, Moore is siding with the party that wants to outsource jobs, that refuses to protect labor, and that calls any protecting of domestic labor evil and nationalist. And all of this while Moore himself just called the working class dangerous and implied that they are all evil racists for not supporting the party that is currently against protecting labor.

What the heck happened to Michael Moore? He kind of turned his back on the people that made him famous.

Regardless, once upon a time, as far back as Roger & Me and as recently as Capitalism: A Love Story, Michael Moore supported the working class. He made documentaries about their plight. He championed them.

This started it all.

Before Michael Moore traded people for party he made movies like this that showed the devastation that NAFTA economic policies did to the rust belt. He was a friend of the people.

Now he calls the Rust Belt "Trumpland" and the people he once championed "racists."

But back in the day, he was able to make films like this that advocated for the people. He was able to make films like this that fought for the working class. Once upon a time, he was fighting for us, he was giving us hope.

It's amazing how much one person can change.

Now the message still resonates, it's still as true and honest as it was back in 89, but it stands for what happens when wealth and fame and partisan politics hit a formerly compassionate human being.